Revolutionary Young Directors That Should Be On Your Radar (Part II)

Regarding the Cannes Film Festival, we bring you the second part of the new breed of young film directors who are conquering the audiovisual industry with their perfectionist aesthetics and visionary styles.

We are in the middle of the Cannes festival! You're probably feeling like a movie buff these days, and that's why we've brought you this two-part list of our favorite directors. Storytellers and visionaries, both from the commercial sector and the independent space. Some filmmakers have more experience and trajectory than others, but almost all of them are acknowledged as masters of their craft. 

Alex Garland

Screenwriter and Novelist Alex Garland has successfully ventured into science fiction cinema by directing Ex Machina and Annihilation , and surprising with the miniseries Devs . The British director amazes with his cinematography, simple and ambitious at the same time, with a strong visual style. , He tackles themes related to artificial intelligence, robotic fantasy in between or scientific and ecological and supernatural fantasy.

Ari Folman

This Israeli director captivated the press and critics at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival with his animated work of art, Waltz with Bashir , a kind of dreamy documentary with animated recreations of the traumas associated with memories and dreams, about the real events of the Lebanese war in 1982. Ari is a director with a lot of talent and sensitivity, his only film in Hollywood proves it, The Congress, a mixture of live-action and splendid animation that delves into the fame, the passage of time of an actress, and the decline of the film industry by the influence of technological innovations. To date, we are waiting for a trailer and release date for his latest project Where is Anne Frank.

Bong Joon-ho

The South Korean director completely delighted Hollywood with his latest film and Oscar-winning masterpiece Parasite, where he explores with satire and social criticism the rift between social classes with a story that crosses several genres such as black humor and comedy, suspense, and drama. His previous films tackle different important topics for society such as femicide and police negligence in Memories of Murder, the massacre of cattle in slaughterhouses and the weight of corporations in his original Netflix film Okja, or a mother's love to defend her son and prove he is innocent for murder in the movie Mother.

Derek Cianfrance

An expert on melodrama and the "dark side of romance", Derek Cianfrance transmits depression and the nostalgic and conflictive side of human relationships with a huge commitment from the actors who work and collaborate on his projects. This was demonstrated in Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond The Pines. In 2020 Hbo launched the Cianfrance miniseries, I know this much is true, a drama full of emotional overflows about the bond between two twin brothers and the schizophrenia suffered by one of them, both played by Mark Ruffalo, already classified as a sensitive and powerful story with a very tough background.

Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig is already recognized in the academy with several nominations for her two films Lady Bird and Little Women.  The young director demonstrates her Indie style in her refined vision of women and feminism in the best of the positive senses, with the ideal direction of the actresses who interpret their characters, which brings out and clarifies the importance of the woman's own voice.  

The Safdie Brothers

The Safdie brothers have a brief but successful run in independent cinema, demonstrating the management of tension and suspense in urban "labyrinths" riddled with crime and criminals. Their signature is the use and consumption of drugs on the part of his characters, always tormented by the consequences of their actions, always being irresponsible and ambitious without thinking about others. For example, their latest movie Uncut Gems has an unforgettable performance by the rambunctious Adam Sandler.

Also read: Luca: The New Disney and Pixar Movie, a Metaphor for Sexual Diversity?

Martin McDonagh

Coming from the "English and Irish film school", talented in the field of dramaturgy, he turns his knowledge of theatrical staging and dialogue into his filmography, with the interest of exploiting the performances of his casts to the limits, with brutal stories, some with significant violence and drama as "Lost in Bruges" and the Oscar nominee "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri". 

Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson is recognized for having directed the eighth installment of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where he generated controversy among fans and was the target of much criticism. Johnson has a great vision and originality to create cinematic universes as demonstrated in Looper with beautiful doses of science fiction. With a lot to give yet, the director has already managed to reach a peak of originality in creativity and the handling of black humor in his latest film Knives Out, which is about an eccentric wealthy family desperate to get the will of a novel writer, responsible and sole architect of the family fortune.