David Kirkman
David Kirkman is an innovative young writer, director, and filmmaker originally from Ferguson, Missouri. His films focus on Black futurism, Black superheroes from Milestone Comics, and short documentaries highlighting Black life. He known for bringing Static Shock to life on screen in a big way, as well as his films Icon and Underneath: Children of The Sun.
Nia DaCosta
(28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple): While searching for details on the sequel to 28 Days Later is just as difficult as finding an original copy of the cult-hit zombie breakout film that jump-started the careers of futurist-filmmaker Alex Garland and Academy Award-winner Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Nia DaCosta is going to be 2025’s most-watched filmmaker as the director of this new movie. DaCosta earned the good graces of horror fans with the twisting sequel to Candyman pairing up with Jordan Peele and is now teaming up with Garland and Murphy on the fourth installment to 28 Days Later, which is still being so close under wraps.
RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys)
RaMell Ross’s second feature length movie, Nickel Boys, based on the Colson Whitehead novel, told quite literally through the eyes of two young Black men at the Nickel Academy: “Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory in the Jim Crow South,” is tracking to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. As of now Ross’s movie is sweeping critics awards across the globe but only playing to a select few theaters as it gears up for a much bigger release. Definitely going to be a must-watch.
Nina Lee (That’s Her)
In an interview with Variety, Atlanta-based filmmaker Nina Lee describes her debut feature-length film as a “colorful story about love” but “it digs deeper and explores how our parents’ relationships impact the way we date.” Judging from Lee’s comedic writing and performance in the Atlanta YouTube web-series Sorry About That and a high-profile team, we can expect something refreshingly original from this new filmmaker.
Astin Rocks
Thirteen years into the film industry, Astin has written and produced comedy series, visual albums, experimental narrative films and short promos for local businesses. Season 2 of her latest work, satiric counterfeit-crime comedy, Real Fakes, is set to release Summer 2023.
J.D. Dillard (Neuromancer)
J.D. Dillard broke into Hollywood at the age of
twenty-seven with his Black superhero origin-story feature film Sleight at Sundance’s NEXT category in 2016 and has had an exponential trajectory ever since, catching the attention of every major studio and J.J. Abrams. Dillard’s latest work is an Apple TV series titled Neuromancer: based on the William Gibson hacker-drama novel set inside a cyberpunk Japan. It doesn’t have a current release date posted, but J.D. himself is a
“must-watch.”
Zanah Thirus (The O.G. Bootcamp)
Known to be Film Twitter’s voice for the
“Microbudget Filmmaker” with a podcast named after her cause and a social media presence that isn’t afraid to openly criticize Hollywood’s filmmaking industry, Zanah Thirus has nailed the independent filmmaking scene with film after film, building her own mini-empire of podcasts, movies, and activism (even going as far as to write a manifesto on the subject matter). Thirus states her work “fearlessly tackles necessary and often taboo topics, such as misogyny within Christianity, sexual trauma recovery, the orgasm gap, and Black feminist theory.” She also claims “Storytelling is how I respond to uncomfortable truths about the world,” making her not just to be another
filmmaker-to-watch but also her persona.
Cheyenne Ewulu (THE COMIC SHOP!)
Cheyenne Ewulu’s The Comic Shop! had a buzzy takeoff since debuting an 11-minute proof of concept trailer at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2023 and even entering the Micheaux Film Festival. Ewulu has claimed the “response from Atlanta was so big” it couldn’t be ignored. Described as a “workplace comedy” where “a former engineering major opens up her own Comic Book store in the heart of Los Angeles with her quirky friends,” fully funded through Kickstarter last week, this is going to be one of the most exciting web series to take the Internet next year.
Aneesh Chaganty (ih8 ai)
When ih8 ai, the first collaboration between Meta and Blumhouse, premiered on YouTube this year to vitriol, Aneesh Chaganty went back into filmmaker silence. The “technophobic” filmmaker has utilized technology and cinema in more innovative ways than the rest of his Hollywood colleagues ever since he stormed the scene with the 2018 Sundance winner Searching. While we don’t know exactly what Aneesh is up to next, it would be safe to say he’s a filmmaker-to-watch.
Ebony Blanding (A Mess of Memories)
There isn’t much available about the contents of Ebony Blanding’s first feature film, titled A Mess of Memories, but we do know that it’s an Atlanta-based original production and was awarded through a grant at Trilith Studios. Blanding has made a name herself as one of the prominent filmmakers to ever come out of Atlanta and stay – she has continued to grow the city’s industry and new filmmakers, hiring Atlanta crews, teaching workshops, and debuting her work to the public (her most recent film is a mermaid tale titled Jordan).
Wesley Wang (nothing, except everything.)
Wesley Wang earned the career fantasy that every filmmaker has dreamed of, carving his name into the YouTube stratosphere as that 19-year-old filmmaker behind the cosmic coming of age-story nothing, except everything, causing a divisive rift among Film Internet, film critic Jeff Zhang calling it
“slop for the lowest common denominator of zoomers,” and Darren Aronofsky sending him a peculiar email ordering him to dropout of Harvard so that he could produce the feature film. While some have criticized Wang for his privilege and others have heralded him as a zeitgeist filmmaker for Gen Z, there is no doubt he will be one of the most interesting filmmakers to watch.
Nathan DuCongé (RANCOR)
His first feature length movie RANCOR will debut online in the summer of 2025. It’s a movie about my own personal story about my surreal journey in the film industry and making my first film, writtened, directed, and starring Du Conge.