Olivier Babinet
Multi-talented TV/feature/short film/documentary writer and director Olivier Babinet burst onto the music video scene with his distinctly Dadaist "Silliguri" for Mathieu Boogaerts, a RESFEST favorite from last year. Since signing to Irène, Paris in January 2006 for worldwide rep the 34-year-old has helmed a darkly surreal, theatrical exploration of set-piece surrealism for J&B Hotels, blending keen art direction and kooky casting to unnervingly comic effect. He's not averse to tackling more palatable fare, with charming, in-camera whimsies for Internet providers Bol.com, Peugeot and Belgacom that echo the hand-made work of fellow countrymen Gondry and Bardou-Jacquet. EW

Tony Barry
As Ol' Blue Eyes might've sung, it was a very good year for Tony Barry, with his cute and clever XFM "Roadies" racking up wins at the BTAAs and a spot for the London native in Saatchi's New Directors Showcase at Cannes. (Oh, and he was also a finalist for the 2007 First Boards Awards.) Coming to directing while employed as a creative at Clemmow Hornby Inge (he also had CD gigs at Wieden + Kennedy and Lowe), his comedic touch eschews heavy-handedness for sophistication, as seen in MTV "Idiots", BSM "Hoodies" and Asda "George". The 41-year-old, formerly with Hungry Man, is repped by Academy Films in the UK, Muniz Management in the US and The Corner Store for Canada. BW

Bert & Bertie
The team of Bert & Bertie consists of director/producers Amber Templemore-Finlayson and Katie Ellwood. While their bio would have us believe they sport facial hair, Boards met them in Cannes and can categorically state that that's not the case. They enjoy blurring lines such as the one between fantasy and reality in their short film Phobias, a darkly surreal, comical look at socially-crippling disorders. With backgrounds in writing (Ellwood worked on the screenplay for PlayStation 2's The Getaway) and production (Finlayson won a BAFTA for the short film Antonio's Breakfast), the duo, repped by Rokkit, London, is working on the follow-up to Phobias, a love story called Taxidermist. CC

Conkerco
Conkerco's penchant for exploring the possibilities found in blending live action and high-end animation is best seen in their short film, Marjorie Daw. In it, an entire city and its populace is repeatedly shifted back and forth, the result of being situated on a see-saw manipulated by the eerie protagonist. The work of Chris Rule and Ben White is similarly about manipulating environments and people to sweeping (BBC Digital "BBC Faces"), whimsical (Ikea "Dinner's Ready") and dramatic (Live Earth "Exhausting the Environment") effect. The duo is repped by Academy for the UK, Muniz Management for the US, Irène in France, Cobblestone in Germany and The Corner Store in Canada. CC

Ben Dickinson
Hailing from the "anonymous Midwest", Dickinson uprooted in 1999 to study film at NYU. After graduation, he looked up several school peeps, including occasional co-directors Jon Watts and Jake Schreier, to start Waverly Films. He's helmed gritty, kinetic vids for The Juan McLean, Supersystem and The Rapture, with the latter's "Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh-Huh" earning an MVPA nomination for Best Pop Video. This year, his lo-fi space odyssey for LCD Soundsystem's "North American Scum" got a nomination at the CADS. Currently with RSA's Black Dog, his spot work ranges from promos for MTV2 and VH1 to hilarious work for Absolut ("Gay" and "Valentine", co-directed by Schreier). BW

Harold Einstein
Acclaimed former creative Harold Einstein counts on his CV stints at agencies including DDB, Wieden + Kennedy, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and BBDO that have garnered him a host of awards for clients including FedEx, Apple, Guinness, HP, Doritos and Sprint. He hit his directing stride from the get-go with his short film debut Eulogy For Jack. Matching a moving central performance with effective shot choices, it saw him sign with Hungry Man in June. He's proved himself remarkably adept at the classic US comedy work that Hungry Man's roster personifies: top casting, pitch-perfect comedy timing and a fine-tuned sense of the absurd (FedEx "Whee", Sprint "Leonard", "Joy"). EW

Saam Farahmand
It's tempting to brand Saam Farahmand as some sort of 'It' boy for the music video world (there, we did it). Not only have his five videos for The Klaxons helped inform the so-called new rave aesthetic that's overcome the world's major fashion centers, but this ex-MTV staffer and live stage visualist's typically unpredictable new promos are always hotly discussed and dissected online. Recent standouts include the minimal black-and-blue effort for UnkleJam, "What Am I Fighting For?" and the lurid hipster girl make out-fest, "Hustler", for Simian Mobile Disco. Since signing to Partizan for video rep in 2004, the 28-year-old has managed to tailor an instantly recognizable glam aesthetic to suit the bands he works with - not the other way around. KR

