Creative 100: The Directors Grabbing the World’s Attention

The borders of filmmaking have expanded, but the directors on Adweek’s 2023 Creative 100 share a devotion to storytelling and craft. Their visions have birthed some of the most compelling tales and conversations of the past year. Raine Allen-Miller Director The path to filmmaking: Allen-Miller, who was born in Manchester and grew up in south London, began her career as an art buyer, then worked in creative at an ad agency before breaking into directing. She started by directing commercials for brands including Squarespace, Nike, Pepsi, TurboTax, Virgin Media and ASOS, before moving to her first feature film: 2023's Rye Lane, a romantic comedy set in south London. One of the biggest industry challenges is “trying to make sure there are more interesting voices—not just the same people on set and in the creative process,” she said. Advice for aspiring directors: “Get a job where you can be creative and make money, then hustle your way into what you want to do while your finances are good,” said Allen Miller. Personal mantra: “I don’t work with knobheads.” —Brittaney Kiefer Park Chan-wook Director A visionary storyteller: Already a renowned filmmaker in his home country of South Korea, Chan-wook began receiving international recognition with his 2003 film Oldboy. His latest film, 2022's critically acclaimed Decision to Leave, is a crime drama that tells the story of a detective who investigates the death of a man in the mountains, before meeting the deceased’s mysterious wife. "I don't know which film I'm making": “When I make a film, even when I’m writing the script, I don’t know which film I’m making. I’m just telling the story that I feel is going to be entertaining and fun for the audience,” Chan-wook told The Guardian. A Dream of an ad: Chan-wook put his vision to use in the marketing world when he directed a cinematic ad for Apple last year, “Life is But a Dream,” as part of the brand’s “Shot on iPhone” series. At over 21 minutes long, the film mixed martial arts, romance, dark comedy and “pansori,” a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. —Stephen Lepitak Chinonye Chukwu Director Isolation and inspiration: Chukwu co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed 2022 movie Till, based on the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley. Till-Mobley was the mother of Emmett Till, whose 1955 lynching helped spur the civil rights movement. Chukwu understands much about the themes of isolation and apprehension that thread the film. Born in Nigeria, Chukwu accompanied her petroleum-engineer parents to Alaska, where she was literally the only Black girl in school. Chukwu coped by going to the movies—and rewriting them in her notebook. The right response at the right time: Whoopi Goldberg had been working to get Emmett Till’s story made into a film for a decade, so she was scrupulous about finding the right director. When, during her interview, Chukwu immediately said “it needs to be told from the mother’s point of view,” she got the job. Strategic omission: Chukwu’s 2019 drama Clemency won Sundance’s Grand Jury prize and imbued her with the confidence to make an important creative decision about Till. “I wouldn’t show physical violence inflicted on Black bodies,” she told The Guardian. “I would really make sure that there is a balance of joy, love and community alongside the inherent sadness and pain of the story.” —Robert Klara Sara Gunnarsdóttir Director A new riff on an old medium: Thanks to Walt Disney, feature-length animation has been an art form since the 1930s—but it’s still not common to see it used for mature, live-action dramas. Two critically acclaimed examples—2015's Diary of a Teenage Girl and 2022’s My Year of Dicks—are the work of artist and director Sara Gunnarsdóttir, whose mutating, flickering style is the result of individually hand-drawn frames. Gunnarsdóttir is the first Icelandic director to receive an Oscar nomination, for My Year of Dicks. On taking creative leaps: My Year of Dicks, the story of a teenage girl determined to lose her virginity, is set in 1991 Houston, Texas,—quite a distance in both time and space from Gunnarsdóttir’s native Iceland. But the artist (who used rotoscope to incorporate her drawing with the actors) wasn’t wed to literal portrayals—her work freely mixes the realistic with the interpretive. “I am not what you would call a character animator,” Gunnarsdóttir explained to The Wrap. “My background is in art, and I have this MFA in experimental animation.” What inspires her: “There’s one film that I take a lot of inspiration from—always—and it’s Mind Game by Masaaki Yuasa,” Gunnarsdóttir told the YouTube channel the VFX Process. “The animation is very loose and fluid.” —Robert Klara Jim Jenkins Director, O Positive Rock star moment: Jenkins hit Super Bowl gold with a spot for Workday that had actual rock stars, like Paul Stanley from Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne and Joan Jett, calling out office workers for labeling themselves as rock stars. “It was kind of gutsy for the client to do an ad that essentially calls out their own customers for praising each other for using their product. Mostly, though, I just like Ozzy calling himself Oswald," said Jenkins. How he got there: Jenkins is no stranger to top Super Bowl spots. He helmed Hyundai’s “Elevator” spot with Jason Bateman and Jeep’s “Groundhog Day” effort with Bill Murray, among others. But Jenkins, who launched O Positive in 2007, said his is a “typical art director to copywriter to aspiring cartoonist to high school history teacher to creative director to director story.” How to entertain while selling: “Viewers have more alternatives than ever, so I wish more clients approached their work with the mindset that no one wants to watch ads, and it’s their first job to keep people watching theirs. Fortunately, good clients still approve good scripts and trust you to turn them into good spots,” said Jenkins. —Kyle O’Brien Karyn Kusama Director Advocating for reproductive rights: A long-time supporter of reproductive rights, Kusama directed Planned Parenthood’s provocative “Your Voice” film in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The video depicts a young woman explaining that she wants an abortion because she’s not ready for a child, while her supportive mother’s voice is overridden by politicians saying, “You don’t get to decide. Your future isn’t yours.” Aiming to galvanize voters