10 Best Films By 2013's Most Highly Praised Directors

8. Steve McQueen - 12 Years A Slave

McQueen has directed the little-seen indie features Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008), both starring Michael Fassbender, and both bearing the hallmarks of a video artist. This makes sense, since he is primarily a student of fine arts and earned a degree in that medium in England before transferring to film. Hunger in particular sometimes feels like a play, with long, steady takes lasting over ten minutes at a clip. Shame contains some of these as well -- (remember the heated debate between Fassbender and Carey Mulligan on the couch, where the camera is trained on the backs of their heads?) -- but by that film McQueen had further developed his filmic lexicon. He applies it fully in 12 Years a Slave, his best work by far, and a movie with an epic cinematic vocabulary, including Sean Bobbitt's opulent cinematography, a host of staggering performances, and a narrative that is gut-wrenching and unforgettable. Though I daresay this was not the best film of the year (and 2013 was an especially good one), it is nothing if not a startling accomplishment from one of cinema's best emerging filmmakers.