Sophie Gateau
As a graphic artist, Sophie Gateau has cut her teeth on top-tier feature projects such as The Matrix Reloaded and Wong Kar-Wai's sumptuous 2046. As a spot and video director, she's effortlessly mixed visual effects and live action in deftly technical spots such as "Cube", a PSA for the British Columbia provincial government in which the daily lives of children are mixed and matched on a giant Rubik's Cube. Earlier this year, she collaborated with fellow Paranoid US director François Vogel, to create the blob character Mr. Néant, the star of a richly-animated music video project for Coca-Cola called "Faithless and Paranoid." KR

Johnny Green
A veteran production designer about London with a Masters in theatre design, 39-year-old Johnny Green's first foray into spot direction was the captivating 90-second "Satellite" for Audi. In an era when attention spans are practically non-existent, Green is able to spin compelling and sharply-focused narratives from the images he assembles - whether it's explaining the number of patents Audi has filed, paying tribute to New Zealand's All Blacks rugby team for adidas or telling a story about child gymnasts for The Discovery Channel. In a visually cluttered ad genre, Green is a decisive storyteller. He is repped in the UK by Knucklehead and In House Reps for the US West Coast. KR

Jonas & Francois
French art students Jonas&François surfaced on ad land's radar in May when they brought illustrator So Me's t-shirt designs to life in "D.A.N.C.E.", a music video for French DJ duo Justice. A combination of slick technical work and punchy visual humor, "D.A.N.C.E." nabbed an MTV Video Music Award nom. In June, the 24-year-olds were included in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes and they've re-created the rotoscoping magic for hip-hop diva Kanye West [see Playlist page 11]. With a good number of animated record label promos and videos under their belt, next up for the duo is completing their video art program at L'École Nationale Supérieur Des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. They're repped worldwide by Soixan7e Quin5e. KR

Nicolas Kasakoff
Life's awkward moments may have a humor all on their own, but it takes a deft touch to hit the right pauses, get the right performances and make the everyman humor of toilet jokes (Fox Sports "Smell") and getting hit by stuff (Energizer "Immortal") feel fresh. In Argentine Nicolas Kasakoff's varied career, which has seen him go from freelance graphic designer to agency creative (Agulla & Baccetti, Buenos Aires) to Nunchaku Cine co-founder/director, his penchant for comedy has graced brands like Burger King, Coca-Cola and recently, MTV ("Give Me an M!") and 1882 (see Spotopsy page 16) and amassed several awards, including Cannes Gold and Silver Lions, two D&AD Yellow Pencils and Gold and Bronze Clios. Up next: his first feature, Viedma. CC

Minivegas
Minivegas have been developing their "specialisms" since the collective (Luc Schurgers, Aoife McArdle, Chris Wood and newcomers Grant White and Dan Lewis) met in 2000 as Master's students at Bournemouth University. Judging by their spot and music video work - 3D and 2D animation, CGI, motion graphics and live action - that neologism is also apt to describe their mix of inventiveness and tech-savvy. While spots like the Clio-award winning viral campaign for Nissan ("QashQai Car Games") use visual effects to enthrall, those effects can also be used to appall, as in Live 8 "Boy", depicting the rapid deterioration of a starving child - proof of their ability to balance strong storytelling with their technical skills. The collective is repped by Independent. CC

Kris Moyes
As music video budgets continue to dry up, the production world is going to need more inventive directors like Kris Moyes. Unsigned for more than two years, the 28-year-old finally found a home at The Directors Bureau (for US and UK spot and video rep). Since then, he hasn't stopped working. Moyes first gained notoriety in 2005 when he defaced and re-released a ho-hum performance video he'd shot for Wolfmother. In the past year, he's tested the endurance of pop starlet Sia with "Buttons", the year's only autoerotic asphyxiation-referencing clip (that Boards has seen, anyway) and upped the ante for 'visual lyrics' vids with the ingenious "Heart Made of Sound" for The Softlightes. In Australia and Asia, Moyes is repped by Revolver Film, Sydney. KR

