Meet some of the best directors working today, who haven’t gone down the blockbuster movie route… Christopher Nolan, JJ Abrams, maybe the Russo Brothers?
And yes, both the financial and creative rewards can be great.
Here are 25 examples.
He first started getting noticed for his two-minute remake ofThe Thing, starring the famous stop motion penguin Pingu.
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But if Hardcastle only made fan videos, he wouldnt be on this list.
Hes refined his Sam-Raimi-but-in-plasticine style into a series of crude but hilarious original shorts.
Hes currently working on a debut full-length feature calledSpook Train, and it cant come soon enough.
Zeitlin has only really made one feature, 2012sBeast Of The Southern Wild.
But that netted him the Camera dOr at Cannes, and Best Film and Best Director Oscar nominations.
Then a Hurricane Katrina-esque flood happens, and they struggle to survive.
And thats not to mention the Godzilla-style giant wildebeest god that follows her around.
Where to start:Well, hes only got that one film.
A guy builds a time machine in his garage.
But by using it, he creates a double of himself.
And something has to happen to that double.
Yet its all there, on the screen, if youre willing work for it.
Nine years later Carruth returned withUpstream Colour, again starring himself.
Just go with it.
Where to start:Primeris probably his most accessible film.
But the term accessible is definitely relative here.
But look past that, and hes a fiercely personal filmmaker.
He then took a Hitchcockian turn with the psychological thrillerTom At The Farm.
His films are cool, controlled, polysexual and highly watchable.
It also has some fantastic haircuts and electropop.
The guy is going to get a superhero movie soon, and youre all going to love him.
Where to start:Hobo With A Shotgunis far better than it has any right to be.
Its lean, genuinely thrilling, and honest in all the ways that theMachete Killsof the world really arent.
Joe Swanberg
The mumblecore movement of the mid-00s can definitely rub some people up the wrong way.
But they can also capture something perfect and relatable about early 21st century life.
Joe Swanberg remains probably the best, and definitely the best known filmmaker of the scene.
Cheap digital technology was key to mumblecores growth, and Swanberg is a master of this.
Technology also allowed him to be incredibly prolific (he made seven films in 2011!
A rough-around-the-edges tale of post-college kids, it would be painfully cliched is it wasnt so real and honest.
But to label Bujalski as just the mumblecore guy would be completely wrong.
Hes slowly but surely growing into a really interesting filmmaker as the movement has died away.
His next two films,Mutual AppreciationandBeeswax, shared similar themes toFunny Ha Habut showed a growing confidence.
And then came the utterly uniqueComputer Chess.
Where to start:This site is called Den of Geek it’s crucial that you seeComputer Chess.
Hes helped Jean Claude Van Dammes great mid-00s renaissance.
He gave Chilean action star Mark Zaror his first American role.
But his greatest muse has been Birmingham-born martial artist Scott Adkins.
But hes also had a second career recently as a director.
A very unique director at that.
Look, theres no other way to put this his films are really weird.
Really, really weird.
LikeRubber, which is about a killer tyre, that rolls around the desert making things explode.
Anyone who can assemble that cast deserves your respect.
Where to start:Rubberis still probably his most consistent work.
His masterpiece, however, is his first full length featureIts Such A Beautiful Day.
Where to start:Its Such A Beautiful Dayis on Netflix.
Dont be put off by its minimalism, it will blow you away.
Its an ADHD-paced slasher, time-travel, teen movie pastiche that defies description.
It doesnt quite work but its definitely worth seeing.
Since then hes stuck to shorts and music videos, and actually thats been a good thing.
His video for Taylor Swifts Bad Bloodis perhaps the finest crystallization of his style.
Where to start:Go watch thatPower Rangersfan filmif you havent already.
Where to start:House Of The Devil nothing happening has never been this exciting.
When that was a hit, Hyams was given carte blanche for a sequel.
Where to start:Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoningis an incredible experience.
Take her filmWendy And Lucyfor instance.
In the first ten minutes, Lucy goes missing.
But its also unmistakably Reichardt.
Just look at Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.
But Romain Gavras should have been the guy to continue this tradition.
He was soon working with international artists like The Last Shadowpuppet.
His masterpiece though was the eight minute epic for MIAs Born Free.
Did it make a serious point?
But did it get peoples attention?
Gavras has only made two features so far.
One was a concert tour film for Justice.
The other,Our Time Will Come, was almost a prequel to Born Free.
Its a bit too shaggy and unfocused to really work, but its very interesting and watchable.
Where to start:That Born Freevideo is still pretty fantastic.
Andrea Arnold might be our greatest hope to add to that lineage.
She followedFish Tankwith that other British tradition, a period drama.
Where to start:Fish Tankis a masterpiece.
Her debut documentaryThe Arbourcharted the life of Yorkshire playwright Andrea Dunbar, who died aged just 29 in 1990.
Its an odd effect, but makes it almost like watching a play.
Where to start:The Selfish Giantis already a British classic.
Nicolas Winding Refn
I know what youre thinking.
The director ofDriveisnt exactly underground and non-mainstream, right?
Well, just look at the reaction to his follow-up,Only God Forgives.
Its actually brilliant, but people were expectingDrive 2, or at least Ryan Gosling does kickboxing.
What they actually got was a wheezing, brutal hypnotic visual and aural assault.
Thats the thing about Winding Refn.Drivewas an anomaly.
Long may he continue alienating audiences.
Nacho Vigalondo
Nacho Vigalondo is a Spanish director who makes very interesting genre films.
If he was a straight-up horror director, he probably would have already become a cult figure amongst gorehounds.
But he makes strange sci-fi movies, and that makes him a much harder sell.
And up next, hes apparently making a old-school, men in suits monster movie.
Where to start:Timecrimes, but try and know as little about it as possible going in.
But its Ellis experience in fashion that makes it sleek instead of pervy.
He then went to the Philippines to shoot the Filipino-language crime thrillerMetro Manila.
Where to start:Metro Manilais that sort of great crime epic youre shocked more people dont know about.
Where to start:Berberian Sound Studiofor the genre trappings, but expect expressionism over splatter.
Shelton just has a great touch for making films about relatable feelings in awkward situations.
What is perhaps her best film,Your Sisters Sister, is basically just a three-hander.
They get drunk, theres awkward sex, then awkward feelings.
Where to start:Your Sisters Sisteris a great comedy of errors.
Where to start:EitherCyrusorJeff Who Lives At Home.
Just dont expectSuperbador anything.
And his other films are even stranger.
Who knows what hell do next, lets just hope its soon.
Where to start:Sexy Beast.
Friday, The Grosvenor, youll be there.
The very British serial killer comedySightseersprobably would have worked better as a TV show, but its still hilarious.
Could this be him entering the next stage of his career?
Where to start:WatchKill Listknowing as little as possible about it.
