Matt Johnson - Writer, Director, Editor, Producer, Star of The Dirties
Todd Brown - Founder & Editor
Johnson's a crazy person and crazy talented. His debut feature is audacious and full of heart.
James Marsh - Asian Editor
The Dirties made into my Top 10 of the year for the way it was able to entertain and frighten simultaneously. It tackles the anxieties of high school and growing up, the always-difficult relationship between violence and the media, while also managing to explore the changing way we interact with technology and make movies. At the centre of all of this is Matt Johnson, a young, energetic and singular presence both on and offscreen who has proven with this incredible debut that he has plenty to say and hopefully a long and fruitful career ahead of him.
Ben Umstead - East Coast Editor
It's true that The Dirties star and director Matt Johnson is something of a wunderkind. But for anyone who has seen the meta-fiction film on bullying and school violence, it's also very clear that Johnson is not an autuer. The film's complex take on American youth comes together because of the seemingly invisible, yet genuinely genuis work of Evan Morgan and Jared Raab who, like Johnson, hold multiple credits on the film. And that's all held together by producer Matthew Miller.
Jaime Grijalba - Contributing writer
Acting, producing, writing "The Dirties" is maybe one of the most impressive things that someone can do in their lifetime, and for this to be his debut (pretty much) in all these areas is even more impressive, I love this movie and I hope that it gets the attention of those in search of filmmakers to look forward to.
Marwan Kenzari - Star of Wolf
Peter Martin - Managing Editor
He energizes the story as a very strong man whose biggest weakness is that he refuses to acknowledge that he has any.
Ard Vijn - Contributing writer
Not exactly a new talent in The Netherlands perhaps, but in Wolf, Marwan Kenzari had to carry a film for the first time. And he had to do it by showing a daunting combination of on-screen charisma, physical ability and acting chops. His success in achieving this is spectacular.
Macon Blair and Jeremy Saulnier - Star and writer/director of Blue Ruin
Ryland Aldrich - Festivals Editor
Agata Trzebuchowska - Star of Ida
Patryk Czekaj - Contributing writer
The beauty of Agata Trzebuchowska's memorable performance as an innocent nun coming to terms with her own femininity owes much to the young lady's lack of experience. Along with her character she discovers the truth about herself - she's now a rising star.
Scott Haze - Star of Child Of God
Joshua Chaplinsky - Contributing writer
Where the hell did THIS guy come from? He needs to be cast in more films, STAT. He is fearless in his portrayal of the unhinged Lester Ballard. As I said in my review of the film, "Credit is due both to Haze and Franco for making a date between a sociopath and a corpse one of the sweetest scenes you'll ever see."
Katrin Gebbe and Julius Feldmeier - Writer/director and star of Nothing Bad Can Happen
Eric Ortiz Garcia - Contributing writer
I could have easily go for Ryan Coogler and his great debut Fruitvale Station instead, but he's getting a whole more attention than director Katrin Gebbe and actor Julius Feldmeier for Nothing Bad Can Happen, a film that's just as powerful and difficult.
Richard Raaphorst - Director/co-writer of Frankenstein's Army
Niels Matthijs - Contributing writer
I've been searching for years, so I'm thrilled to have finally found a director from The Netherlands with the talent to make a unique genre film. Let's hope it's only the start of a great career.
Lofty Nathan - Writer/director of 12 O'Clock Boys
Kurt Halfyard - Contributing writer
The documentary filmmaker merges guerrilla filmmaking, coming of age sweetness, and ultra stylization all in one dynamo package which focuses on a gang of street bikers in Baltimore, and the young boy who aspires to their ranks.
Mikhail Red - Director/co-writer of Rekorder
Christopher O'Keeffe - Contributing writer
Being just 21 years old the fact that Mikhail Red has got a feature length together at all is impressive, that it's such an interesting effort full of ideas and with an experimental edge is even more so.
Lupita Nyong'o - Star of 12 Years A Slave
Dustin Chang - Contributing writer
Vidyut Jamwal - Star of Commando: A One-Man Army
J Hurtado - Contributing writer
Barkhad Abdi - Star of Captain Phillips
Jim Tudor - Contributing writer
Pablo Berger - Writer/director of Blancanieves
Ben Croll - Contributing writer
At fifty years old and with two decades of film biz experience, director Pablo Berger is no young turk, but Blancanieves is only his second feature film and the one that will hopefully launch him onto the international map. The film, a silent-cinema riff on Snow White by way of Abel Gance and F.W. Murnau, is positively over-stuffed with wonderful ideas and flourishes. It has a lot to say and a lot to prove. It feels like a young man's movie.
Nattawut Poonpiriya - Writer/director of Countdown
Pierce Conran - Contributing writer
Set in an apartment with just a few characters, the Thai debut Countdown was an ingeniously clever little genre film that is devilishly effective and explored larger themes than I was expecting. A sterling start for Poonpiriya and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg - Writer/directors of This Is The End
Jason Gorber - Featured critic
The film is a riot, and while it's kind of cheating given that these guys have been around the block, this really was their feature debut. And they didn't fuck it up, even a little. A wicked film, in all its forms of that word, and one of the funniest of the year.
Liz Kearney - Producer of These Final Hours
Kwenton Bellette - Contributing writer
A small budget Australian film about the days before the apocalypse, These Final Hours is bleak and redemptive. The special effects, locations, costume, set design and every other vital element could have come off as cheap and still been forgivable. Wunderkind Kearney utilized every dollar and spaced the film out so well that nothing felt short of a major achievement, brimming with talent, passion and time well spent, These Final Hours is quite possibly the first film where I have directly noticed the producer's efforts!