Quentin Tarantino

Before: Bratty motormouthed film-geek with buzzy indie heist movie Reservoir Dogs under his belt. Big in Europe.

At Cannes: Tarantino brought his second film, Pulp Fiction, to the festival in 1994, along with most of the film’s cast. Like Soderbergh, he nabbed the top prize, to the consternation of French cineastes and the particular fury of one boozed up and booing French lady in the audience.

After: The louche technicolour grunge of Pulp Fiction made Tarantino an instant cult figure, and he made hugely influential US indie films for the rest of the ‘90s, with a throng of brash copycats following in his wake.