What is the best directorial debut film of the 2010s?

The 2010s produced a generation of debut filmmakers who immediately redefined their genres. From Get Out to Hereditary, which debut film of the decade left the most indelible mark?

1

Get Out

Jordan Peele's 2017 social horror debut — a razor-sharp allegory about racism in liberal America.

1000pts

2

Swiss Army Man

The Daniels' 2016 debut — a surreal survival comedy featuring a flatulent corpse as a philosophizing companion.

749pts

3

The Witch

Robert Eggers' 2015 debut — a Puritan New England folk horror film of mounting existential dread.

694pts

4

Short Term 12

Destin Daniel Cretton's 2013 debut — a compassionate drama set in a foster care facility, led by Brie Larson.

694pts

5

A Quiet Place

John Krasinski's 2018 debut — a tense post-apocalyptic horror film where sound means death.

681pts

6

Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig's 2017 debut — a deeply personal coming-of-age film set in Sacramento with a luminous Saoirse Ronan.

681pts

7

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benh Zeitlin's 2012 debut — a magical-realist fable about a six-year-old navigating Louisiana's bayou community.

681pts

8

Ex Machina

Alex Garland's 2014 debut — a chilling AI drama testing the Turing test with Alicia Vikander's mesmerizing performance.

555pts

9

The Babadook

Jennifer Kent's 2014 debut — an Australian psychological horror film about grief and single motherhood.

555pts

10

Whiplash

Damien Chazelle's 2014 debut — a white-knuckle drama about a jazz drummer and his abusive mentor.

468pts

11

Blue Ruin

Jeremy Saulnier's 2013 debut — a revenge thriller that deconstructs the genre through an ordinary man's incompetence.

468pts

12

Hereditary

Ari Aster's 2018 debut — a devastating family trauma horror film culminating in one of the most disturbing endings ever.

357pts

13

Moonlight

Barry Jenkins' 2016 film (his breakthrough debut in the mainstream) — an Oscar-winning trilogy of a gay Black man's self-discovery.

357pts

14

It Follows

David Robert Mitchell's 2014 debut — an original horror concept where a supernatural curse passes between people.

208pts