For me, you've got to go a long way to beat Aronofsky - although it was released at the start of 2011, Black Swan is still a film that resonates strongly and that, for me, is the mark of great art. Aronofsky has effortlessly moved throught he gears since Pi, his atonol, dissonant debut - Black Swan follows The Wrestler as the work of an craftsman at the very height of his powers. I'm still gutted that we won't get to see his take on Wolverine. That particular project is certainly the worse for his absence.
So who did Lost in the Multiplex's writers vote for as their helmer of the year?
There was a tie for third place, so we'll take a Plexie and saw it half so that both Lynne Ramsay and David Fincher can share in the glory.
Ramsay knocked us out with We Need To Talk About Kevin, the suspense-heavy exploration of the relationship between a mother and her son. As a new father myself, this is a mightily uncomfortable watch but a film with huge power and the ability to shock. Ramsay handles the difficult subject matter with aplomb, and is without question one of the top five British directors working at the moment.
David Fincher was also given some tough subject matter to adapt - mostly because the icy cold Swedish take on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo had already been made rather successfully. Noomi Rapace might have derided the American necessity to strip the film of its subtitles and insert star power, but she was too hasty in doing so - Fincher, so good in these kinds of movies, draws out an outstanding performance from newcomer Rooney Mara and even gets Daniel Craig to add on a few pre-Bond pounds. The film is slick and incessantly watchable - I was lucky enough to be invited to the premiere (Rooney - what on earth were you wearing?) and it isn't often that the film lives up to the occasion - this time, it did. I'm very keen to see the next film in the trilogy, not least because I haven''t read Stieg Larsson's book.
In a clear second place comes Terrence Malick. He might only make a film once every ten years, but those films are certainly worth the wait. Tree of Life, so trippy and fanciful on the page, comes to life as a moving cosmological family saga - surely the first and only entry in that particular genre. Malick almost goads the audience with a deliberate, glacial pacing but for those who are prepared to settle in and let his work wash over them, a real treat lies in store. It is quite unique: profound, idiosyncratic, complex, sincere and magical; above it all is Malick's painterly direction, proving once and for all that he has the eye, and the artistic temperment, of a great master.
That brings us to the winner of the first annual Plexie for Best Director and it wasn't really all that close - step forward Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive. I'm not a fan of Refn's last film, Bronson - all mouth, no trousers if you ask me - but Drive was something else. Not so much 
a gear up from his previous films, more a supercharged slamming of the nitrous oxide. Ryan Gosling (and we will be hearing more of him anon) is just superb as the eponymous hero, but this isn't a role that demands him in the way that, say, he was pushed in Blue Valentine. This is a film about surface - about shiny cars, long stretches of open asphalt, arterial blood, neon reflecting off glass, the way Joan from Mad Men has her head splashed all over a mirror. It is a massive boys' film (that gils will love), a love letter to 70s cinema explained much more eloquently by our own Andy than I could ever manage. Refn deserves pleasure for turning in a love letter to a different age of film without ever crossing over into pastiche. Effortlessly watchable, as smooth as silk and one of the better films of the year - I can't wait to see what he does next.
Up next: The Plexie for Best Actress of 2011.
