Bennett Miller

As a perfectionist who sometimes bordered on being obsessive, director Bennett Miller enjoyed taking his time between films, to the point of even rivaling idols Terrence Malick and Stanley Kubrick. His first project, the little-seen but much-acclaimed documentary "The Cruise" (1998), was released seven years prior to his next film, "Capote" (2005), a rich and atmospheric account of the famed author's foray into rural Kansas to cover a brutal quadruple murder that eventually became his classic novel, In Cold Blood. The film delivered star Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar for Best Actor, while Miller could lay claim to making one of the more auspicious film debuts in recent history. While in between projects, Miller helmed a number of commercials and returned to features six years later with "Moneyball" (2011), a critically acclaimed look at the scrappy Oakland As through the eyes of their pioneering general manager, Billy Beane. The film again earned widespread praise and pointed to an even brighter career ahead, no matter how prolific his output from year to year.