# The 12 Best Directorial Debuts of the 2010s

> Assured, genre-bending first features that proved a debut can land like a veteran's masterpiece. Which one wins?

*By YPB Team · Published June 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-12-best-directorial-debuts-of-the-2010s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Get Out** — score 1000/1000
   Jordan Peele 2017 debut turning the meet-the-parents premise into a sharp social horror film.
2. **The Florida Project** — score 897/1000
   Sean Baker 2017 debut following the lives of motel residents on the outskirts of Walt Disney World.
3. **A Quiet Place** — score 897/1000
   John Krasinski 2018 debut setting a family survival horror in a world where sound attracts blind monsters.
4. **Sound of Metal** — score 754/1000
   Darius Marder 2019 debut about a drummer losing his hearing and grappling with silence and identity.
5. **Hereditary** — score 692/1000
   Ari Aster 2018 debut that redefined elevated horror with a grieving family and unseen supernatural forces.
6. **The Witch** — score 692/1000
   Robert Eggers 2015 debut following a Puritan family persecuted by a supernatural force in 17th century New England.
7. **Short Term 12** — score 538/1000
   Destin Daniel Cretton 2013 debut about counselors at a foster care facility for troubled teens.
8. **Beasts of the Southern Wild** — score 1/1000
   Benh Zeitlin 2012 debut following a young girl navigating a flooded Louisiana bayou with fearless poetry.
9. **Blue Ruin** — score 1/1000
   Jeremy Saulnier 2013 debut about a drifter pursuing a revenge mission that spirals out of control.
10. **Ex Machina** — score 1/1000
   Alex Garland 2014 directorial debut about a coder who evaluates an AI in a secluded research facility.
11. **It Follows** — score 1/1000
   David Robert Mitchell 2014 debut using a sexually transmitted supernatural entity as a slow-burn dread metaphor.
12. **Whiplash** — score 1/1000
   Damien Chazelle 2014 debut about a jazz drummer under the terrorizing instruction of a conservatory instructor.

Tags: movies, directors, 2010s