That Whole Next Generation Thing

There was this moment in the early 90s when all sorts of new American filmmakers emerged onto the scene - Soderbergh, David O'Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alexander Payne, Quentin Tarantino, Gus Van Sant, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, Bryan Singer, Todd Solondz, Whit Stillman, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Sophia Coppola - there are more, but you get the idea. Combined with the 70s generation, these guys make up the list of the auteur filmmakers we commonly think of when we think "filmmaker." But there seemed to be a gap forming. Rushmore was almost 15 years ago and that was the tail end of the first films by this generation. So is there a new generation out there?

The two filmmakers than come to mind of a new generation - my generation - would be David Gordon Green and Jason Reitman. There are others emerging in different ways at different rates - but throw in Rian Johnson, Neill Blomkamp, the Duplass Brothers, Josh Trank, Lena Dunham, David Michod, Jason Segal (not directing, but he seems to be shepherding projects now), Jody Hill, maybe include Diablo Cody, Liz Meriweather. I don't know if you can connect this crew in the way the 1990s were connected with Sundance, Miramax, and Focus or the way the 70s were connected by film school, Corman, and the influence of the European auteurs, but it does strike me that David Gorden Green is no longer this single example of a young auteur and Jason Reitman is no longer just Ivan Reitman's possibly-talented son. I don't know what connects this generation other than a fluidity with TV and Movies that didn't exist in the prior generations (David GG and Eastbound and Down, Lena Dunham from Sundance to HBO, Jason Segal from Freaks and Geeks to Muppets, Mark Duplass from Puffy Chair to The League), but it does strike me that "new" voices are emerging onto the scene or at the very least, are being marketed that way.