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