By TheWrap Staff

“We are the first crew people on a film after the screenplay’s been written and the director is on board,” David Rubin said of the women and men (not the other way around) who have the job of casting director — and who now, for the first time, will be eligible for an Oscar for Best Casting.

With the category debuting at the 98th Academy Awards in March, we wanted to add our own celebration of the position so crucial to the filmmaking process. We aimed at a list of about two dozen casting directors and teams who are responsible for some of the year’s most intriguing and exciting films, from blockbusters to indies to the kind of international films that have an increasing presence in the awards race. Their job was to find the right people and put them in their movies; our job was to find the right casting directors and put them on our list. Here they are.