ahead of midterm elections, the film was a chilling reminder of what was at stake for women’s rights in the U.S. Telling women’s "war" stories: Kusama earned her first Emmy nomination for directing the pilot of Showtime hit series Yellowjackets, for which she also served as executive producer. In a Vanity Fair interview, Kusama—who recently returned to direct Yellowjacket's Season 2 finale—called the show a “war story” about women, and added that women’s narratives are “still undiscovered territory culturally.” Kicking off: Kusama, who directed an episode of upcoming series Sexy Beast (a prequel to the 2000 film), is persistent despite facing creative setbacks, she told Vanity Fair: “If you ever think you’re going to get away with not being kicked, you’re wrong.” —Colin Daniels Megaforce Directors, Riff Raff Films Fantastic four: These four French directors—Leo Berne, Clement Gallet, Charles Brisgand and Raphaël Rodriguez—with backgrounds in graphic arts, design, photography and advertising, are known for their “ability to use seamless transitions in our work,” they said in a joint statement. As well as music videos, the collective has directed commercials for clients such as Instagram, Burberry, Dior, Lacoste, Ikea and Nike. Their recent projects include Apple’s “Quiet the Noise;” the third in a series of Burberry commercials, titled “Night Creatures”; and Nike’s World Cup 2022 ad, “Footballverse.” Biggest industry challenges: “The rapid pace of technological change and its impact on the way we work and the type of content we create. To stay ahead of the curve, we are always experimenting with new techniques and technologies and collaborating with other creatives to push the boundaries of what’s possible.” Advice for aspiring directors: “Never stop experimenting with what’s possible. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the industry for years, it’s important to stay curious and open to new ideas and techniques.” —Brittaney Kiefer Sarah Polley Director, writer Oscar worthy: Polley’s fourth feature film, Women Talking, won the writer and director her first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2023. Based on a novel of the same name by Miriam Toews, the film tells the story of a group of women in a Mennonite community who grapple with how to respond to widespread sexual assault. A #MeToo fable: Though the film is set in an unknown time and place, the issues that the women discuss—from their relationships to the men to trauma to forgiveness–resonate in a post-#MeToo era. “It’s a fable about a lot of cultures—about all of us,” Polley told The New Yorker. Her 2022 book of autobiographical essays, Run Towards the Danger, explores similar themes, including allegations of her assault as a teenager by Canadian TV presenter Jian Ghomeshi. Moving behind the camera: Polley is a former child actor who appeared in the TV series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary’s books, as the titular character Ramona Quimby, among other projects. She later acted in films including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Go, The Weight of Water, Dawn of the Dead and Mr. Nobody. —Brittaney Kiefer Gina Prince-Bythewood Writer, director, producer "Centering Black women": Over a 22-year span, Prince-Bythewood has made feature films such as Love and Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees and The Woman King, with significant gaps between projects, which she attributes to “the types of stories that I want to tell … centering Black women, telling Black stories,” she told Essence recently. “Those are absolutely the hardest films to get made and absolutely take the most fight.” Fighting for "concrete change": The Woman King, an action-packed historical epic that pulled in nearly $100 million at the global box office in 2022, was passed over at Oscar time. In an op-ed piece for The Hollywood Reporter, Prince-Bythewood rejected the term “snub,” instead calling the lack of nominations “a reflection of where the Academy stands and the consistent chasm between Black excellence and recognition” prevalent in Hollywood and other industries. She later told Variety, succinctly: “We need concrete change.” Voices carry: Prince-Bythewood was recently named one of the most inclusive directors in Hollywood, per a USC Annenberg and Adobe Foundation study. The data-driven research, which examined hiring practices and story elements, identified creatives who are “ushering in a new era” for representation. —T.L. Stanley Alice Wu Director From software engineer to screenwriter: Wu is a Chinese-American film director and screenwriter, best known for her movies dealing with young, queer female experience including The Half of It and Saving Face. Born to Taiwanese immigrant parents, Wu grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from MIT and Stanford University with a degree in computer science. She was first encouraged to put pen to paper in her late 20s while working as a software engineer for Microsoft, after she took night classes in screenwriting. It took her just three days to write her first film. Allyship with Oreo: In 2022, the longtime LGBTQ+ advocate teamed up with Oreo to tell a touching story about allyship. “The Note” followed the journey of a young Chinese American man who is preparing to come out to his extended family, shouldering the burden of potential disapproval from his grandmother. As his relatives arrive, he finds a note from his mom: “She might be my mother, but you are my son.” Advice for aspiring creatives: “I hope that no matter how old you are, no matter where you come from, you take some sort of solace from the fact that only you can actually write your story,” Wu told No Film School. “Do not even think about an audience because you don't know what they're going to respond to. Nobody knows. Be true to you.” —Rebecca Stewart Check out Adweek’s Creative 100 for 2023 by category: Agency Leaders | Rising Agency Talent | Branded Content Innovators | TV and Streaming Innovators | Influencers and Celebrities | Media Innovators | Authors and Artists This story is part of Adweek’s Creativity x Culture digital features package, which spotlights the people, marketing strategies and creativity driving lasting cultural and societal change.

The Creative 100

Creative 100 2023: The Visionary Directors Grabbing the World’s Attention

These filmmakers have birthed the year’s most compelling stories

Raine Allen-Miller

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