One year after directing his debut feature film, Sugarland Express, Steven Spielberg directed Jaws. Spielberg has won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Recognized currently as the oldest active film director in the world at 108 years old, Manoel de Oliveira directed Doomed Love at the age of 71. His film The Strange Case of Angelica, screened at last year’s 2010 New York Film Festival, was also entered into the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

After directing A Woman Alone in 1981, Holland received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for her 1985 film Angry Harvest. In 1991, her film Europa Europa garnered a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

After directing the Mad Max movies including The Road Warrior in 1981, George Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick (1987), starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Happy Feet (2006) brought Miller his fourth Academy Award nomination and his first win in the category of Best Animated Feature.

Spike Lee’s NYU thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in the New Directors/New Films festival. In 1989, Lee’s film Do the Right Thing was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

“Thanks to New Directors/New Films, my work began to reach wide audiences across America. Being in that festival was crucial for the acceptance of my films in America.”—Pedro Almodóvar

“I showed my film Let’s Get Lost, starring Chet Baker, at the ND/NF series at the MoMA. For me it was like being a kid in a candy store. You didn’t have to worry about the sound and the projection and the screen. You have to know that when you take your film to festivals and show it in theaters around the world, you can always expect the projector to break down. So instead of the usual tears, me and my crew were given 120 minutes of what we first dreamt about.”—Bruce Weber

After directing Metropolitan in 1989, Whit Stillman directed Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days of Disco (1998). He is currently filming Damsels in Distress.

“When The Living End was shown in ND/NF back in 1992 it was probably one of the most memorable and important screenings of my entire life. It led to our little art-punk no-budget movie getting an amazing front page Janet Maslin NY Times review, which pretty much clinched the film’s distribution – not only in the US but all over the world. It launched the movie and me personally into a whole new realm. We were all so young and naive and innocent, and it was such a crazy, exciting time. I’m forever grateful to ND/NF for taking a chance on showing The Living End, and I look forward to the festival providing the next generation’s lights such an incredible opportunity to shine.” —Gregg Araki

Since screening his film, Clerks, at ND/NF in 1993, Kevin Smith has made numerous films and television projects, including Chasing Amy, Dogma, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Cop Out. His latest film, Red State, will be released in 2011.

After his 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz directed Happiness, Storytelling, and Palindromes. Dark Horse, his upcoming film, will be released in 2011.

After the success of Xiao Wu (1997), Jia Zhangke’s Still Life, won the Golden Lion in the 2006 Venice Film Festival. His most recent film, I Wish I Knew, debuted at Un Certain Regard in the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Since his first feature film, Following, in 1998, Nolan has written and directed Memento, The Dark Knight, and Inception. He is currently working on The Dark Knight Rises.

“Being selected to be a part of New Directors/New Films was a huge breakthrough. I remember the screening clearly because it was in the MoMA theater where I had witnessed so many inspirational films over the years. It was also my dad’s 60th birthday, and I got the entire theater to sing for him. Every year, when the mailing arrives, it’s almost like Christmas morning. I scour the titles and descriptions with my Sharpie and start clearing my schedule right away. New Directors/New Films is always an inspiration.” —Darren Aronofsky

“New Directors/New Films gave me the chance to screen my film in a beautiful theater, on a big screen, for a New York audience. That was a really great thing for me, and it’s great to have a festival committed to new work and new directors.”— Kelly Reichardt

Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River won a Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Filmmaking at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Since Frozen River, Hunt has directed three episodes of the HBO series, In Treatment.

“I grew up in the city and, as early as high school, there was a thrill of anticipation when I opened the Times to that full-page ad announcing the films selected for New Directors/New Films each year. The festival was like having the coolest insider friend who knew about the newest amazing films and directors before anyone else did. So when Bill Cuninngham New York was invited not only to screen at the festival but also as the opening night selection, it was an acknowledgment of the highest honor. When I found myself in the theater watching my movie on the same screen as so many directors and films I have worshipped over the years, the experience for me was…well, if a person can “kvell” and “plotz” simultaneously….” —Richard Press

A road movie with a difference, Las Acacias takes a 900-mile trip from Asunción, Paraguay to Buenos Aires, with a gruff, taciturn truck driver and the two illegal immigrants—a young woman, and her newborn daughter—he is reluctantly transporting. Largely confined to the cramped confines of the truck’s cab, Giorgelli’s camera observes the miles passing, and the quiet, subtly evolving interaction of the trio, while borders are crossed (in more than one sense) and the driver gradually lowers his defenses and finds himself becoming unexpectedly attached to his passengers.

When Claudiu Crulic, a young Romanian in Poland, is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, he becomes a pawn in a Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice and goes on a hunger strike to protest his treatment in jail. Filmmaker Anca Damian’s documentary is by turns chilling and heartbreaking, but also ironic, with a bit of black humor thrown in for good measure. What makes her extraordinary documentary even more compelling is its strong visual style: Damian uses hand drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques to create a strikingly memorable film.

The original title, which translates as “stories that only exist when remembered,” beautifully expresses the theme and core sentiment of Júlia Murat’s film. Found Memories is a poetic rendering of the fictive town of Jotuomba. A magical confluence of generations and cultures is occasioned by the visit of Julia, a young photographer, to this place where time has seemingly stood still and life is rooted in the fixed roles of tradition soon to be rendered obsolete.

Twilight Portrait is a powerhouse collaboration co-written and co-produced by Angelina Nikonova, who directed, and Olga Dihovichnaya, who stars in this very dark, provocative and constantly surprising debut feature film. In a modern Russian city where corruption, apathy and class warfare are the norm, a woman is raped, rather casually by the police. What follows explodes the conventions of sexual politics—and will certainly have film-goers talking. This staggering film features great performances and an unvarnished view of life in the age of Putin.

Daylight lingers at the end of August in Oslo, but sunlight is not a friend to Anders, a semi-recovered addict, facing a new life which may not be appealing without former habits. Joachim Trier’s first feature, Reprise, was a critical highlight of New Directors/New Films 2007, and while that antic fiction was about friendship and hope, his second is quite different, bearing traces of Robert Bresson. Adapted from the same novel as Louis Malle’s The Fire Within (1963), this subtle and haunting film follows Anders, as he tries to adjust – making love, wandering through Oslo, having a job interview, seeing old friends, and trying to get comfortable with his situation.