Julia Loktev

In 2006, Loktev produced her first dramatic feature, the harrowing "Day Night Day Night." An unsettling minimalist look at the final 48 hours in the life of a suicide bomber with plans to set off an explosive in Times Square, the film eschewed pat answers for the woman's motives, providing no religious or political background or even a name or ethnicity for the central character, which polarized critics and viewers who wanted a more traditional narrative for the story. "Day Night Day Night" went on to win the Youth Prize from the Directors Fortnight at Cannes in 2006, as well as the Someone to Watch Award from the Independent Spirit Awards. Her second film, "The Loneliest Planet" (2011), starred Gael Garcia Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as a couple traveling through the Eastern European country of Georgia whose relationship was put to the test by a sudden act of aggression. The feature captured the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 AFI Fest in Los Angeles before netting her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director. By Paul Gaita