The world is full of talented filmmakers: creative, innovative, and inspiring. And then there are the talented filmmakers, those who seem to launch these attributes into the stratosphere with everything that they produce, constantly pushing the boundaries of cinema as we know it. If that sounds like hyperbole, then maybe that's okay; cinema is all about being bold, and the best and bravest filmmakers deserve to be feverishly recognised. So for every unnecessary remake, sequel and "re-imagining" (ugh: the worst) that finds its way into the world via some hack, there's another person out there waiting with an antidote - a film that actually means something, that dares to tell a proper story, and doesn't resort to explosions and wacky cameos and scenes where lots of cars crash into each other. And it's the following 25 directors - the best in the business - who are consistently offering up slices of fried cinematic gold. These are the directors who - against the odds - manage to produce works that actually matter. That doesn't mean they're all high-brow musings on existentialism; just that their films have been made with respect for the audience. It's thanks to the frequent efforts of these guys that modern cinema continues to thrive. To qualify for inclusion, then, a director had to have made a movie in the last three years, and cannot have recently announced themselves as being "retired" (sorry Hayao Miyazaki and Steven Soderbergh - you guys ruled yourselves out)...