While it may seem like some of the greatest directors of all time have just always existed, all of them started somewhere. You can’t have Jaws with Duel and you can’t have The Godfather without Dementia 13. Some directors, like Quentin Tarantino and Jordan Peele, knock it out of the park on their first try, but even some of the best have more humble beginnings. Here are the first movies for 32 great directors.
Martin Scorsese – Who’s That Knocking at My Door
The great Martin Scorsese’s first movie has a wild story. It took him two years in all to complete it, as it started as a short in film school. It stars Harvey Keitel (his first movie role), and takes place in New York City, as you’d expect from Scorsese. Where it got weird was that after its debut at a film festival, it was purchased by a company that insisted they add some racier scenes, so the director did, and it’s obvious the scenes were shot later as Keitel looks noticeably older.
Steven Spielberg – Duel
Even the great Steven Spielberg had to start somewhere. That somewhere was famously with Duel a made-for-tv movie the director shot after doing some episodic television. It’s a movie that holds up remarkably well, as a testament to Spielberg’s ability to craft a great story.
Ava DuVernay – I Will Follow
As a pioneering Black female director, Ava DuVernay has inspired many people and brought a unique perspective to Hollywood. Her first movie, I Will Follow is certainly no exception. The deeply moving, personal film confronting relationships, family, and death is a strong debut film.
Christopher Nolan – Following
Produced on a minuscule budget (reportedly just $6000), Following still has the hallmarks of a Christopher Nolan film, notable for the non-linear storytelling that has become his signature in the decades since this one was made in 1998. Nolan’s movies have bigger budgets today, but they still feel as independent as his first.
Quentin Tarantino – Reservoir Dogs
What can be written about Reservoir Dogs that has already been said? It’s not rare for a great director to make a good movie on his try, but this good? That’s rare. Res Dogs pops off the screen as much today as when it was released over 30 years ago and that is remarkable.
David Fincher – Alien 3
Director David Fincher really hated working on Alien 3. He’s never been too shy to talk about what went wrong, either. Thankfully, he recovered from his bad experience and has since released a bunch of great movies, like The Game, Fight Club, and Gone Girl.
Tony Scott – The Hunger
Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve, and David Bowie star in Tony Scott’s directorial debut, a horror movie called The Hunger. We’re not going to pretend like it’s Scott’s best work, but it’s a decent start to what would be come a sensational career before his death in 2012.
Kathryn Bigelow – The Loveless
Kathryn Bigelow is a female director, but her movies, like Point Break and The Hurt Locker often explore masculinity in it’s most extreme. Her first movie is no exception. The Loveless, starring Willem Dafoe as the leader of a motorcycle gang who terrorize a small town. It’s a decent first effort, but her later movies are still much better.
John Hughes – Sixteen Candles
We can talk for days about the problematic nature of Sixteen Candles. It’s one of the more problematic movies from the ’80s, but setting them aside, it’s still a first-rate debut film for director John Hughes. It probably helped that Hughes was already established as one of Hollywood’s funniest writers when he added directing to his resume.
Francis Ford Coppola – Dementia 13
it’s interesting to note how many directors cut their teeth with horror films. For Francis Ford Coppola, it was the Roger Corman produced Dementia 13. It fits right into Corman’s amazing catalog of B-movies, and viewers can even get glimpses of the great heights that Coppola would eventually rise to. Coppola is proud of it as well, re-editing it and re-releasing a director’s cut in 2017.
Oliver Stone – Seizure
Another horror film debut from a Hollywood icon is Seizure by director Oliver Stone, i 1974. Stone worked primarily as a writer early in his career and didn’t direct his next film until 1981 and it wouldn’t be until five years later that his work garnered serious attention with 1986’s Salvador and Platoon, the latter of which won Best Picture and Stone took home Best Director for at the Oscars.
Jane Campion – Two Friends
Jane Campion picks her projects carefully. Over almost 40 years, she’s only directed nine films and only three in the 21st Century. Her first, 1986’s Two Friends was a made-for-TV flick on Australian TV. It still found its way into some film festivals and was even screened at Cannes in 1986.
Spike Lee – She’s Gotta Have It
Spike Lee exploded onto the scene immediately after graduating from NYU film school. His first movie, She’s Gotta Have It, is a fantastic debut that showed real maturity for a young filmmaker. Lee has always known exactly how he wants to tell a story, even from the very beginning. Though She’s Gotta Have It doesn’t hold up as well of as some of his other early movies, especially Do The Right Thing, it’s still a great testament to his immense abilities as a filmmaker.
Penny Marshall – Jumpin’ Jack Flash
By the time Penny Marshall directed her first movie, Jumpin’ Jack Flash in 1986, she was already well-established in the business. Not only did she come from a Hollywood family, but she was one of TV’s biggest stars in the ’70s of Laverne & Shirley. As for Jumpin’ Jack Flash, not only did the comedy establish Marshall as a director, but it also marked the first starring role in a comedy for Whoopi Goldberg, whose performance is wonderful.
