I don’t know why I made this list, and agonized over it being as complete as possible, but I am trying to divine more films that I love, and instead of waiting on word of mouth, I catalogued almost every Director in the last 20 years that I’ve enjoyed a film, in the hopes I’d discover more work to enjoy, and I’ve done that in spades.
a LOT of this is indie horror, which should say a lot about non-tentpole narrative driven property in the modern age. People are exploring the anxiety, angst, and paranoias of this world and society, bloom off the rose as it is.
But, there’s got to be a better way to build this out. Maybe a spreadsheet with filtering and sorting by age, gender, rotten tomato scores, year of release, etc. But for now, scan them to see what you know, and either find work from a director you like and haven’t seen, or take a dive into something else based off a movie you’ve heard about.
ANY ADVICE TO MAKE THIS MORE ACTIONABLE AND BETTER IS WELCOME
Akash Sherman – The Rocket List, Clara
Alex Garland (who is likely quitting) – Dredd (uncredited), Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, Devs (TV)
Alex Ross Perry – Queen of Earth, Listen Up Philip
Ali Abbasi – Border, Holy Spider
Alice Rohrwacher – Lazzaro Felice
Ana Lily Amirpour – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Bad Batch, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
Anand Gandhi – Ship of Theseus, Wildebeest (announced)
Antonio Campos – The Devil All the Time, Christine
Ari Aster – Hereditary, Midsommar, upcoming Disappointment Blvd (clocked at 3.5hrs), also this short he made has an INSANE PLOT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strange_Thing_About_the_Johnsons
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk
Benson and Moorhead – Resolution, The Endless, Spring, Synchronic, Moon Knight (TV)
Bertrand Mandico – The Wild Boys, After Blue
Brady Corbet – The Childhood Leader, Vox Lux
Brandon Cronenberg – Possessor
Carlos López Estrada – Blindspotting
Céline Sciamma – Tomboy, Girlhood, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Petite Maman
Chaitanya Tamhane – The Disciple, Court
Ciro Guerra – Birds of Passage, Embrace of the Serpent
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash, La La Land, First Man
Dan Sallitt (The Unspeakable Act, Fourteen)
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert who did Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Dan2 did “The Death of Dick Long”
Danishka Esterhazy – that weird Banana Splits movie, Level 15, Slumber Party Massacre
David Lowery – The Old Man and the Gun, Ghost Story, The Green Knight (he does quite a few entries, actually, and I’d be curious how his shorts had him level up to helm Pete’s Dragon as his first feature?)
David Robert Mitchell – Under the Silver Lake, Myth of the American Sleepover, It Follows
Diao Yinan – The Wild Goose Lake
Edson Oda – Nine Days
Eliza Hittman – It Felt Like Love, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Erasmo de la Parra – U47700
Gareth Evans – The Raid, The Raid 2
Gillian Robespierre – Obvious Child, Landline
Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird, Little Women
Hu Bo – An Elephant sitting still
Jake Schreier – Robot and Frank, Paper Towns
Jeff Baena – The Little House, Horse Girl, Spin me Round
Jennifer Kent – Babadook, The Monster, and The Nightingale
Jérémy Clapin – I lost my body
Jeremy Saulnier – Blue Ruin, The Green Room, Hold the Dark
Jim Cummings – Thunder Road, The Wolf of Snowy Hollow
Joel Potrykus – Relaxer
John Magary – The Mend
Jon Watts – Cop Car, Spider Man No Way Home (hate when they’re gobbled immediately by Marvel)
Juho Kuosmanen – Compartment No. 6
Julia Ducournau – Raw, Titane
Karyn Kusama – Aeon Flux Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation
Kelly Reichardt has been around but want to see more: Wendy and Lucy, Night Moves
Kogonada – Columbus, After Yang
László Nemes – Son of Saul
Lawrence Michael Levine – Black Bear
Lee Isaac Chung – Munyurangabo, Minari
Leigh Janiak – Fear Street series
Mary Haron – American Psycho, Life of Bettie Page
Mati Diop – Atlantic
Michael Franco – After Lucia, New Order, Sundown
Michelangelo Frammartino – Il Buco
Panos Cosmatos – Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy
Prano Bailey- Bond
Rick Alverson – The Comedy, Entertainment, The Mountain
Riley Stearns – The Art of Self Defense, Dual
Robert Eggers – The VVitch, The Lighthouse, The Northman
Rose Glass – Saint Maude
Ryan Coogler – Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Happy Hour, Drive my Car
Craig Zahler – Dragged Across Concrete, Brawl In Cell Block 99, Bone Tomahawk
Saeed Roustaee – 6.5
Safdie Brothers – Heaven Knows What, Good Time, Uncut Gems
Sean Baker – Tangerine, Red Rocket
Stephen Karam – The Humans
Ti West – Trigger Man, The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, In a Valley of Violence, X
Trey Edward Shults – Krisha, It Comes At Night, Waves
Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin – Southbound (Tyler as cinematographer), Ready or Not, Scream 5 (and Matt was in a early 90s SF ska-core band that I loved and saw at 924 Gilman. LOL)
Valdimar Jóhannsson – Lamb
Yorgos Lanthimos – Dogtooth, The Lobster, Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favourite
