iCM Favorite Directorial Debut Features (2021)
by connorangelodenney | created - 11 Mar 2021 | updated - 11 Mar 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Naked Childhood (1968)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama
An anguished foster child takes to mischief and lies as his foster parents do their best to love and care for him. But it might be too little, too late in this emotionally devastating portrayal of the orphaned child.
Director: Maurice Pialat | Stars: Michel Terrazon, Linda Gutenberg, Raoul Billerey, Pierrette Deplanque
Votes: 2,697
2. Breathless (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Van Doude, Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 87,915 | Gross: $0.34M
3. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 465,911 | Gross: $1.59M
4. The 400 Blows (1959)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble
Votes: 128,062
5. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
PG-13 | 84 min | Drama, Music
The lives of an English working-class family are told out of order in a free-associative manner. The first part, "Distant Voices", focuses on the father's role in the family. The second part, "Still Lives", focuses on his children.
Director: Terence Davies | Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Freda Dowie, Angela Walsh, Dean Williams
Votes: 5,165 | Gross: $0.69M
6. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Thriller
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman
Votes: 139,095 | Gross: $0.09M
7. One Way or Another (1977)
78 min | Drama, Romance
In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
Director: Sara Gómez | Stars: Mario Balmaseda, Yolanda Cuéllar, Mario Limonta, Isaura Mendoza
Votes: 646
8. The Kid (1921)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan, Carl Miller
Votes: 134,810 | Gross: $5.45M
9. Shadows (1958)
PG | 87 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, Anthony Ray
Votes: 12,553
10. Hotel Monterey (1973)
65 min | Documentary
Hotel Monterey is a cheap hotel in New York reserved for the outcasts of American society. Chantal Akerman invites viewers to visit this unusual place as well as the people who live there, from the reception up to the last story.
Director: Chantal Akerman
Votes: 913
11. The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A man returns to his home town after serving a prison sentence for homicide, and finds that the details of the crime have been forgotten and replaced with local legends and rumors.
Director: Hal Hartley | Stars: Adrienne Shelly, Robert John Burke, Chris Cooke, Julia McNeal
Votes: 6,286 | Gross: $0.55M
12. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud
Votes: 35,882 | Gross: $0.09M
13. The Exiles (1961)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama
Follows a family of Native Americans living in the City of Angels.
Director: Kent Mackenzie | Stars: Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds, Rico Rodriguez
Votes: 1,389 | Gross: $0.03M
14. You Can Count on Me (2000)
R | 111 min | Drama
A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Amy Ryan, Michael Countryman
Votes: 31,417 | Gross: $9.18M
15. The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975)
Not Rated | 97 min | Documentary, History
The chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.
Director: Patricio Guzmán | Stars: Abilio Fernández, Salvador Allende
Votes: 1,613
16. Videograms of a Revolution (1992)
106 min | Documentary, History, War
This documentary uses news footage and amateur video to paint a vivid picture of Romania's 1989 revolution and the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
Directors: Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica | Stars: Ion Caramitru, Elena Ceausescu, Nicolae Ceausescu, Mircea Dinescu
Votes: 655
17. Funny Ha Ha (2002)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marnie just graduated from college, drinks likes she's still in school, and is looking for a temporary job but a permanent boyfriend. She loves a guy who doesn't love her (?), ping-pongs ... See full summary »
Director: Andrew Bujalski | Stars: Kate Dollenmayer, Mark Herlehy, Christian Rudder, Jennifer L. Schaper
Votes: 2,954 | Gross: $0.08M
18. Eraserhead (1977)
Not Rated | 89 min | Fantasy, Horror
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 127,440 | Gross: $7.00M
19. The Golden Age (1930)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy, Drama
A surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst
Votes: 14,807 | Gross: $0.03M
20. The Noose (1958)
96 min | Drama
One day in the life of an alcohol addict. With the help of his girlfriend Krysia, Kuba attempts to regain control of his life. But when she's at work, Kuba is home alone, and it becomes hard not to resist the temptation.
Director: Wojciech Has | Stars: Gustaw Holoubek, Aleksandra Slaska, Teresa Szmigielówna, Tadeusz Fijewski
Votes: 1,233
21. Adieu Philippine (1962)
106 min | Drama, Romance
Paris, summer 1960. Michel is about to leave for Algeria for military service. He meets Liliane and Juliette, two inseparable friends. Michel goes on vacation to Corsica, where the two girls decide to join him
Director: Jacques Rozier | Stars: Jean-Claude Aimini, Daniel Descamps, Stefania Sabatini, Yveline Céry
Votes: 1,017
22. Kicking and Screaming (1995)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A bunch of guys hang around their college for months after graduation, continuing a life much like the one before graduation.