Paul Thomas Anderson – Hard Eight
Paul Thomas Anderson is another director who came out of the box with a clear vision of how he wanted his films to look and feel. Hard Eight, his first movie, from 1996 very much looks and feels like PT Anderson’s later works like Magnolia and There Will Be Blood. It even stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Baker Hall, who were regulars in his later films as well.
Jordan Peele – Get Out
While a lot of directors have gotten their start with horror movies, only Jordan Peele has completely redefined the genre. His mind-bending debut, Get Out is one of the best movies of the last decade and even though it relies on a twist at the end, it’s very re-watchable. Peele, who started famously in comedy, seems like he’s just getting started.
Stanley Kubrick – Fear and Desire
Anti-war movies are the norm today, but in 1952, when Stanley Kubrick directed his first movie, Fear and Desire, they were extremely rare. This was an era of World War II vets and patriotism. Still, Kubrick was an iconoclast even then, and not afraid to speak his mind in the best way he knew how on film.
Chloé Zhao – Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Director Chloé Zhao has made a huge impact in just a short time. She won Best Director at the Oscars (only the second woman to ever do so) for just her third movie, Nomadland (which also won Best Picture) and her ability to tell deeply personal stories about America and Americans is something special. Her movie, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, fits right into this mold, telling a coming-of-age story about a Native American girl.
Alfred Hitchcock – The Pleasure Garden
There is no bigger name in film history than Alfred Hitchcock. His astonishing career stretched out over 50 years, starting all the way back before movies even had sound. Hitchcock’s first official film was The Pleasure Garden, released in 1925. Like many films throughout his career, this one didn’t sit right with the more “moral” crowds and was condemned by many Americans. Luckily it didn’t affect him in the slightest and he still went on to make some of the best movies ever made.
The Coen Brother – Blood Simple
There are few filmmakers as beloved as the Coen Brothers. Over the last four decades, they put out hit after hit, they’ve won awards, and they’ve ingrained themselves into the psyche of film lovers everywhere. It all started for them with the noir crime film Blood Simple in 1984, starring Frances McDormand, who has been a regular collaborator with Ethan and Joel Coen and is married to Joel.
Wes Anderson – Bottle Rocket
Wes Anderson has a unique style that is all his own. There is no one else that makes movies quite like he does. Still, his first movie, Bottle Rocket, is more straightforward than the rest of his catalog. It’s still a great movie and stars actors that have continued to work with him, decades later.
John Singleton – Boyz n the Hood
The late John Singleton is another on this list who came out the box with his guns blazing figuratively and literally with Boyz in the Hood. The film was a hard hitting look at life in South Central LA in the 1990s and it was a masterpiece.
Amy Heckerling – Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Amy Heckerling was a trailblazing female director in the 1980s and is responsible for some of the most beloved and quotable movies of the era. She’s probably best known for Clueless, but her first movie, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, is legendary as well.
George Lucas – THX 1138
Star Wars will always be George Lucas’ masterpiece. The seeds of the legendary space opera were planted in his first movie, the sci fi thriller THX 1138, which he developed from the student film while he was studying at USC.
Mel Brooks – The Producers
By the time Mel Brooks wrote and directed his first movie, The Producers, in 1967, he’d already been in show business for a couple of decades. First as a writer for Sid Caesar then on other TV shows in the ’50s and ’60s. The EGOT winner has had an incredible career since, with many beloved comedies.
Ridley Scott – The Duellists
Ridley Scott, like his brother Tony, got his start by directing commercials in the 1960s. Commercial direction is a great proving ground for filmmakers and by 1977 Scott was ready for the big leagues. His first movie, The Duelists was set in the Napoleonic Wars (something he would revisit almost 50 years later with Napoleon), was a critical success and set Scott up for the rest of his impressive career.
Sofia Coppola – The Virgin Suicides
Of course, Sofia Coppola is Hollywood royalty, but her success is not due to nepotism, it’s because she’s a darn great director. If she had only made her first movie, The Virgin Suicides, that might have been enough to prove the naysayers wrong, but she’s continued to put out excellent movies in the years since.
Ryan Coogler – Fruitvale Station
It definitely feels like Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is still getting started. With the success of Creed and his two entries in the MCU, Coogler is killing it at a relatively young age. His first movie, 2013’s Fruitville Station, made when he was just 26, also marked his first collaboration with Michael B. Jordan and they’ve made a formidable pair thus far.
Tim Burton – Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
One of the most interesting and eccentric minds in Hollywood has to be Tim Burton. That was evident right away in his career, as his first movie, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, is as quirky and offbeat as anything ever made, and it’s why people love it so much. Burton has continued to bring that unique thinking to all his movies since.
Patty Jenkins – Monster
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins has taken a patient road to success. Her first movie was… well… a monster. Monster, starring a transformed Charlize Theron as the real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in an astounding performance. Jenkins worked mostly in TV after that until she directed the excellent Wonder Woman in 2017.
James Cameron – Piranha II: The Spawning
He may be the most financially successful director of all-time, with three of the top five most successful movies at the box, but James Cameron had pretty humble beginnings. Like many directors, he started with a horror movie, Piranha II: The Spawning. It’s pretty much as you would expect, a somewhat silly, slasher-type movie (the slasher is a school of fish), but there are some things that telegraph what was to come, like the underwater shots.