Pistachios
Parting company with a successful directing team like Stylewar to go it alone can be a dangerous move, but animator par extraordinaire, Pistachios, aka 30-year-old Swede Mäns Swanberg has pulled it off with aplomb. His early work is inventive and varied, including a hyper-realistic all CG music video for GE996, stark, monochromatic videos for the Hives (with Stylewar) and lush illustration for The Concretes. More recently, he's moved into spots, creating darkly humorous stop-motion fish and vegetable idents for MTV, breathing expressive life into single brushstrokes for Budweiser's "Crowntown" and faux naïf line drawn scrawls for Partnership For A Drug Free America. He signed to Psyop-run animation hot house Blacklist in June 2006 for worldwide rep. EW

Rosey
Adam "Rosey" Rosenblatt's directing career comes as the result of years on set. The Cal Berkeley political economy/film grad's first job was in the camera department for Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Ten years on he's worked on jobs for a veritable who's-who of spot directors, including Spike Jonze, Dayton/Faris, Tom Kuntz, Rupert Sanders, and Lance Acord. He's built his reel with hilarious spec spots for various products including Boddingtons and snack Pay Day (which won an AICE award), and had stints with The Joneses and Group 101 Spots. Now with @radical.media, he's recently shot jobs for Applebee's out of McCann, New York and for Virgin Mobile out of BWM, Australia. BW

Jonnie Ross
He got a hug from Bill Clinton after receiving the 1997 Presidential Scholar in the Arts award as a grad from Baltimore's Carver Center for Arts and Technology, and an internship at Sundance Filmmaker's lab. It all set Jonnie Ross (repped by Smuggler in the US, Stink in the UK) on his way to crafting charming, unsettling and experimental music videos for Belle & Sebastian, Menomena and Muse. MTV2 idents ("Sleepdance," "My Humps") show his ability to use effects or elicit performances that visually excite. It hasn't gone unnoticed. He won a silver Cube at this year's Art Directors Club Awards for MTV2 and best picture for short The Yearbook at last year's Chicago Really Short Film Festival. CC

Edouard Salier
With his 2005 short film Flesh, a CG reinterpretation of 9/11 featuring Sapphic porn stars reflected off the World Trade Center, Paranoid's Edouard Salier showed his mettle for crafting strong images that raise complex and provocative questions. That commitment to visual storytelling followed the design-oriented director into spots and music videos with work such as the epic red-and-white palette of "Signature" for Smirnoff, the old-school Hollywood cut-out aesthetic of "C6" for Citroën and the frenetic visuals of Orisha's "Hay Un Son". Having had his short films screened at festivals worldwide, including RESFEST and Sundance, Salier is currently preparing for his first feature film. CC

Hi Sim
Hi Sim is London-based fledgling directing duo Chuen Hung Tsang and Chris Hawkes. Tsang, a moving image and print graphics grad, and Hawkes, a computer science grad, met at Bristol design house Big Squid. Their first video, "Frangipani Fumes & Cosmetics" for Bristol-based band Leave Land for Water, is a B&W animated origami journey that was picked up by RESFEST. That brought them to the attention of RSA, who signed them earlier this year. Their short "Forlorn" for Live Earth is a masterfully crafted ode to man's destructive tendencies, blending quirky yet slick, high-end animation with an uncharacteristic warmth and a visceral, engaging and truly suspenseful narrative. EW

Terri Timely
San Franciscans Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey, upon first meeting at UC Berkeley, shared a love for both filmmaking and music. They shot short films individually, and formed a band, Terribly Timely and the Fashionably Late. While we'll never know the heights they might've hit musically, we can be thankful that they're now a directorial team, currently repped by Furlined in the US - and that they shortened the name. Stints as creatives at Toy, New York and Apple have honed their ad chops, as evidenced in spot work helmed for Amazon.com and Converse. The team's rep for directing music videos is strong thanks to visually arresting clips for the likes of Joanna Newsom and The Wrens. BW

Koichiro Tsujikawa
Talk to anyone in Tokyo's design and graphics scene and one name will keep popping up - Koichiro Tsujikawa. Beginning as a graphic designer, he moved to directing in 1999. Today, the 35-year-old is practically a legend in music video circles for his work with Cornelius shot with Tokyo prodco Spoon, including the hypnotic "Like a Rolling Stone". Repped internationally by Creative Hybrid in Japan, he's shot over 30 commercials since 2002 in Japan for brands such as Toyota and Sapporo. This year, his first US job, Smirnoff Source's "Whoo Alright" through JWT, New York, emerged, marrying dancing water droplets to The Rapture's post-rock. A short film and more Cornelius work are on the way. BW