The 20 Best Breakthrough Directors Of 2015

Year-end season continues apace, and after listing 2015's best posters and best trailers, we looked at the breakthrough performances of 2015 yesterday, featuring a promising a selection of new performers. But as ever, the talent hasn’t just been emerging in front of the camera: from the festival circuit to multiplex blockbusters, we’ve seen all kinds of directors breaking through in 2015.

Last year, we featured filmmakers like Ana Lily Amirpour, Damien Chazelle, Dan Gilroy, Jeremy Saulnier, Justin Simien and Gillian Robespierre. Who’s joined them this year? Below, you’ll find twenty filmmakers, spanning English-language and foreign movies, fiction and non-fiction, blockbuster erotica to throwback horror-westerns, music biopics to Holocaust dramas. Check out our list, and let us know in the comments who made an impression on you in 2015.

Click here for our complete coverage of the best of 2015

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