Julius Onah
Space is all the rage right now after “Gravity” and “The Martian,” and “The God Particle” could well be a movie that follows in the footsteps of those two, and make director Julius Onah a household name while it’s at it. But if it wasn’t that movie, it probably would happen anyway, because Onah’s been on the verge of exploding for a long time now. Born in Nigeria and growing up all over the world before settling in the U.S. (his father was a diplomat), Onah trained at NYU and made a string of prize-winning shorts after that including “Szmolinsky,” “Nie Patrz Estecz” and “Goodbye Chicken, Farewell Goat.” His first feature, neo-noir “The Girl Is In Trouble,” executive produced by Spike Lee, got only the briefest of releases, overshadowed by the personal troubles of its co-star Columbus Short, while a planned big-budget studio debut on Will Smith vehicle “Brilliance” fell apart. But Onah hasn’t skipped a beat — contained space station mystery “The God Particle,” produced by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot (we’re not entirely convinced it won’t have the ‘Cloverfield’ brand slapped on it) hits in March, with an outstanding cast of Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, John Krasinski, Chris O’Dowd, Daniel Bruhl, Elizabth Debicki and Zhang Ziyi.
Yeon Sang-ho
Making the transition from animation to live-action isn’t an easy jump. For every Tim Burton or Brad Bird, there’s a Jimmy Hayward (who went from directing “Horton Hears A Who!” to “Jonah Hex”). Yeon Sang-ho looks to be firmly in the former category, with his first live-action film making a huge splash already. The Seoul native directed a number of acclaimed animated short before his 2011 film “The King Of Pigs” was selected for Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. His second feature, 2013’s “The Fake,” which premiered at TIFF and tracked a manipulative cult leader, again pushed the medium of animation into unexpected directions. This year, he pulled off an impressive feat: his live-action debut, high-octane zombie thriller “Train To Busan,” about an outbreak of the infected on a high-speed train, wowed critics and fans at Cannes and elsewhere. And almost simultaneously, an animated companion piece to the movie, “Seoul Station,” premiered and went on Korean release as well. “Train To Busan” looks to be getting both U.S. and French remakes, and Yeon’s also planning a thriller called “Seonsan,” but expect blockbusters to come calling. The “World War Z” sequel needs a director, we believe…
Larkin Seiple
Even with just three released features under his belt, Larkin Seiple is already making a reputation for himself as one of the most impressive cinematographers working right now. The 31-year-old Seattle native graduated from Emerson College, where he studied alongside Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who’d soon become known as music video directing duo DANIELS. With them and others, he soon become a staple on the music video and commercials scene, for directors including Flora Sigismondi and Hiro Murai, and clips including Rihanna’s “Diamonds” video and Flying Lotus’s “Never Catch Me.” Seiple’s first feature “Consinsual” went mostly unseen, but follow-up “Cop Car,” which he shot alongside Matthew J. Lloyd, got real buzz behind it. But his masterwork to date was when he reunited with DANIELS on their first feature “Swiss Army Man,” a film shot with ceaseless invention that seemingly saw Seiple pull out every trick in his proverbial bag. Next up: Miles Teller boxing movie “Bleed For This,” and the directorial debut of “Blue Ruin” star Macon Blair.
Sophia Takal
After mumblecore and mumblegore, we’re waiting for the next movement to emerge out of independent American film: there’s great work being done, but it doesn’t necessarily seem to be tied together in the same way. But whatever the movement ends up being called, we suspect that Sophia Takal will be involved. Takal’s probably principally known as an actress, with her work having included acclaimed films like “Supporting Characters,” “All The Light In The Sky” and the charming pseudo-mystery “Wild Canaries,” directed by her husband Lawrence Michael Levine. Takal’s first film as director, “Green,” failed to get much traction, but she premiered her second, “Always Shine,” at Tribeca this year, where it might have been the best movie in the whole festival. A gripping, smart psychological thriller Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald, it’s a film that our review called “simultaneously incredibly pleasurable and quite disturbing.” It’s getting a special screening in Venice, suggesting that Takal’s about to break out of the indie scene and on to the world stage.
Roar Uthang
Aside from having a ridiculously awesome name, Norwegian helmer Roar Uthang is the latest director to win a massive job by taking relatively meagre means and giving them blockbuster production value, and doing it with a sense of character and awe too. Uthang’s gradutation film “The Martin Administration” was nominated for a Student Academy Award in 2002, and he went on to become a prolific commercials director before making his feature debut with well-regarded Norwegian horror “Cold Prey” in 2006. Period actioner “Escape” followed in 2012, but it was 2015’s “The Wave” that really showed what he could do. A disaster movie with smarts and a wrenching power that’s uncommon for the genre, it delivered blockbuster-level spectacle, but didn’t neglect its characters while it was at it. It was bound to land Uthang a big gig, and it did: he’ll next direct Alicia Vikander in the new reboot of “Tomb Raider,” and his presence makes us optimistic it could actually be good.
We’ll have another round of picks next year, so don’t want to bombard you with too many other names. But to name just a few people who look to be doing big things soon, there’s “Mr. Robot” composer Mac Quayle, “Stranger Things” DP Tim Ives, writer Stephany Folsom, who penned “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Weiner” directors Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman, “Dark Night” director Tim Sutton, “The Greasy Strangler” helmer Jim Hosking, Tahir Jetter of “How To Tell You’re A Douchebag,” and “Equity” mastermind Meera Menon.
Then there’s “White Girl” director Elizabeth Wood, “Miss Stevens’ helmer Julia Hart, “Harmonium”’s Koji Fukada, Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci of the animated “April & The Extraordinary World,” “Mr. Robot” DP Tod Campbell, “10 Cloverfield Lane” composer Bear McCreary, “The Witch” DP Jarin Blaschke, Manu Dacosse who shot “Evolution,” “Dean” director Demetri Martin, “Adult Life Skills” helmer Rachel Tunnard, Isaac Adamson, who topped the Black List with “Bubbles,” “The Edge Of Seventeen” writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig, music video veteran Melina Matsoukas, who’s moving into fiction with HBO’s “Insecure,” and “Star Trek Beyond” and “God Particle” writer Doug Jung. Anyone else? Shout ‘em out in the comments.