by Matthew Crump, Staff Writer

I think I’m falling in love. Okay, yes, technically I am already in love with a wonderful man who celebrated v-day with me over a 2nd dose of Pfizer and some take-out nachos. Even so, while I personally am monogamy-leaning, I am also a firm believer in my own made-up theory that there are a vast array of different types of love.

We all know about the romantic type due to the gaudy, capitalistic, mass market branding it receives each year in the days leading up to February 14th. However, underneath the veneer of romantic love’s dominant narrative are, I believe, more complex forms of adoration. Maybe it’s as simple as romantic love v. platonic love but, in classic Matt Crump fashion, I am here to challenge yet another binary with the proposal of a new type: professional love.

I’ve only felt this a few times before. My first screenwriter crush was probably Diablo Cody, then last year I met Levan Akin, although my feelings for him might admittedly have given him grounds for a restraining order. But maybe I’m still getting ahead of myself here. While I try to unpack my emotions, take a minute to read a bit about this new director that’s currently got my heart a-flutter. I’ll do my best to keep it professional...

Oh DaCosta, DaCosta, wherefore art thou DaCosta? If that name doesn’t strike you as familiar, just wait a year or two. With not one, but two highly anticipated major motion pictures on the horizon, it’s very plausible that Nia DaCosta is going to be a household name.

Before all that though, we have to jump back to when the 31-year-old director was a 16-year-old boarding school student, pilfering through her dorm’s VHS tapes. Among the stacks, she found Apocalypse Now, along with an array of other influential 1970s cinema, and thus began her journey to the director’s chair.

DaCosta would go on to undergrad at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, afterwards pursuing a master’s in London at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In 2015 she was accepted into Sundance’s Screenwriter Lab program where she wrote a script that she would eventually go on to direct and, consequently, bring me to tears.

Little Woods (2018) is DaCosta’s first feature and that makes me really jealous. Set in North Dakota, the film tracks two sisters living in poverty who get tangled up in committing crimes across the Canadian border. Despite being a native New Yorker, DaCosta managed to tell an emotionally complex story on rural soil that resonated with my experience so deeply that I had to check my ID to remember if I was from North Carolina or North Dakota. All half-baked jokes aside, the beginning of DaCosta’s film career is already evidence that she has a knack for capturing universal, human truths on film.

“Something we are taught in film school is to write what you know, and I used to take that literally,” DaCosta said in an interview with IndieWire. “But I soon realized that what it meant to me was to write what I knew emotionally, because that’s how you connect with people who are completely unlike you and have different lived experiences.”

After just 5 minutes of watching Little Woods, I already felt extremely emotionally connected. And, apparently, I’m not the only one. Despite being securely destined for the indie market (and now currently streaming on Hulu!), the film went on to receive overwhelmingly positive reviews, ultimately landing DaCosta a meeting in LA with the current reigning king of horror, Jordan Peele.

The result of the meeting, if you haven’t already heard, is another installment in the Candyman franchise. Unfortunately, the 2020 release date was pushed back a year due to COVID-19 and DaCosta’s insistence. "We made Candyman to be seen in theaters,” said DaCosta in an interview with MovieWeb. “It's about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it. We wanted the horror and humanity of Candyman to be experienced in a collective, a community, so we're pushing Candyman to next year." In the meantime, she put out a teaser trailer that not only gives me the feeling this might be the best Candyman we’ve seen yet, but also puts even more butterflies (bees?) in my stomach.

But if her reimagining of Candyman doesn’t put DaCosta on your map, then her sequel to Captain Marvel certainly will. As with all installments in the Marvel franchise, details about the new movie are very hush hush. DaCosta herself apparently found out via an internet news article, which seems to be the new norm for the Marvel marketing team. Regardless, there’s no denying what a monumental move this is for the franchise, putting their first black female director at the helm of the film.

Just because these upcoming projects are larger scale doesn’t mean they’re all she has to offer. DaCosta has also recently directed a few episodes of TV’s Top Boy as well as co-wrote a horror podcast, Ghost Tape (which made me feel even more secure that Candyman is in the right hands). There’s also been talk of her directing a film based on Jane Austen’s Persuasion as well a remake of the iconic 1990s Sandra Bullock thriller Sleeping With the Enemy. Understandably, these projects seem to have been put on the back burner while she handles the next few films in her docket.

I’m not gonna lie, it was really difficult writing all that without completely gushing. Looking back over all her accomplishments, I’m starting to wonder if my newfound love for Nia DaCosta is even unique. I mean, how could someone read all that and not fall for her? Professionally speaking, of course.