Who is the most important person on any given film?

Is it the director? Is it the writer?

My take is that individuals are only important to a film insofar as they create the interrelationships that create the film. No one person is most important, and every film is different. What matters in the end is what happens between everyone involved. That's where the movie is created.

Some people will take on leadership positions in that process, and sometimes one of those people is the writer or director. As folks are quick to point out, the director is the center of all the creative decision-making. Writers can set the framework for how all those relationships work, and what issues everyone is focused on, by writing the story. At the same time, those relationships are far from absolute.

Besides, other people can tell the writer what to do. Sometimes there's creative conflict with the director and the producers, the cast, or the production team. All those forces, all those dynamics, inform the film that is eventually produced.

Who's the most important person for New York City? If anything, New York City defines how New Yorkers are perceived. Any mayor will tell you that it doesn't work the other way around.