Pixoos · CC BY-SA 4.0

Taika Waititi built What We Do in the Shadows from a low-budget mockumentary short into a franchise spanning film and television, then took the sensibility to blockbuster scale directing Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder. In Jojo Rabbit (2019), which he wrote, directed and starred in as a child's imaginary-friend version of Adolf Hitler, he turned satire into an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. His early short Two Cars, One Night earned an Oscar nomination before he'd made a feature, and he has since won a BAFTA and a Grammy and been named one of Time's 100 most influential people.