Michael Sragow (born 26 June 1952) is a film critic and columnist who has written for The Baltimore Sun, The New Times, The New Yorker (where he worked with Pauline Kael), The Atlantic and salon.com. Sragow also edited James Agee's film essays (for the book Agee on Film), and has written or contributed to several other cinema-related books.

Sragow attended New York University and Harvard University, where he majored in history and literature. Sragow began his career at Boston Magazine, and went on to become the film critic for Rolling Stone Magazine. From 1985-1992, he was the lead film critic for The San Francisco Examiner. Commencing in 1999, he was a film critic for salon.com, and commencing in 2001, he has been a film critic for The Baltimore Sun.

In 2008, Sragow published a biography of director Victor Fleming; in his review, John Gallagher writes that Sragow's biography, "restores the director to his rightful place in film history and popular culture. It’s a fantastic read, assiduously researched, using primary archival resources and a full complement of remembrances from Fleming’s family and colleagues."

Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Gone with the Wind (1939), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen (née Hartman) and William Alonzo "Lon" Fleming, who worked in the water industry in Pasadena. His mother was of part German descent. Fleming served in the photographic section during World War I, and acted as chief photographer for President Woodrow Wilson in Versailles, France. He showed a mechanical aptitude early in life; while working as a car mechanic he met the director Allan Dwan, who took him on as a camera assistant. Fleming soon rose to the rank of cinematographer, working with both Dwan and D. W. Griffith, and directed his first film in 1919.

Many of Fleming's silent films were action movies, often starring Douglas Fairbanks, or Westerns, and with his robust attitude and love of outdoor sports he became known as a "man's director". But he also proved an effective director of women. Under his direction, Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar, Hattie McDaniel won for Best Supporting Actress, and Ingrid Bergman was nominated.

Miklós Rózsa (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmikloːʃ ˈroːʒɒ]) (18 April 1907 – 27 July 1995) was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany (1925 – 1931), and active in France (1931 – 1935), England (1935 – 1940), and the United States (1940 – 1995), with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953. Famous for his nearly one hundred film scores, he nevertheless maintained a steadfast allegiance to absolute concert music throughout what he called his "double life."

Rózsa achieved early success in Europe with his orchestral Theme, Variations, and Finale (Op. 13) of 1933 and became prominent in the film industry from such early scores as The Four Feathers (1939) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). The latter project brought him to America when production was transferred from wartime Britain, and Rózsa remained in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1946. His notable Hollywood career earned him considerable fame, including Academy Awards for Spellbound (1945), A Double Life (1947), and Ben-Hur (1959), while his concert works were championed by such major artists as Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, and János Starker.

Guy Maddin, OM (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His most distinctive quality is his penchant for recreating the look and style of silent or early sound era films which has solidified his popularity and acclaim in alternative film circles.

While Maddin strives to recreate the styles and moods of early film melodramas, Weimar Republic German silent films, and 1920s Soviet agit-prop, his own personal style lies in his use of clichés, psychosexual situations, bizarre stories and humour. Reminiscent of the early work of American director David Lynch, it is this self-conscious and surreal merging of early film-making techniques with a post-modern sensibility that give Maddin's films a style referred to as "Ultra-Conformist" or "Anti-Progressive".^{[citation needed]} Assistance from provincial and national Arts Councils as well as the Winnipeg Film Group aid in Maddin's pursuit in the making of his films.

Ramin Bahrani (born March 20, 1975) is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert listed Bahrani's film Chop Shop as the 6th best film of the decade and hailed Bahrani as "the director of the decade." Bahrani was the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, and was the subject of several international retrospectives including the MoMA in New York City, Harvard University, and the La Rochelle Film Festival in France.

Bahrani was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Iranian parents. He received his BA from Columbia University in New York City. His first feature film, Man Push Cart (2005), premiered at the Venice Film Festival (2005) and screened at the Sundance Film Festival (2006). The film won over 10 international prizes, was released theatrically around the world, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards.

Bahrani's second film Chop Shop (2007) premiered at the 2007 Director's Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival, and then screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (2007) and the Berlin International Film Festival (2008) before being released theatrically to wide and universal critical acclaim. Bahrani was awarded the prestigious 2007 Someone to Watch Independent Spirit Award. In 2008, he was nominated for Best Director Independent Spirit Award.