TheAcademy Awardfor Best Picture is perhaps the most prestigious honor a filmmaker can achieve and often comes after a lifetime in the movie industry. However, in very rare instances, a director manages to fast-track their career and earn the top prize Hollywood has to offer with theirvery first film.
Often, directors who make aBest Picture winnerwith their debut moviealready have experience as actors, writers, theater directors, or even on television before leaping into feature films. These prior experiences explain how they were able to hit the ground running and make films that resonate so strongly thatthey won this Academy Award straight out of the gate.
6Delbert Mann
Marty (1955)
As a director who got his start in television, Delbert Mann hasn’t achieved the same kind of name recognition as other filmmakers behind Best Picture-winning debuts. However, his career is no less impressive, as he’s been credited with bringing TV techniques to film, which he developed by directing more than 100 live television dramas before his feature debut.
Martywas Mann’s first feature, whichnot only won the Academy Award for Best Picture but also Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. This romantic drama gained widespread acclaim for its honest story of a butcher and a schoolteacher who had both given up on love, only for them to meet at a dance and fall for each other.
Martyalso won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes, making it one of only four films to win both that award and Best Picture, alongsideThe Lost Weekend(1945),Parasite(2019), andAnora(2024).
WhileMartyremained Mann’s most acclaimed film, he continued to work in both television and the movie industry until 1994 and even served as the president of the Directors Guild of America during the late 1960s. In 1958, Mann directed another Best Picture-nominated drama calledSeparate Tables, which won David Niven the Best Actor and Wendy Hiller the Best Supporting Actress Oscars.
5Jerome Robbins
West Side Story (1961)
Jerome Robbins co-directedWest Side Storyalongside Robert Wise, but this jump into filmmaking came after a long history in theater as a dancer, choreographer, director, and producer. Robbins not only brought his theatrical expertise to the screen but was also the one who originally conceived the idea of adaptingRomeo and Julietinto a modern musical.
Having directed and choreographed the original 1957 Broadway show, Robbins was integral to the success ofWest Side Storyand solidified its status as one of the great movie musicals. Robbins was in charge of the film’s musical sequences, but, because he had no previous filmmaking experience, Wise was brought on board to direct the dramatic aspects.
However, after 45 days of shooting, Robbins was already 24 days behind schedule, and he was dismissed by Wise due to budgetary concerns (viaNY Times.) Despite Robbins' dismissal, his enormous contribution toWest Side Storywas still recognized, and he remained credited as a co-director and even received a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film.
4Robert Redford
Ordinary People (1980)
Robert Redford was one of the most notable actors of the 1960s and 1970s, as movies likeButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidand his Oscar-nominated performance inThe Stinghelped turn him into a sought-after leading man. With this name recognition behind him, Redford made the jump into filmmaking withOrdinary Peoplein 1980.
Telling the intense story of the disintegration of a wealthy family,Ordinary Peoplecataloged the Jarrett family as they deal with the accidental death of one of their two sons and the attempted suicide by the other. It won not only Best Picture but also Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Timothy Hutton.
WhileOrdinary Peoplewas a powerful debut from Redford, its status as a Best Picture winner is often overshadowed by the films it beat. Havingearned the award above Martin Scorsese’sRaging Bulland David Lynch’sThe Elephant Man,Ordinary Peopleis sometimes seen as a safe, conventional choice whose legacy hasn’t endured as well as its more iconic competitors.
3James L. Brooks
Terms of Endearment (1983)
While TV viewers will recognize the name James L. Brooks from the credits ofThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,Taxi, andThe Simpsons, his film credentials are just as impressive. With the exceptional ability to blend laugh-out-loud comedy with heartfelt drama, Brooks' first film was a remarkable debut that earned five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Terms of Endearmentfollows the complicated, often fraught relationship between a fiercely independent mother (Shirley MacLaine) and free-spirited daughter (Debra Winger) over several decades. What started as a funny domestic drama soon grew into a deeply moving portrait of love, loss, and resilience as the daughter’s health started to falter.
With the exceptional ability to allow levity and heartache to exist side-by-side, Brooks’ script was a masterclass in emotion made even better by great performances, including Jack Nicholson in a supporting role.Terms of Endearmentwould just be the beginning of an incredible directing career for Brooks, which also includes classics likeBroadcast NewsandAs Good as It Gets.
2Kevin Costner
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Kevin Costner rose to prominence in the late 1980s, acting in movies likeThe Untouchables,Bull Durham, andField of Dreams, but it was in 1990 with his directorial debut,Dances with Wolves, that he proved his potential as a major filmmaker. As the director, producer, and star,Dances with Wolvesearned Costner Best Picture and Best Director awards.
Dances with Wolvesis just one of four Westerns to win Best Picture, with the others beingCimarron,Unforgiven, andNo Country for Old Men. As a sweeping account of the Union army soldier Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, this acclaimed Western was notable for the way it shone a light on Native American culture.
Costner followedDances with Wolveswith more epic cinematic spectacles likeThe PostmanandOpen Range, yet none have ever managed to reach the heights of his debut. With the multi-part epic WesternHorizon: An American Sagaas Costner’s most ambitious project yet, only time will tell if it can match the power of his very first movie.
1Sam Mendes
American Beauty (1999)
The British filmmaker Sam Mendes got his start in the world of theater, where his dark reimagining of musicals likeCabaretandOliver!caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, which helped him kickstart a directorial career. WithAmerican Beauty,Mendes managed to become the most recent director to achieve a Best Picture-winning success with their debut movie.
American Beautywas a provocative suburban drama that peeled back the curtain on the dysfunction, disillusionment, and desire of domestic life in the United States. Despite Kevin Spacey delivering an Oscar-winning performance as the troubled father Lester Burnham, the actor’s subsequent real-life controversies made his character’s inappropriate behavior toward a teenage girl even more uncomfortable in retrospect.
Although these aspects meanAmerican Beautyhas aged poorly in many ways, it also marked the beginning of an incredible career for Mendes. With romantic dramas likeRevolutionary Road, twoJames Bondfilms, the technically outstanding WWI movie1917, and four Beatles biopics on the way, Mendes has revealed himself as one of the most versatile directors working today.
