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1. The Coen Brothers
nNo winners of the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize have forged a career distinguished enough to match the duo who won it in Year 1. Joel and Ethan Coen’s noirish thriller Blood Simple took the top prize in 1985, when the festival was known as the U.S. Film Festival. The career that followed led to the brothers receiving three Oscars, including Best Picture for No Country for Old Men last year. Their films include screwball comedy, hard-boiled dialogue and a distinguished visual sheen, whether they’re essential film-school viewing (Fargo, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing), popular favorites (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona) or cult classics (The Big Lebowski). (JM) n

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2. Quentin Tarantino
nTarantino’s voice as a writer/director is so distinct that countless imitators have tried—and failed—to emulate it. He followed his 1992 Sundance debut Reservoir Dogs with Pulp Fiction, the film that defined its decade. Tarantino’s style reflects his love for violent, low-budget exploitation films, but his smart writing and direction make his work more interesting than the movies to which he pays homage. Despite reports of his chaotic working process, including unwieldy screenplays and extended production schedules, Tarantino’s final product usually suggests that he knew exactly what he was doing all along. (JM) n

3. Steven Soderbergh
nIf Soderbergh (pictured left) rapidly raised Sundance’s stature in 1989 with sex, lies and videotape, it took several more years for him to define his own career. Much of his 1990s output was uncommercial and off-the-radar, but his mainstream versatility started to show in 1998’s crime comedy Out of Sight, which also upped George Clooney’s credibility as a movie actor. Soderbergh works quickly, and refuses to limit himself. You never know if he’ll direct a New Wave-throwback like The Limey or a piece of Hollywood fluff like Ocean’s Eleven. He isn’t afraid to experiment, even if the result may be disastrous critically and/or commercially (Full Frontal). But when he’s not baffling Hollywood, he can become its darling with films like Traffic and Erin Brockovich, which both earned Best Director Oscar nominations in 2000; he won for Traffic. (JM) n

4. Richard Linklater
nHe may not have gathered as many awards as others on this list, but since Slacker debuted at Sundance in 1991, Linklater has quietly constructed a venerable filmography. He made two landmarks in independent animation, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly,Dazed and Confused, and made a pair of low-key masterpieces, Before Sunrise (1995) and its unlikely sequel Before Sunset (2004). As a screenwriter, Linklater is one of the best conversationalists at work today. His intelligent characters naturally discuss complex, interesting ideas. As a director, he effortlessly captures the big and little moments that define our lives. (JM) launched the careers of several young actors with n

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5. Michael Moore
nIn 1989, an opinionated documentarian with a sly sense of humor came to Sundance with a film about his attempt to interview General Motors Chairman Roger Smith on the plant closings that crippled his hometown of Flint, Mich. Roger & Me revealed Moore’s gift for making arguments through personal stories and delivering them with empathy and laughs. It soon became the highest-grossing documentary of all time, a feat Moore twice repeated with 2002’s Oscar-winning study of gun violence Bowling for Columbine and his 2004 attack on the Bush administration Fahrenheit 9/11 (still No. 1). Some love him—and just as many hate him—but he’s impossible to ignore. Many have won Oscars, but few can say they were booed during their acceptance speech. (JM)n

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