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Like it or not, filmmaking is undeniably a director's medium. It wasn't always like that, of course: it was only the coming of the auteur theory in the 1950s and 1960s that popularized the idea of the director as the person responsible for all that was great and terrible about a picture. And while anyone who's worked in film knows that it's a collaborative medium, there's still no better way of seeing where the form might be going in the next few years than by looking at the directors who've been making splashes of late.

So, hot on the heels of our On The Rise pieces focusing on actors, actresses and screenwriters, we've picked out ten directors who've arrived in a big way in the last year or so, and look set for even greater things in the near future. Any tips of your own? Let us know in the comments section below.

The main reason I've gathered you here today is to show you this short film entitled Lazy Teenage Superheroes. You know I'm prone to ramble sometimes, and I don't want you to get bored and wander away before you get to the video. So go ahead, watch the film. It's about 13 minutes long. I'll wait.

That's pretty great, right? Sure, fine, the acting is rather painful and the dialogue fails to wow, but the effects are fairly nifty considering that the budget was $300. Three Hundred Clams? I have shoes that cost more. Frankly, I'd prefer to see more of this than I would any number of comic book adaptations currently in the works. (Especially since X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn described his film as having "a lot of teenage angst. The Twilight girls will like it." Oh, lord.)

Short films are such an interesting medium, the provenance of film students and wanna be auteurs.

It's time again to note the landing of a new Wholphin, number ten this time in the biannual subscription series from Dave Eggers' McSweeney's mill, and now more than ever it seems a vital project, even as our free time becomes increasingly consumed by watching and sharing viral "shorts" on YouTube.

Actually, what often spurs YouTube popularity isn't so far from the aesthetic-ironic rationales employed by Wholphin -- aside from newsworthiness and blooper moments and stupid people tricks, the genuine viral videos that catch on can have an odd, otherworldly sense of amazement to them, showing you something real that you never thought you'd see. Wholphin does better than that, of course, curating with not only the Omg factor in mind, but also duration, real wit and the amazement that can come with new visual perspectives. But there's also a rabid hunger at work for what's brand new not...

Spike Jonze may be busy putting the finishing touches on Where The Wild Things Are but he's found time to nip out of the post-production studio to pick up the rights to novel Light Boxes.Light Boxes, the debut novel by New York writer Shane Jones, has a quirky, surreal, Jonze-ian feel: it's set in a town beseiged by a malevolent godlike being called February, which, like its calendar namesake, pitches the place into perpetual winter, and has as its protagonist a balloonist called Thaddeus. Think Alice In Wonderland meets The Road with a script draft by Michael Fish.Light Boxes sees Jonze returns to bean-counting duties as producer, with Ray Tintori (Death To The Tinman) directing. Like Jonze, Tintori cut his teeth making music videos, with promos for Mgmt, The Killers and Chairlift on his CV.No word yet on the setting for Light Boxes' wintry city (although if...

24-year-old Ray Tintori, directed Death To The Tinman as his undergraduate thesis film for Wesleyan University's Film Studies program. Highly inspired by Wes Anderson and Guy Maddin, the 12-minute black and white short film is a very loose adaptation of the origin story of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. The short tells the story of a human lumberjack who is transformed into a metal man without a heart. "Tintori transported the story's basic premise to a surreal, rural 1940s South, replacing Oz magic with evangelical mysticism; pastors, congregations, and the Rapture replace flying monkeys and witches melting upon contact with water." The short premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it received an Honorable Mention for Short Filmmaking. It also played in the South by Southwest Film Festival and New York Film Festival. Tintori has gone on to a successful career directing music videos, working with Mgmt,...

For the second consecutive year, the Sundance Institute will partner with art house cinemas nationwide to present specialized screening programs of films that have played the Sundance Film Festival.

Under the banner of the Sundance Institute Arthouse Project, which was inaugurated last year, the film series will play theaters in 12 cities.

Each of the participating venues will design a customized Sundance screening series for its local community, drawing from films that have played the Sundance fest -- some of which are still seeking distribution -- as well as films supported by the Sundance Institute.

This year, the local programs will include a specially selected series of short films from the 2007 fest: Death to the Tinman, directed by Ray Tintori; Peace Talk, Jennifer Malmqvist; King, Caran Hartsfield; Salt Kiss, Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa; God Provides, Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzsky; Everything Will Be OK, Don Hertzfeldt; and Happiness, Sophie Barthes.

The participating theaters and film programs are Belcourt Theatre in Nashville; Broadway Center Cinemas in Salt Lake City, Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass., Enzian Theater in Orlando, International Film Series in Boulder, Colo., Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, N.Y., Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Mich., Oklahoma City Museum of Art in Oklahoma City, Pickford Cinema in Bellingham, Wash., Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, Calif., Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Mo., and Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, Maine.

• The 2007 Sundance Film Festival Award-Winners are: The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary:Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) - Jason Kohn The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic:Padre Nuestro - Christopher ZallaThe World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary Enemies Of Happiness (Vores Lykkesfjender) - Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem. The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic:sweet Mud (Adama Meshugaat) Dror Shaul The Audience Award: Documentary: Hear And Now Irene Taylor BrodskyThe Audience Award: Dramatic:Grace Is Gone James C. StrouseThe World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary In The Shadow Of The Moon David SingtonThe World Cinema Audience Award: DramaticJohn Carney ONCEThe Directing Award: Documentary - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine War/Dance The Directing Award: Dramatic Jeffrey Blitz - Rocket ScienceThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Dramatic: Benoit Debie for JoshuaThe Excellence in Cinematography Awards – Documentary: Heloisa Passos for Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)Documentary Editing Award: Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillian, and Michael Schweitzer

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