Excellence Since Day One: The Best Directorial Debuts

Citizen Kane

Great artists have to start somewhere, even esteemed directors working in Hollywood and abroad.

Men and women alike, from the classic masters to the modern auteurs, had to cut their teeth either learning the trade from on-set experience, film school, or, in rare cases, possessing the innate ability to direct the camera as if they’d done it their entire lives.

Directorial debuts can differ from what they become known for, but audiences can often find traces of their future filmography right at the beginning.

1. Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born (2018) Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga
Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Hollywood had doubts as to whether Bradley Cooper, who, at the time, was best known for The Hangover Trilogy and American Sniper, could convincingly direct this fourth adaptation of the fame parable A Star is Born. Complicating matters: Lady Gaga had not performed in a dramatic role up to that point.

Nevertheless, Cooper and Gaga earned high acclaim for their performances, with Cooper receiving high marks for his oversight and helping Gaga herself enter a new creative path in Hollywood acting. A Star is Born promised a bright future for Cooper in his new guise as a director, and, considering the reception that his follow-up Maestro would receive, it was a promise well-kept.

2. George Clooney – Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

George Clooney in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Image Credit: Miramax Films.

Though renowned for more prestigious fare, a recent example being 2023’s The Boys in the Boat, George Clooney began his directorial career with this off-beat spy/biopic about the legendary game show host Chuck Barris.

Coming off of well-received collaborations with Steven Soderbergh and the Coen Brothers, Clooney threw his weight into the project. The director fought for leading man Sam Rockwell, convinced co-stars Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts to take lower salaries, and agreed to appear in other Miramax projects. The resulting off-kilter mix of comedy and spy-thriller led audiences to wonder what parts of Barris’ life were genuine, if any.

3. Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

Ladybird Saoirse Ronan
Image Credit: A24.

Met with high critical acclaim in 2017, Lady Bird served as Greta Gerwig’s solo theatrical feature film debut following collaboration effort Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg.

Set in early 2000s Sacramento, the coming-of-age comedy-drama was designed to be the female equivalent to similar stories like The 400 Blows. Gerwig purposefully constructed the film like a memory from her hometown, though it doesn’t have autobiographical elements. Anchored by dedicated work from both Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird proved Gerwig a modern directing force, paving the way for the highly acclaimed Little Women and the smash success Barbie.

4. Ron Howard – Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto (1977 film)
Image Credit: New World Pictures.

Roger Corman pops up in the backstories of many future actors and directors of the 1960s through the 1980s. Both famous and infamous for cheap, economical film production, Corman was also well-known for shepherding aspiring directors and actors through his New World Pictures production company.

Of his many “students,” Ron Howard proved one of the most productive. Until 1980, Howard was famous for his acting performances in both American Graffiti and Happy Days. His first work as a director came in 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, produced on the cheap and co-written with his father.

Cutting a deal to have the film financed so long as he appeared in another New World production, Howard proved a deft hand at economic filmmaking in this comedic chase film, setting the stage for a wide-ranging journeyman career.

5. Clint Eastwood – Play Misty for Me

Play Misty for Me
Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

In many ways, Eastwood walked so that the four previous entries on this list could run. Much like Cooper and Howard after him, Eastwood was a famed genre actor best known for his collaborations with Sergio Leone as The Man with No Name in The Dollars Trilogy.

Yet, after many years working as an actor and with help from mentor Don Siegel, Eastwood leaped into directing and starring in the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me. Shot in familiar surroundings around Carmel-by-the-Sea and prioritizing constrained filming time, Misty became a small critical success for Eastwood in 1971, ushering in an acclaimed directing career as celebrated as his acting work.

6. Peter Bogdanovich – Targets

Boris Karloff in Targets (1968)
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures.

Like Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich studied in the “Roger Corman School.” Unlike Howard, he padded his credentials with an already thriving career as a film journalist, not unlike his French New Wave counterparts active around the same period.

Made on the typical Corman shoe-string budget, Targets is a fitting ode to old-school horror represented by lead actor Boris Karloff, mixed with an eerily modern storyline of a disturbed man on a killing spree. Released the same year as the RFK and MLK assassinations and buried at the time of its release, Targets became a damning indictment of the relationship between American violence and media. It also made for a masterful debut worthy of the Cahiers writers Bogdanovich so admired.

7. Wes Craven – The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left (1972)
Image Credit: Hallmark Releasing, American International Pictures.

Horror has acted as a rich proving ground for budding directors, from James Cameron to the modern-day likes of Jordan Peele. For Wes Craven, horror became his preferred domain over his long career, bursting onto the scene with this gut-wrenching horror revenge-thriller reimagining of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring.

