Justin Lin
You probably don’t think of Justin Lin as a Sundance filmmaker. And that’s probably fair enough: four of his seven movies, and probably the only ones you’ve seen, were in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, which he took from B-movie programmer fare to one of the biggest franchises on the planet, and made him an A-list action helmer (next up: summer blockbuster “Star Trek Beyond”). Nevertheless, Lin broke out at Sundance: After co-directing microbudget feature “Shopping For Fangs,” he followed it up with “Better Luck Tomorrow,” an indie movie about Asian American high-schoolers caught up in crime. Partly funded by MC Hammer, of all people, the film was endorsed by Roger Ebert, and went on to be the first festival movie ever to be picked up by MTV Films, who had modest success once it was released in 2003. It was followed up by Lin’s studio debut, the James Franco-starring “Annapolis,” before he made his first “Fast & Furious” pic in 2006.
Rian Johnson
These days, it seems like indie directors can flown straight from their Sundance premiere to the set of a $200 million blockbuster, but Rian Johnson’s career has followed a slightly slower, more traditional path, but one just as interesting as any others. A USC grad, Johnson made his name with ingenious high-school noir “Brick,” a fiendishly clever, emotionally potent thriller that showed both a key visual eye and a literary love of language, and also helped to break Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an adult actor. The film became a beloved cult hit, and Johnson followed it up with the less-loved (but terminally underrated) “The Brothers Bloom,” with a bigger budget and bigger names; and in 2012 stepped up again with sci-fi actioner “Looper” starring Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, which became an unlikely hit, taking in $175 million worldwide. Along with the three episodes of “Breaking Bad” he directed, it showed that Johnson could work on a bigger canvas, and he’s about to be given the biggest canvas imaginable, with production on “Star Wars: Episode VIII,” which he’s writing and directing, set to begin any day now.
Many of Alexander Payne’s contemporaries came roaring out of the gates with a popular debut feature — David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, etc. Payne wasn’t quite one of them, but the Sundance premiere of his first feature undoubtedly put him on the path to later success. Having worked as a screenwriter, Payne made his feature debut with the scabrous abortion satire “Citizen Ruth,” featuring a mighty performance from Laura Dern. The film was a big talking point in competition at the 1996 festival, and was picked up by Miramax, who got nervous about the subject matter and mis-sold the movie as a wacky comedy, with the result that the film tanked hard. It got Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor on the map, though, and a better reception greeted follow-up “Election.” “About Schmidt,” “Sideways,” “The Descendants” and “Nebraska” all followed, the latter three all winning Best Picture and Best Director nominations for Payne; in fact, “Citizen Ruth” is the only one of his movies not to win an Oscar nod of any kind.
Todd Phillips
Sundance probably doesn’t mention “The Hangover” mastermind Todd Phillips among their most notable alumni, but as the director returns to theoretically more respectable territory this year with “Arms And The Dudes,” it’s worth remembering that he got his first big boost thanks to the festival. While still an NYU junior, Phillips directed “Hated,” a documentary about punk rock star GG Allin, so he was already starting to make a name for himself; but he really turned heads in Park City in 1998, when his documentary “Frat House” (co-directed by Andrew Gurland), examining hazing on college campuses, premiered at Sundance and won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. The film ultimately went largely unseen: HBO bought it but never aired it after allegations emerged that Phillips and Gurland had paid students to reenact scenes. But Phillips had already moved to fiction anyway, directing sleeper comedy hit “Road Trip.” Since then, bar one flop, the already forgotten “School For Scoundrels,” he’s had nothing but hits, including “Old School,” “Starsky & Hutch” and the huge “Hangover” trilogy.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Having worked in TV (she wrote a number of episodes of “A Different World,” among others), Gina Prince-Bythewood made her first splash in features with the Spike Lee-produced romantic comedy-drama “Love & Basketball,” about a pair of aspiring sports stars (Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps) and their decades-long courtship. The film won strong reviews at Sundance back in 2000, but only middling box office, but its cult has grown over time as Prince-Bythewood’s continued to work in TV, and followed it up with 2008’s “The Secret Life Of Bees.” The best was still to come, however, with 2014’s “Beyond The Lights,” a stunning, sensitive, beautifully acted melodrama about the relationship between a pop star and a cop with political ambitions, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker doing the best work of their careers to date. The release was botched by Relativity and it never found the audience it deserved, but again, it shows signs of building a cult audience, and Prince-Bythewood has a damn good chance of finally conquering the mainstream with the upcoming Fox miniseries “Shots Fired.”
