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Andrew Sarris (31 October 1928, Brooklyn, New York City) is a U.S. film critic and a leading...

Andrew Sarris (31 October 1928, Brooklyn, New York City) is a U.S. film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism. He is generally credited with popularizing this theory in the Americas and coining the term "auteur theory" in his essay, "Notes on the Auteur Theory," which was inspired by critics writing in Cahiers du Cinéma. He wrote the highly influential book The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968 (1968), an opinionated assessment of films of the sound era, organized by director. The book was influential on other critics and helped raise an awareness of the role of the film director and, in particular, of the Auteur theory. In The American Cinema, Sarris lists what he terms the 'Pantheon' of the fourteen greatest film directors who had worked in the United States. The list includes the Americans Robert Flaherty, John Ford, D. W. Griffith, Howard Hawks, Buster Keaton, and Orson Welles, the Germans Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, F. W. Murnau, Max Ophuls, and Josef von Sternberg, the British Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, and the French Jean Renoir. He also created second and third tiers of directors, downplaying the work of some such as