Bong Joon Ho’s directorial debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite, came out in 2000. Twenty years later, Parasite, which he directed and co-wrote, won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Not a bad way to spend 20 years in the business. Bong is already thinking about his next feature, but Sight and Sound magazine recently asked him to pick “20 emerging directors whose work he believes will be pivotal to the next 20 years.” In other words, who will be the next Bong Joon Ho?
“The year is 2020, a number that belongs to a sci-fi film in itself. I do not wish to summon these 20 directors for the sake of discussing the future of cinema. I simply wish to discuss the films they have already created,” he writes in the introduction. Bong then listed some of his favorite current filmmakers, including Jordan Peele (Get Out and Us), Robert Eggers (The Witch and The Lighthouse), and Alma Har’el (Honey Boy).
He also mentioned Bi Gan (his Long Day’s Journey into Night has a nearly hour-long unbroken shot); Francis Lee (if you liked Chris Evans’ sweater in Knives Out, wait until you see the sweaters in God’s Own Country); Ari Aster (he’s to blame for your Hereditary nightmares); and The Rider director Chloé Zhao, who was picked by Marvel Studios to helm The Eternals. Bong will never direct a Marvel movie, but he’s excited for one!
To read the full Sight and Sound list, click here.