Director: Noah Baumbach | Stars: Josh Hamilton, Eric Stoltz, Samuel Gould, Catherine Kellner
Votes: 15,176 | Gross: $0.70M
23. Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen (2003)
Not Rated | 81 min | Drama
As an awkward idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined.
Director: Maren Ade | Stars: Eva Löbau, Daniela Holtz, Jan Neumann, Ilona Schulz
Votes: 1,895 | Gross: $0.00M
24. Ordinary People (1980)
R | 124 min | Drama
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton
Votes: 56,678 | Gross: $54.80M
25. Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, War
During WWII, Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev strikes up a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers while working as a scout behind the German lines.
Directors: Andrei Tarkovsky, Eduard Abalov | Stars: Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov, Stepan Krylov
Votes: 39,928
26. 3/4 (2017)
TV-14 | 83 min | Drama
Young pianist Mila prepares for an audition abroad. Her brother Niki distracts her with his unwanted talent for the absurd. Their astrophysicist father Todor seems incapable of dealing with his children's anxieties.
Director: Ilian Metev | Stars: Mila Mihova, Nikolay Mashalov, Todor Veltchev, Simona Genkova
Votes: 469
27. Blind Husbands (1919)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Romance
An Austrian officer sets out to seduce a neglected young wife.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Sam De Grasse, Francelia Billington, Erich von Stroheim, Gibson Gowland
Votes: 1,691
28. The Bellboy (1960)
Approved | 72 min | Comedy
Mute bellboy Stanley works at the luxurious Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. In spite of being a serviceable and friendly employee, the clumsy Stanley gets successively into trouble with his mistakes.
Director: Jerry Lewis | Stars: Jerry Lewis, Alex Gerry, Bob Clayton, Sonnie Sands
Votes: 4,803
29. Nanook of the North (1922)
Passed | 78 min | Documentary
In this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
Director: Robert J. Flaherty | Stars: Allakariallak, Alice Nevalinga, Cunayou, Allegoo
Votes: 13,452
30. Girlfriends (1978)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A photographer and her girlfriend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Director: Claudia Weill | Stars: Melanie Mayron, Eli Wallach, Adam Cohen, Anita Skinner
Votes: 3,085
31. Angels of Sin (1943)
80 min | Drama
Anne-Marie joins a Dominican convent as a novice where she knows Therese. After shooting a man for which she was imprisoned, Therese protests her innocence, reluctant to tell her secret.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Renée Faure, Jany Holt, Sylvie, Mila Parély
Votes: 1,772
32. Not Reconciled (1965)
55 min | Drama, History
An entangled story which details the lives of a German family throughout their various generations.
Director: Jean-Marie Straub | Stars: Heinrich Hargesheimer, Carlheinz Hargesheimer, Martha Staendner, Danièle Huillet
Votes: 806
33. Wanda (1970)
GP | 102 min | Crime, Drama
Wanda, a lonely housewife, drifts through mining country until she meets a petty thief who takes her in.
Director: Barbara Loden | Stars: Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins, Dorothy Shupenes, Peter Shupenes
Votes: 5,698 | Gross: $0.05M
34. Unrelated (2007)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
A woman in an unhappy relationship takes refuge with a friend's family on holiday in Tuscany.
Director: Joanna Hogg | Stars: Kathryn Worth, Harry Kershaw, Emma Hiddleston, Henry Lloyd-Hughes
Votes: 2,948
35. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus
Votes: 115,731 | Gross: $27.09M
36. Smithereens (1982)
R | 93 min | Drama, Music
A talent-challenged girl tries to promote herself to stardom in New York's waning punk music world.
Director: Susan Seidelman | Stars: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell, Nada Despotovich
Votes: 2,630
37. Buffalo '66 (1998)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After being released from prison, Billy is set to visit his parents with his wife, whom he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl and forces her to act as his wife for the visit.
Director: Vincent Gallo | Stars: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke
Votes: 60,253 | Gross: $2.38M
38. La libertad (2001)
73 min | Drama
A man chop down trees, organizes the trunks, clean them, stops to defecate, lunch, nap and continues to sell its timber.
Director: Lisandro Alonso | Stars: Misael Saavedra, Humberto Estrada, Rafael Estrada, Omar Didino
Votes: 929
39. Badlands (1973)
PG | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri
Votes: 78,375
40. Terms of Endearment (1983)
PG | 132 min | Comedy, Drama
Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.
Director: James L. Brooks | Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito
Votes: 65,468 | Gross: $108.42M
41. Rebels of the Neon God (1992)
Not Rated | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Within the urban gloom of Taipei, four youths face alienation, loneliness, and moments of existential crisis amidst a series of minor crimes.
Director: Tsai Ming-liang | Stars: Wang Yu-wen, Chen Chao-jung, Kang-sheng Lee, Jen Chang-bin
Votes: 5,524 | Gross: $0.03M
42. Sign of the Lion (1962)
103 min | Drama
A French-American in Paris lives by sponging off his working friends, and throws a party using borrowed money when his rich American aunt dies, believing firmly in his horoscope.
