David Lynch is an American filmmaker, director, visual artist, musician, and actor. He is known for his surrealist works, which are often a mix of striking imagery, violent scenarios, and incomprehensibly cryptic plots, finding success in the Hollywood system despite being avant-garde and completely nutfucks insane.
For all of the above reasons, he is Damien's favorite director.
James even had the pleasure (?) of watching Eraserhead for a college class lesson on affect theory.