His debut feature, St. Nick, stirred waves in the American independent scene, and his follow-up, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints was a full-on country-noir masterpiece that catapulted Lowery onto the A-list and helped forge a fascinating collaborative relationship between the director and actors Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, all of whom have reunited for one of this year’s most highly-anticipated and innovative features, A Ghost Story. Outside his smaller work, though, Lowery has been moving up through the Disney ranks: last year he directed the live-action update of Pete’s Dragon and next on his slate he’s giving the same treatment to Peter Pan.