Graphically violent and reaching levels of horror that wouldn’t be seen again until The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House on the Left met critical derision and heavy censorship to meet its eventual R-rating. Though Craven attempted to branch out to different genres following the film’s release, his follow-up, The Hills Have Eyes, would ensure his legacy remained firmly in horror.

8. Guillermo Del Toro – Cronos

Federico Luppi in Cronos (1992)
Image Credit: Prime Films S.L. and Venevision International.

More melancholic tragedy than blood-soaked horror, Guillermo del Toro proved himself a master of sympathizing with monsters with his unique take on vampire folklore in his debut feature Cronos.

Following the transformation of elderly antiquities dealer Gris into a vampire-like creature, del Toro emphasizes the lonely misery of the so-called monster while examining the cruelty of the two men pursuing him, notably the unhinged Angel, played by future creative collaborator Ron Perlman. The result earned del Toro wide acclaimed, foretelling a long career in melancholic fantasy.

9. Sofia Coppola – The Virgin Suicides

James Woods, Kirsten Dunst, Kathleen Turner, A.J. Cook, Hanna Hall, Leslie Hayman, and Chelse Swain in The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures.

Sofia Coppola had the benefit of having a famous last name as the daughter of the acclaimed Francis Ford Coppola. However, she proved that she could employ a deft hand at cinematic storytelling with this adaptation of the 1993 novel of the same name.

At once a coming-of-age drama and youthful tragedy, Coppola maintains much of the original novel’s air of mystery and romantic longing, focusing on the neighborhood boys of the story making sense of the tragedy that befalls the Lisbon sisters.

At the same time, however, Coppola portrays the Lisbon sisters as actual characters and less of a homogenous entity left up to interpretation, ensuring a feminine presence lacking in the original text.

10. George Lucas – Thx 1138

THX 1138
Photo Credit: American Zoetrope.

Before Star Wars took over pop culture in 1977, George Lucas made his feature film debut with a vastly different type of science fiction epic in THX 1138. Unlike the pulpy throwback for which he became famous, Lucas’ debut plays as a riff on 1984, focusing on a dystopian society that suppresses emotions and prohibits the creation of families and love.

Born from an earlier student film and produced by good friend Francis Ford Coppola, THX 1138 received a mixed reception during its initial release. However, it showcased Lucas’ penchant for evocative set design and knack for character work, elements that would become a hallmark of both the Star Wars franchise and his immediate follow-up, American Graffiti.

11. Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen – On the Town

Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, and Vera-Ellen in On the Town (1949)
Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Already a well-established dancer, choreographer, and actor, Gene Kelly rose through MGM producer Arthur Freed’s legendary film musical unit throughout the 1940s. After a stint in the Navy as part of its Photographic Section during World War II, Kelly hungered for a chance to direct a musical film for MGM, eventually wearing down Freed to helm a film adaptation of the then-popular musical On the Town.

Teaming up with his choreography assistant Stanley Donen, Kelly set out to capture the musical’s New York setting accurately, shooting on location in addition to requisite studio filming. The result became a highly acclaimed MGM musical staple, setting the stage for the pair to helm the legendary Singin’ in the Rain and ensuring fruitful directing careers in musical cinema.

12. Laurence Olivier – Henry V

Laurence Olivier and Renée Asherson in Henry V (1944)
Image Credit: Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited.

Laurence Olivier had already made a respectful career as a film and stage actor of Shakespearean theater when he oversaw this unique film adaptation of Henry V.

Shot in the midst of World War II and structured as if the original play were expanding into reality, Olivier designed Henry V to boost British morale ahead of troops being shipped off to fight in France. The resulting film deliberately tones down the harsher aspects of Shakespeare’s original verse but more than makes up for it by highlighting gorgeous Technicolor cinematography and set design.

Met with universal acclaim as one of the first Shakespeare films to be popularly received, Henry V paved the way for Olivier to continue overseeing similarly acclaimed Shakespeare adaptations in the years to come.

13. Ryan Coogler – Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station (2013)
Image Credit: The Weinstein Company.

Before Creed and the Black Panther franchise dominated pop culture in the late 2010s, Ryan Coogler made a name for himself and began a long-creative collaboration with actor Michael B. Jordan in 2013’s Fruitvale Station.

Chronicling the last day of shooting victim Oscar Grant’s life on New Year’s Day 2009, Coogler was determined to have audiences empathize with Grant and that his life had meaning far beyond sensational headlines.

