Can you name the directors from their directorial debuts?

created by Derek

Enter a director (last names acceptable) in the box below
Correctly named directors will show up below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
Note: Feature films only - shorts, documentaries, and TV work is not included.
The 'Movie' clue is hidden in case you'd prefer to try the guess the movie debut verson
Also try: Superhero Debuts

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06:00

Show Missed Answers

Year	Director	Movie
1941		Citizen Kane
1941		The Maltese Falcon
1968		Night of the Living Dead
1973		Badlands
1980		Ordinary People
1981		Body Heat
1983		Yentl
1984		Blood Simple
1986		Jumpin’ Jack Flash
1989		Sex, Lies, and Videotape
1989		Say Anything

Year	Director	Movie
1990		Dances with Wolves
1991		Little Man Tate
1992		Reservoir Dogs
1992		Strictly Ballroom
1992		El mariachi
1993		The Man Without a Face
1994		Shallow Grave
1999		Being John Malkovich
1999		The Virgin Suicides
1999		American Beauty
2003		House of 1000 Corpses

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Debut Directors Quiz

by Derek

Created Sep 4, 2009 in Movies
Featured Sep 4, 2009
Game Plays 20,532

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	Nolij:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 16:46 GMT	20 points
	Not real pleased with this mix. Way too heavy on actors-turned-directors.

	RedLIon:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 16:46 GMT	3 points
	Dude. Rob Zombie? Really? Anyway, still a fun quiz, was a good idea.

	KarenNfld:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:05 GMT	5 points
	Kasdan, not Kasden. Luhrmann has 2 n's.

	Etheridge2:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:09 GMT	8 points
	good idea, though with hiding the movies you just have to guess directors, it should be where you can click on either director or film and then opt to guess the other, I do agree with the first 2 comments though it is an odd mix and too heavy on the likes of actors turned directors, where are martiv, george, francis, steven, etc. ?

	beatrixkiddo:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:20 GMT	3 points
	i'm sorry, but this really niggles me. and i admit that i'm not the best speller in the world. but baz l-mann spells his name with 2 'n's. i had only typed in 1 when it gave me the answer - you should have to type in both - it's how he spells his name.

	jaymc:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:28 GMT	3 points
	Why did I think Howard Hawks directed "The Maltese Falcon"?

	ZapRowsdower:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:37 GMT	11 points
	Pretty much impossible without the movie hints showing.

	JohnJF:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:38 GMT	15 points
	Not to be overly presumptuous, but how realistic is it for people to get many answers right without the clues?

	rockgolf:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:40 GMT	3 points
	@jaymc: Hawks... Falcon... Nope, I can't see any reason you'd make a connection there.

	KevGleas:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:41 GMT	2 points
	Without the movie clues, the quiz is just about seeing how many directors you can name. BORING.

	chrispaz:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:44 GMT	3 points
	Have to agree, without the clues it's just random shots in the dark. I was just naming all the famous directors I knew from around these years (Scorsese, Lumet, ad nauseum), and it turns out to be a bit of a waste of time. A good quiz idea, badly presented.

	thefooman:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:45 GMT	4 points
	@ZapRowsdower and KevGleas...the movie clue is hidden so you can try it the other way..see the note at the top.

	buppyspek:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:50 GMT	4 points
	Some of my favorite movies are on this list, but half of them I had no idea who directed them. Silly me. I only got 2 before I clicked the "show movies" button.

	Nuclear_Knuckles:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:52 GMT	-2 points
	I'm surprised Streisand is one of the best-known so far. Obviously _she's_ famous, but I didn't realize anyone remembered anything about Yentl. I only remember it because of the Mad Magazine parody, for some reason.

	deej:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 17:59 GMT	1 point
	@nuclear_knuckles - ME TOO!! MENTL! Good ole Mad Magazine

	dtownstomp:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 18:22 GMT	1 point
	Maltese Falcon is amazing

	bellytimber:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 18:54 GMT	7 points
	One of the only disappointing quizzes I've seen on the site. Answers are uneven and weirdly actor-centric, and the initial version without clues is silly.

	Archer16:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 21:22 GMT	2 points
	Agree with comments 1&4. Way too many big names missing. I'd love to see this quiz doubled, see this list for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_director .

	Figment:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 22:03 GMT	2 points
	@jaymc: Well the photo on the title page might have helped. ;)

Year	Director	Movie
1990		Dances with Wolves
1991		Little Man Tate
1992		Reservoir Dogs
1992		Strictly Ballroom
1992		El mariachi
1993		The Man Without a Face
1994		Shallow Grave
1999		Being John Malkovich
1999		The Virgin Suicides
1999		American Beauty
2003		House of 1000 Corpses

Comment below threshold: show it

	FilmJunkie:	Sep 4th, 2009 at 23:48 GMT	7 points
	I'm sure I will get voted down for this, but I am a little annoyed with how joe shmo the film quizzes are. I'm not even talking Tarr and Kieslowski and Visconti, but I mean I would like to see some respect shown to Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Bunuel, Godard, etc. I'm talking the film school 101 directors not anything too obscure. Seriously an Ingmar Bergman filmography quiz would make my day.

	guyleguy:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 01:53 GMT	-4 points
	You realize this is a general knowledge site, right? If you want hyper-difficult film trivia, go to a site that specializes in it. Most of the baseball quizzes are too easy for me, but I don't bitch about it.

	MovieDynamic:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 02:15 GMT	3 points
	Yes, PLEASE please please do Ingmar Bergman filmography quiz. That would be marvelous. Best director ever.

	debbiedoesnothin:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 03:41 GMT	1 point
	@cigarette: Redford has done very well as a director. He won an Oscar for Ordinary People and Quiz Show was also well received by critics. A River Runs Through It, Horse Whisperer and Milagro Beanfield War are some of my favorite movies.

	CSniker:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 04:03 GMT	3 points
	I'll add on to all of the other like-minded comments: There are a lot of directors missing, and I'm not even a big film person. Capra, Scorcese, Coppola (the original), and I'm sure others I haven't even heard of. Even if you were just trying to make it more general knowledge, Spike Lee maybe? In terms of "general knowledge," I am not a big enough film/actor buff to know which actors have directed a movie, so I'm more likely to know directors who are known for...directing.

	juviejay:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 05:34 GMT	1 point
	I was thinking Oliver Stone, Alfred Hitchcock, the Wachowski Brothers, Luc Besson.

	HamanKarn:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 12:40 GMT	2 points
	@cigarette: If you think Welles isn't significant as a director, I'd be surprised. