Perhaps no one in the filmmaking ecosphere understands and appreciates the accomplishments of filmmakers better than their peers. And no one articulates the wonders and achievements in more rewarding or greater detail. Here are some of global cinema’s finest directors explaining why they’re in awe of what this year’s top auteurs hath wrought.

When Zoë Kravitz first met Matt Reeves about playing Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, opposite Robert Pattinson in “The Batman,” she was two years into writing what would become her feature directorial debut. Born from Kravitz’s “rage towards men in power,” “Blink Twice” — renamed from the original “Pussy Island,” for obvious reasons — follows Frida […]

Jon M. Chu has photographic evidence. Before he directed “Wicked,” the hit adaptation of the Broadway musical about a pair of witchy BFFs, Chu was an extra on “The Secret World of Alex Mack.” And that Nickelodeon series, part of the TV diet for anyone growing up in the 1990s, marked the directorial debut of […]

Denis Villeneuve and Luca Guadagnino have been linked for years by their shared taste in actors. After Villeneuve, 57, saw Timothée Chalamet in Guadagnino’s 2017 romance “Call Me by Your Name,” he cast him as Paul Atreides, the callow princeling turned desert messiah, in his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel “Dune.” And before Zendaya […]

Variety’s Directors on Directors returns with pairings of the directors behind this year’s awards contenders speaking in conversation with each other. Featured in this year’s “Directors on Directors” lineup are: “From ‘Dune: Part 2’ to ‘Wicked,’ from ‘Anora’ to ‘Babygirl,’ this has been an extraordinary year at the movies. And Variety’s Directors on Directors franchise […]