Darren Carver-Balsiger

List by Darren Carver-Balsiger Patron

Published Updated

Sort by

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: Remarkable Directorial Debuts (Letterboxd Showdown)

Here's my 25 favourite feature film directorial debuts, loosely ranked. This list is part of Letterboxd's Showdown lists.

The top 12 are masterpieces. Afterwards they're merely great films.

These are ranked more on the overall quality of the final product rather then the promise shown just in the direction.

I really wanted to include Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood but they're both not technically debuts.

Block or Report
Read notes
  • 12 Angry Men

    1

  • American Beauty

    2

  • Night of the Living Dead

    3

  • Citizen Kane

    4

  • The Wicker Man

    5

  • The Lives of Others

    6

  • Breathless

    7

  • Akira

    8

  • The Tribe

    9

  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail

    10

  • Performance

    11

  • Shaun of the Dead

    12

  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower

    13

  • Son of Saul

    14

  • Tyrannosaur

    15

  • Kids

    16

  • Beasts of the Southern Wild

    17

  • Reservoir Dogs

    18

  • Amores Perros

    19

  • Airplane!

    20

  • Angst

    21

  • The 400 Blows

    22

  • Phase IV

    23

  • Fruitvale Station

    24

  • The Butterfly Effect

    25