#1 - WES ANDERSON

Bolstered by the support of veteran director James L. Brooks and producer Polly Platt, Wes Anderson attained a status in the late 1990s that most young filmmakers only dream of achieving--he proved that he could work within the Hollywood studio system and still create distinctive, willfully quirky films infused with an independent sensibility.

Anderson's masterpiece, Rushmore, was completed in 1998. Critics gave the film an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception: by the time it opened in wide release in February, 1999, Premiere magazine had called Rushmore the best film of the year, and co-star Bill Murray had already been named Best Supporting Actor by both the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Associations, as well as the National Film Critics Society. A bittersweet coming-of-age tale about an underachieving but ambitious-to-a-fault teen, played with gusto by then unknown Jason Schwartzman, the film scored points for its wry, deadpan sense of humor and inventive visuals. Anderson drew from sources as disparate as Murmur of the Heart, Charles Schultz's Peanuts cartoons, and Meatballs, giving the proceedings a giddy absurdity without ever losing genuine compassion for his characters. Easily the most original and creative movie of the 1990s, Rushmore quickly established a cult following the likes of which had not been seen since the time of the Evil Dead movies. Despite the orgy of positive reviews and Touchstone studios' aggressive marketing campaign, however, the director's second feature failed to resonate with mainstream audiences who may have been expecting a laugh-a-minute Murray vehicle. Worse yet, when Academy Awards nominations were announced in mid-February, Murray was passed over in favor of actors in more traditionally high-minded roles.

Still, Anderson's ardent fans--including director Martin Scorsese, who listed Bottle Rocket as one of his 10 favorite movies of the 1990s--eagerly awaited his 2001 effort. Titled The Royal Tenenbaums, the J.D. Salinger-inspired tale revolved around a loose-knit, oddly-dressed, super-intellectual Manhattan family, and reunited some of the cast of Rushmore with a new phalanx of stars including Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, and Gene Hackman. Given a careful platform release by Touchstone, the film garnered enough critical praise and positive word-of-mouth to rally over $50 million dollars in box office receipts--more than three times that of Rushmore--proving perhaps that the public had finally come around to Anderson's uniquely skewed worldview. At the very least, the members of the Academy had: In February, 2002, Anderson and Wilson garnered a Best Original Screenplay nomination for their multi-character opus.

What's next for the quirky and highly imaginative Anderson? The Life Acquatic with Steve Zissou will be released nationwide on December 25th. The film follows the internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew--Team Zissou--as they set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly non-existant Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure.