Diablo Cody
"Juno" was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (which she shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).
Dario Argento
Argento began work on his directorial debut, the giallo film "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", which was released in 1970 and was a major hit in Italy. Argento continued to concentrate largely on the giallo genre, directing two more successful thrillers, "The Cat o' Nine Tails" (1971) and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" (1972). Along with "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", these three films are frequently referred to as Argento's "Animal Trilogy". The director then turned his attention away from giallo movies, filming two Italian TV dramas and a period comedy ("The Five Days") in 1973. Argento returned to thrillers with 1975's "Deep Red", frequently cited by many critics as the best giallo ever made. The film made Argento famous internationally and inspired a number of other directors to work in the genre (John Carpenter has frequently referred to the influence Argento's early work had on "Halloween").