3. Sam Mendes (American Beauty)
Sam Mendes is among a small collective of directors who have managed to secure themselves a Best Director Oscar win with their directorial debut, and it's little surprise why when the film in question is as smoothly controlled and riotously entertaining as American Beauty. To be fair to Mendes, his six films to date have on the whole been very good - Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road and Skyfall stand out, while Jarhead and Away We Go are lesser if still perfectly solid - but none of the follow-ups have quite managed to capture the same soul-jarring quality of American Beauty. Perhaps it's because American Beauty settles on a more universal theme than any of his other works, but it simply hits home easier, and is full of iconography that has been parodied countless times, where his other films (except Skyfall) don't enjoy the same status. Still, with Mendes rumoured to be tackling two more Bond films, there's always hope...