We’re looking back at 2016 during December, and while it’s been a shitshow in so many ways, it has also been a very good year at the movies —particularly when it came to discovering new talent. From massive blockbusters to Oscar winners, from cult hits to tiny indies, the last twelve months has seen a wealth of exciting new filmmakers emerge, leaving us with plenty of faith for the medium’s future (even if we have to watch their next movies huddled together on a break in President Trump’s copper mines).
As part of our ongoing coverage of the Best of 2016, we’ve picked out the 25 Breakthrough Directors who’ve made the biggest impact on us in the last year below. Not all are first-timers, but all made films that marked them as exciting voices, and which will surely lead to big things in the future (and in many cases already have). Take a look below and let us know who you were most thrilled to discover in the last twelve months.
Click here for our complete coverage of the Best of 2016
Maren Ade – “Toni Erdmann”
At least among savvy Euro-friendly cinephiles, Ade was probably the best known filmmaker on this list at the start of 2016: she won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her debut “The Forest For The Trees,” and a Silver Bear at Berlin for acclaimed followup “Everyone Else,” about a vacationing couple in a relationship meltdown. But it’s her third film “Toni Erdmann” that vaults her into a whole other level. A fantastically rich three-hour comedy about a prankster father visiting his career-driven daughter, it’s amazingly accessible for a film that topped the Cahiers du Cinema poll this year, demonstrating that with writing as incisive and thoughtful as Ade’s, you can use broad comedy for high-minded purposes. With the film still to open in the U.S, and a Foreign Language and even Screenplay Oscar nomination more than possible, Ade’s work is only going to find more fans in the near future.
Andrew Ahn – “Spa Night”
Twenty-five years ago, Ang Lee broke out with a beautifully made tale of sexual identity, family and racial attitudes with “The Wedding Banquet,” and in 2016, Korean-American filmmaker Ahn did something similar with his “Spa Night,” and could go on to a career as long and successful as Lee’s. The L.A-raised filmmaker first turned heads at Sundance in 2012 with short “Dol (First Birthday),” which he made in part in order to come out to his parents, and followed it up with this feature four years on, following an 18-year-old kid (a Sundance award-winning turn by Joe Seo) who takes a job at a Korean bathhouse that functions as a gay cruising spot. Deeply felt, erotic and powerful in its look at a sense of family expectations versus sexual self-knowledge, the film serves as an interesting double-bill partner to “Moonlight” in many respects, and cements Ahn as a vital new voice right now.
Babak Anvari – “Under The Shadow”
Born in Iran but based in the U.K., Anvari was BAFTA nominated in 2012 for his short film “Two & Two,” and he draws on both his heritage and the earlier film’s allegorical power for his feature debut “Under The Shadow,” about a young woman and her son being tormented by a djinn during the Iran/Iraq war of the early 1980s. Influenced by Roman Polanski and leaving what our review called “a lingering aftertaste,” the film was arguably the buzziest genre breakout of this year’s Sundance, showing a filmmaker with a commanding skill set. Big things should be coming for Anvari as a result: Netflix snapped the film up at Sundance after it drew “Babadook”-sized buzz, there’s an English-language remake of the “Under The Shadow” coming as well as a new original movie, and that’s even before Hollywood has come calling.
Anna Biller – “The Love Witch”
Finding a true cult item is a rare thing: too often, movies end up trying too hard and come across as a knockoff or a pale imitation. But Biller has pulled off a magic trick not once but twice with her latest, “The Love Witch,” which is likely to play at midnight screenings at rep houses for decades to come. Like her debut “Viva” nine years ago, it’s a meticulous homage to ’60s sexploitation films shot on 35mm: every aspect as such, from the look to the performances, captures the era beautifully. But like a genre-ish version of something like Todd Haynes’ “Far From Heaven,” it’s far more than pastiche, its deeply independent spirit and sharp feminist spin on giallo finds surprising emotional resonance among its retro beauty. You’re unlikely to see Biller going blockbuster any time soon (though we’d love to see her version of “Doctor Strange”), but given how utterly distinctive her work is, that can only be a good thing.
Steven Caple Jr. – “The Land”
Very few saw “The Land” when IFC Films gave it a brief release back in the summer, but the film was a very strong coming-of-age movie that’s already given Caple a deserved boost. A classmate of Ryan Coogler’s at USC, he returned to his native Cleveland for his first feature, about four skater friends who find some stolen MDMA that belongs to a fearsome drug dealer (Linda Edmond in an excellent performance). Authentic, energetic, sad and well-drawn, with great turns from its cast of newcomers, as well as from cameo-ing veterans like Kim Coates, Erykah Badu and Michael K. Williams, plus a tremendous soundtrack put together by producer Nas, it’s one of the more unsung movies of the year. But don’t expect Caple to remain similarly unsung: he’s now working on an HBO miniseries about the lynching of Emmett Till, produced by Jay-Z, Will Smith and Casey Affleck, so he’s clearly already impressed some Hollywood heavyweights.