1. Dee Rees
Dee Rees’s debut into the film world was with the 2011 film Pariah, a semi-autobiographical, low-budget work produced by Spike Lee. The film deals with a 17-year-old African-American girl as she struggles to accept herself as a lesbian, while having to deal with a disapproving family. The critical success of Pariah has allowed Rees to continue working and developing stories that don’t shy away from themes like sexuality and race relations. More recently, she partnered with HBO and wrote and directed the TV film Bessie, which explores the life of American blues singer Bessie Smith. She also has an upcoming period drama, which deals with racism in rural Mississippi in the 1940s, called Mudbound, based on Hillary Jordan’s novel of the same name.
2. Tom Ford
The American director, better known for his fashion designs and activism as a gay icon, Ford’s venture into the world of filmmaking is fairly recent. In 2009, Ford co-wrote and directed A Single Man, a critically acclaimed film based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same name. Set in the 1960s, the film deals with a day in the life of a gay university professor who lost his partner in a tragic car accident, and the realities of being part of an invisible minority. Ford’s flourish as a designer bleeds into his film works. Like A Single Man, his second film Nocturnal Animals (2016) is just as obsessed with style and beauty. The latter, however, is a dialogue and exposition-heavy piece, where A Single Man leaves more to the imagination. Though the films show a writer/director still trying to find his voice, his two debuts make him worthy of being a director to look out for.
3. Pedro Almodóvar
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar dislikes being classified as a “gay filmmaker,” for fear of having this part of his identity define all his works, but he can’t deny his films have had an impact in the LGBT community. His dismissal of labels extends to the films he creates. Though they always vary in themes, the question of gender and sexual fluidity is one that is almost always present in his films, and they almost never offer a set-in-stone answer. Amongst some of his most famous films are: Matador (1986), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), All About My Mother (1999), Bad Education (2004), Broken Embraces (2009), and The Skin I Live In (2011). With almost 40 years of experience in filmmaking, his style is clear and defined, and you can be sure that whichever one of his films you watch, it will be colorful, thought-provoking, and controversial.
4. Xavier Dolan
I remember feeling severely underwhelmed after reading a brief description of Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother), but I decided to give it a try after seeing the raving reviews it had received. It did not disappoint. Xavier Dolan, a Quebec national, was just 16 years old when he wrote the semi-autobiographical script of I Killed My Mother, and 19 when he finally obtained the money to direct it. Openly gay, vivacious, confident, the now 27-year-old has six other films on his rapidly-growing resumé. His films Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats), Laurence Anyways, Tom at the Farm, Mommy, It’s Only the End of the World, and the to be released The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, all have the fresh perspective of a young filmmaker trying (and fighting) to find his place in the world. Though his films are far from perfect, they offer LGBT stories that don’t focus on the overbearingly clichéd and heartbreaking stories found in films like Blue is the Warmest Color (directed by a straight man).
5. Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American filmmaker involved in New Queer Cinema, a movement that emerged in 1992, dedicated to making queer-themed independent films that reject heteronormativity. His debut feature film was Poison (1991), which was composed of three intercut stories dealing with the topic of sexual identity. He also directed the controversial Velvet Goldmine (1998), based on David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust years. David Bowie refused to have his name and music used in the film, and thus, the film became more of an exploration of glam rock culture in 70s Britain. More recently, he directed Carol (2015), a romantic drama based on Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt, a semi-autobiographical novel which dealt with the forbidden affair of two women in the 1950s. The film received great critical acclaim, but was omitted from Academy Award nominations, which many believe was due to the film not having a tragic ending like other Oscar-nominated “gay” films (Brokeback Mountain).