Sorry to hog this thread so far, but it also seems that having some form of background in painting is hardly a hindrance to becoming a great director. Eisenstein, Mizoguchi, Satyajit Ray, Renoir, Kurosawa, Murnau, Fellini, Welles, Bresson for starters. And not surprisingly, the theatre has an obvious link- Welles and Eisenstein again, Dreyer, Ophuls , Bergman, Griffith....The other main route seems to be directly from film school/criticism; Scorsese, Godard, Truffaut, Paradjanov, Tarkovsky...  But scouring the art colleges seems to me the best bet for any country wanting to develop/regain a cinema reputation. 