Question: What profession does Gus Van Sant and Shyam Benegal have in common?
Context: Elias Comfort McConnell (born 1985) is an American actor from Portland, Oregon.  In 2003 he played a character of the same name in Gus Van Sant's film "Elephant".  Three years later in 2006 he was cast in the role of Elie (segment "Le Marais") in the anthology film "Paris, Je t'aime" which had 22 different directors.  In 2008 Elias played a small role as "Telephone Tree #8" in the Gus Van Sant directed biographical film "Milk".  Followed closely by his 2009 role as "Young Hippy Boy" (Elias Comfort) in Jean-Claude Schlim's Luxembourgian-German drama film ""House of Boys"".  Elias has an upcoming role in the Kevin Foong film "Casting Room" (2012) which is currently in post-production.  Elias McConnell is now living in Brooklyn, New York. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is a 1993 American romantic comedy-drama film based on Tom Robbins' 1976 novel of the same name.  The film was directed by Gus Van Sant (credited as Gus Van Sant, Jr.) and starred an ensemble cast led by Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco, Angie Dickinson, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Keanu Reeves, John Hurt, and Rain Phoenix.  Robbins himself was the narrator.  The soundtrack was sung entirely by k.d. lang.  The film was dedicated to the late River Phoenix. Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician and author who has earned acclaim as both an independent and more mainstream filmmaker.  His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures, in particular homosexuality; as such, Van Sant is considered one of the most prominent auteurs of the New Queer Cinema movement. The 25th Filmfare Awards were held in 1978.  Shyam Benegal's "Bhumika" was named the Best Film of the year, starting a run where 3 films by Shyam Benegal won the Best Film award in 5 years.  Amitabh Bachchan won his first Best Actor award for his role in Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony. Gerry is a 2002 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, who also co-wrote the film with Van Sant.  It is the first film of Van Sant's "Death Trilogy", three films based on deaths that occurred in real life, and is succeeded by "Elephant" (2003) and "Last Days" (2005). Welcome to Sajjanpur is a 2008 Indian Hindi comedy film directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao in the lead roles.  The film is by noted Parallel cinema director, Shyam Benegal, marking his return to comedy after filming "Charandas Chor" (1975).  Even though Benegal is responsible for other films in the parallel cinema genre, this film was one of his mainstream Bollywood films.  It was a remake of the 1977 film "Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein". Drugstore Cowboy is a 1989 American crime drama film directed by the American filmmaker Gus Van Sant.  Written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost, and based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle, the film stars Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham and William S. Burroughs.  It was Van Sant's second film as director. Shyam Benegal (born 14 December 1934) is an Indian director and screenwriter.  With his first four feature films "Ankur" (1973), "Nishant" (1975), "Manthan" (1976) and "" (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India.  He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema.  Benegal was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991.  On 8 August 2007, Benegal was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005.  He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times. Ankur (Hindi: अंकुर, Urdu: اَنکُر, translation: "The Seedling") is an Indian colour film of 1974.  It was the first feature film directed by Shyam Benegal and the debut of Indian actors Ananth Nag and Shabana Azmi.  Ananth Nag was introduced in Ankur by Shyam Benegal after his higher education in Mumbai.  The film was shot in Hyderabad.  Though Shabana Azmi had acted in other films as well, "Ankur" was her first release. Shabana Azmi interview </ref> Kondura / Anugraham is a 1978 Indian bilingual film simultaneously directed by Shyam Benegal in Hindi and Telugu.  The film is based on the novel by Marathi writer, Chintamani T. Khanolkar [चिं.  त्र्यं.  खानोलकर] by the same name, the screen adaptation was made by Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad.  The majority of the cast was common to both films and included Ananth Nag, Vanisri, Amrish Puri, Shekhar Chatterjee (Hindi version only), Rao Gopal Rao (Telugu version only) and Satyadev Dubey.  The film was one of the Indian entries at the 4th Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Answer: director