Unsung New Directors
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Brandon Cronenberg was born on 10 January 1980 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Possessor (2020), Infinity Pool (2023) and Antiviral (2012).Like father, like son.- Writer
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Especially being released by availing itself of modern streaming and on-demand outlets rather than a big-screen release, first-time feature filmmaker Donohue's The Den (2013) is a truly mortifying piece of horror with its sights squarely on a true state-of-the-art modern source of horror in everyday life. The effect is a pseudo snuff film whose very making we watch happening before us like a Nick Broomfield documentary.- Visual Effects
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Gareth James Edwards was born on June 1, 1975 in the English town of Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Growing up, he admired movies such as the 1977 classic "Star Wars", and went on to pursue a film career. He even cites George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as his biggest influences. Edwards studied BA (Hons) Film & Video at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham (formerly the Surrey Institute of Art & Design), graduating in 1996. In 2012, he received an honorary Master of Arts from UCA.
Edwards got his start in special visual effects, working on visual f/x for programs that aired on networks such as PBS, BBC and the Discovery Channel. In 2008 he entered (and won) the Sci-Fi-London 48-hour film challenge, where a movie had to be created from start-to-finish in just two days, within certain criteria. Edwards wrote and directed his first full-length feature, "Monsters", which was shot in only three weeks. Edwards personally created the film's special effects by using off-the-shelf equipment. Asides from the two main actors (real-life couple Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able), the crew consisted of just five people. The $500,000 thriller received a riotous reception at the South by Southwest festival, and was released by Veritgo Films to great success.
The success of "Monsters" resulted in Edwards getting offers from the major studios, especially Warner Bros., who tapped him to direct an English-language reboot of the 1954 Japanese classic "Gojira". Produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, "Godzilla" began development in 2011 with Edwards at the helm, and was released on May 16, 2014 to mixed reviews and tremendous box office success, grossing $529 million worldwide against a $160 million budget.
Following the success of "Godzilla", producer Kathleen Kennedy tapped Edwards to helm a spin-off of "Star Wars" for Lucasfilm Limited. In 2015, it was revealed that Edwards' "Star Wars" spin-off, written Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, would be titled "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", set for release on December 16, 2016. The film boasts an ensemble cast including Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Mad Mikkelsen and James Earl Jones among others.Extremely ambitious and delicate young director whose bona fide guerrilla-style prosumer micro budget debut Monsters (2010) is an unexpected amalgam of alien invasion, economics and low-key indie relationship drama. And as far as the state-of-the-art summer blockbuster goes, Godzilla (2014) is as well-written, well-acted, intelligent and emotionally involved as they get.- Director
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Mike Flanagan is a prolific writer, director, and editor of feature films and television, and founder of Red Room Pictures. Flanagan entered into an exclusive overall deal with Amazon Studios in 2023 for television projects (after a similar exclusive deal with Netflix lasted from 2018-2022), and has produced feature films for Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Netflix, among others. Flanagan is best known for his work in horror films and television series, which has attracted the praise of critics for his focus on character and lack of reliance on jump scares. Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, and William Friedkin, among others, have praised him.
Flanagan was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Timothy and Laura Flanagan. The family relocated frequently, as Timothy was in the U.S. Coast Guard, and finally settled in Bowie, Maryland. As a child, he would shoot and edit short movies on VHS. This continued as he attended Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland, where he was active in the theatre department and the president of the Student Government Association. A graduate of Towson University's Electronic Media and Film department, Mike moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and began working as an editor of sketch comedy shows, reality television, documentary programming and commercials before his Kickstarter-funded breakout feature Absentia (2011) launched his filmmaking career.
Flanagan's films, all of which he directed, wrote, and edited, include Oculus (2013), Hush (2016), Before I Wake (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Gerald's Game (2017), Doctor Sleep (2019), and The Life of Chuck (2024). He also created, directed, and served as showrunner on the series The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), the teen horror series The Midnight Club (2022) and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).
Flanagan has been nominated for dozens of awards for writing, directing and editing, and was presented with the Visionary Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 2022. He is an active member of the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America West, Motion Picture Editors Guild, and Screen Actors Guild.