The film marked a career turning point for Jordan, who would go on to act for Coogler in both Creed and the Black Panther films while launching himself as one of a newer breed of Hollywood stars.

14. Joel and Ethan Coen – Blood Simple

Frances McDormand in Blood Simple (1984)
Image Credit: Circle Films.

The Coen Brothers entered the film business by happenstance, with Joel Coen cutting his teeth as a PA in various industrial and music video shorts in the early 1980s. Putting together a dummy trailer and attracting investment, the brothers would pen, edit, and direct this 1984 neo-noir about a bartender mixed up in a love affair and murder plot in middle-of-nowhere Texas.

Hallmarks of Coen sensibilities first appear here, from a middle-American setting, the high-octane meeting the mundane and a wickedly dark sense of humor permeating throughout the film. Blood Simple also served as Frances McDormand’s film debut, appearing frequently in her husband Joel’s later works long after, including an award-winning turn in 1996’s Fargo.

15. Ridley Scott – The Duellists

The Duellists, Harvey Keitel
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures.

Following a lucrative career in Britain’s advertising industry, Ridley Scott made the jump to narrative feature film directing in the gorgeous historical drama The Duellists.

Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and that director’s obsessive eye for historical detail for his ill-fated Napoleon project, Scott masterfully told the story of two French officers locked in a heated rivalry throughout the Napoleonic wars.

Though made on a lean budget, The Duellists boasts rich historical visuals, some of the most accurate depictions of dueling in a film, and an obsessive lead performance by Harvey Keitel, all handled by Scott’s deft hand.

16. Martin Scorsese – Who’s That Knocking at My Door

Harvey Keitel and Zina Bethune in Whos That Knocking at My Door (1967)
Image Credit: Joseph Brenner Associates.

Starting life as an NYU short film and undergoing a tumultuous two-year production cycle that involved sporadic filming and constant name changes, what ultimately became Martin Scorsese’s debut planted the seeds for themes he would revisit throughout his career as a director.

Focusing on a Catholic hoodlum struggling to accept his girlfriend’s traumatic past, Who’s That Knocking at My Door incorporated pieces of Scorsese’s Italian-American upbringing in New York while blending his ear for music cues, examinations of masculinity, and religious guilt. The film also serves as Harvey Keitel’s debut as an actor, giving a taste of what was to come from both men in the acclaimed Mean Streets six years later.

17. Christopher Nolan – Following

Jeremy Theobald in Following
Image Credit: Janus Films.

Made on a budget of $6,000, with the most expensive component of the production the 16mm film the movie was shot on, Following was a high-concept neo-noir about an anonymous struggling writer inadvertently drawn into the criminal underworld after failing to keep his distance shadowing a purported thief.

At the ripe age of twenty-eight, Christopher Nolan appeared as a wholly formed creative visionary, with many of his classic hallmarks first appearing in this film, from non-linear storytelling to the power of memory. Many of his most famous works, particularly the sci-fi heist film Inception, can find traces of their characters, themes, and ideas directly in his 1998 debut.

18. Charlie Chaplin – The Kid

Charles Chaplin and Lita Grey in The Kid (1921)
Image Credit: First National.

Perhaps the original actor turned director, Charles Chaplin earned international acclaim as his celebrated Tramp character in numerous featurette reels in the 1910s and 1920s. Though not technically his directorial debut, The Kid was Chaplin’s first time directing an actual feature-length film after a decade of shorts, blending comedy and drama in a turn highly acclaimed then and now as one of the best films of the 1920s.

Once more portraying the Tramp, Chaplin is supported by a captivating performance by one of the original Hollywood child stars, Jackie Coogan, as his onscreen adopted son, following the duo’s struggles. Despite the shift in length, Chaplin proved his beloved character could sustain a feature’s runtime, allowing him to become even more ambitious with the Tramp well into the post-silent era.

19. Hayao Miyazaki – The Castle of Cagliostro

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Image Credit: Toho.

Hayao Miyazaki was already an animation veteran when he was assigned by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS Entertainment) to oversee this second film adaptation of the Lupin the 3rd anime series, focusing on a more swashbuckling, heroic version of the famous thief.

Though not considered part of his work with the acclaimed Studio Ghibli, The Castle of Cagliostro contains many Miyazaki hallmarks, including an intense focus on machinery detail, strong-willed heroines, and the relationship between man and the environment.

Critics now cite Miyazaki’s directorial debut as a high mark of the Lupin the 3rd franchise, inspiring subsequent film and television specials while laying the groundwork for Miyazaki’s independent directorial career with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and the formation of Studio Ghibli in the mid-1980s.

