Tim Miller – “Deadpool”
“Deadpool” could have been a disaster. It could have been an obnoxious, irritating, juvenile superhero spoof (which was what it looked like from a distance) that tanked hard at the box office like, say, “Dredd.” Instead, it is an extremely pleasant surprise, a film that more often than not feels stylish and irreverent and good-natured, giving the genre a real kick in the ass and making some of its bigger-budget competition look even more turgid in comparison. The man in charge was Miller, a VFX supervisor and title sequence helmer who’d worked with the likes of Edgar Wright and David Fincher, and had seen “Deadpool” as a long-time passion project, working on the project for over five years. It paid off, with crystal-clear action, a tone that is smart-ass and ultra violent but never crass, and even indicates a surprising amount of heart. Despite the blockbuster success, Fox and Ryan Reynolds rewarded him by dropping him for the sequel, but he’s sure to have lots more on his plate soon.
Nicolas Pesce – “The Eyes Of My Mother”
The last couple of Sundance Festivals have given us a pair of the best, most distinctive horror movies of their respective years, thanks to “The Babadook” and “The Witch,” and 2016 didn’t disappoint: not only did we get “Under The Shadow,” but we also got Pesce’s “The Eyes Of My Mother,” which our man in Park City Noel Murray described as “like the art-film version of an old EC Comics horror story.” Pesce has come through music videos before falling in with the Borderline Films crew (Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin and Josh Mond), who exec produce this utterly creepy black-and-white debut, and he looks to be just as big a talent, with a movie Murray called “artfully textured, visually gorgeous and thoroughly gripping,” bearing comparison to Kim Ki-Duk and Takashi Miike.
David F. Sandberg – “Lights Out”
In a strong year for horror, the best studio offering might have been sleeper hit “Lights Out,” a movie that was very much Swedish director Sandberg’s baby. The helmer began in animation and documentary before making a zero-budget short with his wife Lotta Losten, which despite being less than three minutes long, became something of a sensation online. It led to the feature adaptation, which captured the strengths of the original —namely the ingenious visual conceit of a creature that only appears in the darkness— with a surprising technical aplomb given that Sandberg had never been on a set with a crew before, while also adding a surprising emotional resonance thanks in part to excellent performances by Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello. Sandberg will return for the inevitable sequel, and he’s currently working on “Conjuring” spin-off/sequel “Annabelle 2,” which given the quality of his work so far should be as significant step-up from the first film.
Trey Edward Shults – “Krisha”
The surprise winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize in 2015 and a hit at Cannes as well, “Krisha” is one of the most startling debuts of the year, and has already made Shults one of the most talked-about young filmmakers in the biz. Shults has racked up credits working with some impressive filmmakers —he was an intern on “Tree Of Life” and worked on Jeff Nichols’ “Midnight Special,” but he debuted the short version of “Krisha” at SXSW in 2014 before following with the feature the next year. A family affair, the film stars the director’s aunt of the same name as a drug-addicted black sheep, with Shults’ mother and grandmother also in the cast, and the authenticity gives the movie a real freshness (think “August Osage County” if it was, you know, any good). With A24 backing Shults’ next film, the Joel Edgerton-starring horror “It Comes At Night,” you’ll be hearing much more from the young director in 2017.
Sophia Takal – “Always Shine”
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. She’s principally known as an actress, with her work having included acclaimed films like “Supporting Characters” 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 toplining Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald, it’s a film that our review called “simultaneously incredibly pleasurable and quite disturbing,” and it marks Takal as one of the freshest new voices to emerge this year.