Flanagan lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Kate Siegel, whom he married in 2016. They have a son and a daughter together, as well as a son from Flanagan's previous relationship with Absentia actress Courtney Bell. He has been sober since 2018, and frequently uses his work to explore themes of addiction, recovery, and empathy.Shot for a crowd-funded 5-figure budget in his own apartment, Absentia (2010) is augmented by the understatement of its writing, the inhabited belief of its two central performances, and by the deft direction of plot turns that revolve around a wide open abyss of ambiguity. The indie triumph sparked a career that would go on to produce the more widely seen Oculus (2013).- Director
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Michael Greenspan was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Michael is known for Seat 23B (2023), Wrecked (2010) and Kill for Me (2013).With his low-budget Wrecked (2010), Montreal-born AFI grad Greenspan is reliably uncompromising in his work of upholding star Adrien Brody's deprived perspective. Where 127 Hours had to adhere to a particular fast-based mainstream architecture, Wrecked can burrow into the present-tense thoughts and experiences of Brody's lead with true experiential insight. This is a seriously underappreciated piece, signaling the arrival of an auspicious new talent.- Director
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A veteran Hollywood AD with a close working relationship with Mel Gibson the actor as well as the director, Grunberg's Get the Gringo (2012) is for those who long for the era of Gibson's hard-bitten movie characters. What sells it is not only a rejuvenating comeback for its star and his rapport with a child inmate, but the hairpin plot, which is exceedingly original for an action flick.- Writer
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Chris "Casper" Kelly is an American writer, television director, and producer best known as the co-creator of the Adult Swim live action series "Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell" and the Adult Swim animated series "Stroker and Hoop". He has also written for "Squidbillies"; "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law", and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".Somebody did it. Some true genius of satire was a daring and creative enough storyteller to pull off something so self-contained and perfect within its own surreal, TV-land logic. Leave it to the folks at Adult Swim, the one true cult niche left on television, it would seem. That man is Casper Kelly, and he works at Cartoon Network.- Director
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Pascal Laugier was born on 16 October 1971 in France. He is a director and writer, known for Incident in a Ghostland (2018), Martyrs (2008) and The Tall Man (2012).A formidable exponent of New French Extremity cinema, Laugier is best known for the truly mortifying shocker Martyrs (2008), undoubtedly one of the most audacious films of the new millennium. By comparison, his subsequent work is far more stomachable. His American film The Tall Man (2012) is offbeat, challenging, and resistant to genre expectations. True to the talented director's gear-shifting technique, the movie begins with the suggestion of possible supernatural elements yet is firmly entrenched in the real world by the final cut to black. Until then, its real horror springs from its difficult moral dilemmas it leaves us to resolve for ourselves.- Producer
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Bart is a multi-award winning writer, director and executive producer known for creating ground-breaking work and pushing the boundaries of conventional story-telling techniques.
Bart has been the Creative Director of leading British production company RAW for the past 14 years where he has created and directed numerous award-winning documentaries and series.
In 2012 Bart directed his first documentary feature film, The Imposter, which received huge critical acclaim for its originality and storytelling following its debut at Sundance. The film picked up numerous prestigious awards including two British Independent Film Awards, a BAFTA for best debut and being shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
Bart's first narrative feature, American Animals, which he wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance in January 2018 to an equally rapturous critical response. He has since gone on to win screenwriting awards at both the British Independent Film and Writers' Guild Awards.A producer and show runner of documentaries, Layton directed an astounding feature doc called The Imposter (2012), an unpredictable human interest story that uncoils a web of deceit and mystery more chilling than many dramatized psychological thrillers.- Writer
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Inspired to become a director after seeing Sam Raimi's Army of Dakness, his Southern Gothic drama We Are What We Are (2013) is marked by remarkably convincing actors, and remains gracefully subdued just long enough for the real horror of what they're doing to unravel.- Producer
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Michael Morrissey is a writer, director, and producer, known for the award-winning film Boy Wonder (2010). Morrissey's first feature film Boy Wonder was released to rave reviews, including a four and a half star rating from the late Roger Ebert. A life-long fan of comics and graphic novels, Morrissey's filmmaking exhibits a gritty, noir style with a quick-paced tempo propelling the action.
Morrissey is also the founder and president of Boy Wonder Productions. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, Boy Wonder Productions specializes in the development and production of scripted and non-scripted entertainment. With the creation of his full-service media company, Morrissey has produced over 100 hours of television programming.More than any franchise superhero film, Morrissey's calling card Boy Wonder (2010) is clearly the most sensibly reality-based imprint of the superhero template. It's not about right and wrong, it's about the nature and rise of the hero. The only thing that distracts is the improbable hotness of Zulay Henao.- Producer
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Oren Moverman was born on 4 July 1966 in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel. He is a producer and writer, known for The Messenger (2009), Love & Mercy (2014) and Bad Education (2019).Journalist turned writer-director Moverman has an output that looks more like a '70s New Hollywood body of work, directing 2009's The Messenger, superbly acted not only by its subtly powerful principal cast but quite an exceptional amount of hard-hitting small roles, and the moody, naturalistic Woody Harrelson vehicle Rampart (2011).- Director
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Nick Murphy is a BAFTA winning and Royal Television Society Award winning director and writer. He was born and grew up in Merseyside, NW England. A former editor of news and current affairs for the BBC, he began directing documentaries in 1996. A decade later he moved into writing and directing dramas, receiving multiple awards and nominations both at home and abroad. He thinks rudeness and abusive behaviour is too tolerated in the industry. Being horrible to work colleagues is not justified simply because one makes good or lucrative movies.Coming from editing and writing BBC news programs, his learned WWI-set The Awakening (2011) is a good-looking, well-acted mystery with a script that's never squeam-inducing, keeping our immersion in fear and doubt instead of tawdry shocks. So why did it slip its way onto home video without making any splash? My guess is it's too old-fashioned for its own good.- Director
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Adam graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.
