Kristina Nikolova

Nikolova’s Faith Love and Whiskey, which took top honors at this year’s fest, takes us through the mountains, fields, forests, and streams of Bulgaria, letting the camera linger on a sunrise or pooling water. It makes you cherish youth, but also reel at its violence and foolhardiness. A graduate of NYU’s famed film school, she has already worked on a number of films as a cinematographer in her native country, but her debut feature suggests she has found her voice as a director.

Mads Matthiesen

In his first feature,Teddy Bear, Matthiesen creates a character for whom you feel great empathy, without resorting to emotional manipulation. We were struck by how quiet the movie is, how so much gets said with relatively little dialogue.

Ian Harnarine

Harnarine’s short, “Doubles with Slight Pepper,” is an exquisitely acted story that applies sharp pressure to its familiar immigrant situation, rendering a conflict of emotions that gets at the heart of generation and morality. Another NYU grad student, Harnarine has already caught Spike Lee’s eye, who helped fund this short.

Ya’ke Smith

Smith’s debut feature, Wolf, pulls us tightly to its uncomfortable subject matter, blurring the kind of scandal easily reduced to a headline into a complex knot of personal suffering and emotional malice. Smith’s shorts have already won the University of Texas at Arlington professor wide acclaim, but his transition to long-form narrative may prove a tipping point.

Emad Burnat

Even though co-director Guy Davidi was a driving force behind Burnat’s debut, 5 Broken Cameras, the filmmaker, citizen journalist, and Bil’in resident’s life is embedded in the difficult day-to-day of Palestine. As long as Burnat keeps shooting footage, we’ll keep watching it.