This year feels like it will a big year for me and my constant, unfounded, need to consume more of the film canon. I want to take a more round about approach to it though. While I generally find myself watching any random movie day in day out for any number of incalculable reasons I tend to try and find some specific segment of film history to bite deep into. I did the Blindspots for a couple of years and I even tried to follow the 1001 Films You Should See Before You Die list (I should look at that again and see what I’ve knocked off the list in the last few years).

This year however it’ll get bigger, but not necessarily better. This year I’ve picked 12 filmmakers that I have minimal interaction with over the years that I want to start getting to know better. Some I’ve seen a film or two, others I’ve seen none at all. You will see the list of nominees below.

If you look closely I’ve tried to make my list as varied as possible. Some are filmmakers from the silent era, some are from Europe, Asia, some work primarily in animation and it continues. I may not have decided on all the films from each filmmaker that I’m going to track down but my hope is that I will watch at least 4 films from each (averaging out to a film a week for the entire year). I’ll try to have a end of month post where I talk about what I feel about each director based on the films I’ve watched and from time to time I’ll write about a specific film I’m watching from that direction — though I promise nothing. So come along for the ride.

Frank Borzage
Claire Denis
Mira Nair
Buster Keaton
Michael Haneke
Pawel Pawlikowski
Mohsen Makhalbaf
Edward Yang
Xavier Dolan
Osamu Tezuka
Leos Carax
Orson Welles