20. John Singleton – Boyz in the Hood

scene from Boyz in the Hood
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures.

One of the great directors of American black cinema, John Singleton initially conceived the basis for Boyz in the Hood as part of his film school application before selling the script to Columbia Pictures on the condition he directed.

The result was an achingly acted drama of Los Angeles urban gang culture, the lure of the lifestyle, and the tragic consequences that come bundled. Singleton became the youngest directing nominee for an Academy Award and helped launch the acting careers of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube.

Celebrated as one of the great 1990s films and great directorial debuts, Boyz in the Hood injected both coming-of-age pathos and hip-hop energy that would be replicated throughout the decade but never equaled.

21. Quentin Tarantino – Reservoir Dogs

Steve Buscemi, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Edward Bunker, and Lawrence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs (1992) directorial debuts
Image Credit: Miramax Films.

Previously working odd jobs, including a stint at a video rental store off of Manhattan Beach, Quentin Tarantino’s stars aligned as he made industry contacts eager to tackle his dialogue-intensive heist thriller script. Netting Harvey Keitel as both a producer and the film’s lead ensured Reservoir Dogs could get made, showing off Tarantino’s innate ability to pay homage to genre classics while deploying a voice uniquely his own.

With elements of French New Wave, Hong Kong action cinema, and film noir, Reservoir Dogs showcases Tarantino’s penchant for stylized violence and quotable dialogue almost fully formed. The film’s critical success would ensure future work for Tarantino as a writer/director, with this film and his immediate follow-up, Pulp Fiction, forever shifting the world of independent American cinema.

22. Steven Spielberg – The Sugarland Express

Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, and Michael Sacks in The Sugarland Express (1974)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Steven Spielberg already proved himself a natural talent at the camera, having previously directed several TV films and episodes, particularly the acclaimed Duel.

His feature debut, The Sugarland Express, grew from his previous television work into an extended road/chase film. A desperate woman breaks her husband out of jail, and the pair race across Texas to prevent their child from being placed into foster care.

Partially inspired by actual events, Spielberg’s debut also marks the first time collaborating with master composer John Williams, cementing a decades-long partnership with this outing. Though not a financial success, the critical goodwill ensured producers at Universal would give Spielberg a chance to go big with his next project: Jaws.

23. Dennis Hopper – Easy Rider

Easy Rider (1969) Peter Fonda Dennis Hopper Jack Nicholson
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures.

In American cinema, there was before Easy Rider, and there was after Easy Rider.

Dennis Hopper already had a successful career as an actor, making appearances in film and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. By 1968, Hopper would team up with rising counterculture icon Peter Fonda and Roger Corman alum Jack Nicholson to craft Easy Rider.

As much a struggle to get financing as it was to shoot, Easy Rider became a major critical success thanks to its speaking to a new generation of youth culture that would epitomize the late ‘60s. Though the film became an enduring counterculture landmark and heralded the beginning of the auteur-driven New Hollywood era, Hopper failed to capitalize on his directorial debut for several years, only returning to proper prominence through acting roles in the 1980s.

24. Francois Truffaut – The 400 Blows

The 400 Blows
Image Credit: Cocinor.

Truffaut almost single-handedly launched the French New Wave off of the back of this 1959 film, a full year before Jean-Luc Goddard crystalized the movement with his own debut feature, Breathless.

Like Goddard, Truffaut started as a film critic of the Cahiers du Cinéma publication, taking his love of American genre pictures and reinterpreting them through a unique French perspective.

A coming-of-age drama following Truffaut’s cinematic alter ego, Antoine Doinel, in 1950s Paris, Truffaut earned high acclaim for his direction and would continue the story of Doinel in a series of subsequent films. Yet none in Truffaut’s long career matched the stunning impact of his debut, simply for the movement he helped shepherd into the cinematic world.

25. Orson Welles – Citizen Kane

Orson Welles in citizen Kane
Image Credit: RKO Radio Pictures.

How many directorial debuts break so much ground, generated such controversy, and withstood the test of time to such an extent that it is now considered the greatest film ever made in the medium?

Orson Welles cut his teeth as a radio actor and theatre producer before being invited by RKO Pictures to make a feature film. Given the rare chance of complete creative freedom and final cut privilege, Welles made the most of his golden ticket, teaming up with Herman J. Mankiewicz to tell the story of Charles Foster Kane and pioneering camera and editing techniques still scrutinized over eighty years later.

One could argue that Welles’ career never reached the heights of Kane again, but his debut showed a nascent talent hungry to tell stories only afforded by film.

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