ah which one ? <| sep |> This is a bit hard to determine as most previous ' influential ' films didn ' t become influential until at least a decade after their release . Are we expecting influence to lead to just imitation ? Also , I feel like some of these answers might just be listing off personal favorites . Then again , our favorite films do influence us to some degree . I ' d say Boyhood because of the filming processA lot of Emmanuel Lubezki ' s work among various directors I feel has already improved the attitude towards the usage of longer takes and inventive handheld . Gravity , The revenant , Children of Men , and Birdman were all critically acclaimed if not financially succesful at the box office . Wes Anderson isn ' t exactly revolutionary but his style works extremely well for the films he makes . I would say that he ' s a bit of a case though where you see more imitation than incorporation of his style , especially among indieaspiring filmmakers . Damien Chazelle Just a hunch but he might bring the musical musically oriented films back into popularity , or that just might become his brand as a filmmaker . Either way , really excited to see La La Land . Probably a lot of the classic Spielberg blockbusters .