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Jess Hahn, Michèle Girardon, Van Doude, Paul Bisciglia
Votes: 2,348
43. 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)
Unrated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
A local talk show host organizes an alcoholic professor and a pensioner known for playing Santa Claus to decide whether there was ever a revolution in their town Vaslui.
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu | Stars: Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban, Ion Sapdaru, Mirela Cioaba
Votes: 8,120 | Gross: $0.09M
44. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
Not Rated | 43 min | Short, Biography, Drama
Karen Carpenter's battle with anorexia nervosa and the cultural influence of the Carpenters in the 70s.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Merrill Gruver, Michael Edwards, Melissa Brown, Rob LaBelle
Votes: 3,331
45. As Tears Go By (1988)
Not Rated | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong | Stars: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Alex Man
Votes: 12,492 | Gross: $0.01M
46. The Great McGinty (1940)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy
Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 4,411
47. Titicut Follies (1967)
Unrated | 84 min | Documentary
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Votes: 5,106
48. Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
Not Rated | 89 min | Documentary, Drama, Fantasy
A film crew documents a folk story-exquisite corpse combination by random Thai people; the story is reenacted.
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Stars: Duangjai Hiransri, Kome Kongkiat Komesiri, Saisiri Xoomsai
Votes: 1,726
49. Boy Meets Girl (1984)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Romance
Paris by night. Alex, 22, wants to become a filmmaker. He is fascinated by first times and his girlfriend, Florence, has just left him for his best friend, Thomas. First break-up, first ... See full summary »
Director: Leos Carax | Stars: Denis Lavant, Mireille Perrier, Carroll Brooks, Maïté Nahyr
Votes: 4,007
50. Slow Action (2011)
45 min | Sci-Fi
Herzog-influenced imagining of ecological possibilities for four locations, anticipating Earth's impending post-societal collapse.
Director: Ben Rivers
Votes: 143
51. The Mend (2014)
Not Rated | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
A comic drama about rage, doubt, lust, madness, and other brotherly hand-me-downs.
Director: John Magary | Stars: Josh Lucas, Cory Nichols, Lucy Owen, Stephen Plunkett
Votes: 878
52. Dark Star (1974)
G | 83 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
In the far reaches of space, a small crew, 20 years into their solitary mission, find things beginning to go hilariously wrong.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm
Votes: 27,240
53. The Verdict (1946)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After an innocent man is executed in a case for which he was not responsible, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris
Votes: 2,830
55. Three Ages (1923)
Not Rated | 63 min | Comedy
The misadventures of Buster in three separate historical periods.
Directors: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery, Joe Roberts
Votes: 5,204
56. Killer of Sheep (1978)
80 min | Drama
Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.
Director: Charles Burnett | Stars: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett
Votes: 7,531 | Gross: $0.40M
57. A Thousand Suns (2013)
45 min | Documentary
Magaye Niang, the main actor of Senegalese film classic Touki Bouki (1973), is an average farmer today. After a screening of the film he recalls his first love, who left the country years ago.
Director: Mati Diop | Stars: Magaye Niang, Wasis Diop, Ben D. Beye, Issa Samb
Votes: 171
58. Zero for Conduct (1949)
83 min | Comedy, Romance
A naughty, love-smitten teacher sets in motion an audacious scheme to woo a charming final-year student who is in love with her fisherman beau.
Directors: Yannis Filippou, Mihallis Gaziadis | Stars: Ellie Lambeti, Labros Konstadaras, Dinos Iliopoulos, Fragiskos Manellis
Votes: 123
59. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
Directors: Warren Beatty, Buck Henry | Stars: Warren Beatty, James Mason, Julie Christie, Jack Warden
Votes: 23,516 | Gross: $81.64M
60. House of Games (1987)
R | 102 min | Crime, Thriller
A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum, Lilia Skala
Votes: 24,038 | Gross: $2.59M
61. Ham on Rye (2019)
TV-14 | 85 min | Drama, Mystery
A bizarre rite of passage at the local deli determines the fate of a generation of teenagers, leading some to escape their suburban town and dooming others to remain.
Director: Tyler Taormina | Stars: Haley Bodell, Audrey Boos, Gabriella Herrera, Adam Torres
Votes: 981
62. Nova Lituania (2019)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, History
It's late 1930's. Foreseeing the upcoming war in Europe, Lithuanian geographer Feliksas Gruodis comes up with an idea to save his country by establishing a Lithuanian colony overseas. The ... See full summary »
Director: Karolis Kaupinis | Stars: Aleksas Kazanavicius, Vaidotas Martinaitis, Valentinas Masalskis, Rasa Samuolyte
Votes: 970
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