Robitel's latest film, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, has recently been released to the delight of Escape Room fans. His three last films have been theatrical releases and have grossed 370 million dollars worldwide. Robitel is in pre-production on his forthcoming Netflix Series The Craving, produced by Darren Aronofsky, and Protozoa Pictures, for which he will serve as Co-creator / Show Runner and director.
Robitel made a big splash in the genre world as a horror auteur having co-written, directed and produced The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) (2014) a found-footage horror thriller. The Taking of Deborah Logan was named a "Netflix Horror Gem" by The Wrap and won an iHorror Award for best direct release of 2014. Paramount Studios then hired Robitel to do some rewrites on Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) (2015).
Robitel made headlines after being tapped to direct Blumhouse's creep-fest franchise Insidious: The Last Key (2018) (2017). The Last Key opened on January 5th, to fantastic domestic box office, grossing 30 million dollars on its opening weekend and more than 167 million dollars worldwide, making it the most lucrative Insidious to date.
Robitel's latest film, Escape Room (2019) which he developed and directed for Original Films and Sony Pictures Studios, opened at number 2 in the domestic box office with a stellar haul of 18 million dollars, twice its production budget. Escape Room has now grossed 156 million dollars world wide.
Robitel's original supernatural thriller idea Liminal sparked a bidding war and sold to Fox2000 with Nina Jacobson producing. Robitel will serve as executive producer with Chris Landon writing the screenplay and directing. The scribe has also written a gritty reinvention of the slasher genre with Cropsey based on the infamous maniac who has haunted the imaginations of campers for over a hundred years for Peter Facinelli A7SLE Seven films.Aside from being effectively and succinctly crafted within the messy confines of found footage, The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) is especially effective through Robitel's sheer tyranny of will. You could be doing a crossword puzzle while you're watching it and no doubt find yourself equally as caught up in the pure visceral dread and terror of it.- Director
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Jeremy Saulnier has slyly defined a unique cinematic aesthetic that complements his idiosyncratic narrative premises. His sophomore feature, Blue Ruin (2013) a quirky, crime drama set in a pretty, but grimier part of suburban America was a festival darling and supplanted his name within the independent movie scene. His upcoming project Green Room looks like more of the same strangely engaging stuff from the incredibly promising writer/director.Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier is his own cinematographer, and he's in total command of the fusion of human-level barbarity and realistic fits and starts in his micro-budget drama Blue Ruin (2013).- Director
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Nicholas Tomnay is known for The Perfect Host (2010), What You Wish For (2023) and Two Twisted (2005).Writer and editor of his own work, The less one knows about his cantankerous thriller The Perfect Host (2010), the better.- Writer
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The Vicious Brothers is the writing, directing collaboration between brothers Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz. Their debut feature film, "Grave Encounters", made on a shoe string budget had its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and has since become a cult hit worldwide. Forbes magazine placed it in the top 10 horror movies of 2011-2012. The brothers wrote and produced, but did not direct the sequel Grave Encounters 2 which was released Halloween of 2012. The brother's newest film, 'Extraterrestrial', had its premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and is slated for US release by IFC Midnight in the first quarter of 2015.A fine new package deal, their Grave Encounters (2011) disarms us with a tongue-in-cheek vibe early on before becoming unrelentingly dark and scary.- Director
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Ben Wheatley was born in May 1972 in Billericay, Essex, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Free Fire (2016), Kill List (2011) and Sightseers (2012).Audiences inclined to go with it are in for a real experience with Kill List (2011), a gradual build, but its continual, unpredictable metamorphosis keeps you on edge while remaining tightly, even coldly, controlled, as it comes more and more unglued.- Director
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At 19 Adam got his start in feature film making early with his directorial debut Home Sick, a slasher horror film starring Bill Moseley and Tom Toweles. However it was his second effort at 24 years old with the film Pop Skull that garnered him a talent to watch. Made for a budget of around 2000 dollars he managed to capture the attention of French Distribution company The Wild Bunch. The film went on to premiere at the prestigious Rome Film Festival and the American Film Institute Film Festival. His dark and sometimes abrasive directing/editing style has been compared to directors such as David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky, and Shinya Tsukamoto.An emerging mumblecore figure specializing in horror-thrillers, his Missouri-set low-budget slasher You're Next (2011) is mainlined with anticipation and keenness, with cleverly handled twists and curveballs. And the acting is all quite good.- Director
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Craig Zobel was born on 16 September 1975. He is a director and producer, known for Compliance (2012), The Hunt (2020) and Z for Zachariah (2015).Went from goofy teen flash series to Compliance (2012), one of the most agitating, infuriating films I've seen in a long time. Scarier and more unnerving than any horror film.