Sundance Film Festival Directorial Debuts
AMC Movie List

Sundance Film Festival Directorial Debuts

These directors first gained notice at Sundance. Which of their breakout movies is your favorite?

rank title points votes your vote
1 Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine
A dysfunctional family sets out on a road trip to ensure 7-year-old Olive competes in a beauty pageant. 71 131
2 Joel and Ethan Coen, Blood Simple
A man hires a detective to spy on his cheating wife in this tale of surprise double crosses and murder. 42 88
3 Robert Rodriguez, El Mariachi
A kind-spirited guitarist named El Mariachi wanders into a mob-run town and is mistaken for a vicious hit man. 19 85
4 Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me
Morgan Spurlock documents a monthlong binge during which he eats items only from McDonald's. 18 100
5 Steven Soderbergh, Sex, Lies, and Videotape
The tangled relationship between four people and a video camera are explored in this landmark drama. 16 82
6 Goran Dukic, Wristcutters: A Love Story
In the afterlife, a heartbroken young man seeks the girl who inspired his suicide after learning that she too is dead. -6 64
7 Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Goes Boating
Jack (Hoffman), a shy limo driver, meets Connie (Amy Ryan) for a blind date set up by Connie's co-worker. -9 37
8 Edward Burns, The Brothers McMullen
A family drama that centers on the tumultuous love lives of three small-town Irish-American brothers. -10 62
9 Mark Ruffalo, Sympathy for Delicious
A crippled D.J. (Christopher Thornton) in modern-day Los Angeles discovers that he has the power to heal everyone but himself. -12 32
10 Alan Ball, Towelhead
An Arab-American must contend with the pains of adolescence when her life takes a sudden and unexpected turn. -25 49
11 John Krasinski, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
After getting dumped, a grad student begins a project to interview men in an attempt to understand their bizarre behavior. -29 53
12 James C. Strouse, Grace Is Gone
A widower takes his daughters on a road trip in lieu of telling them about their mother's death in Iraq. -30 50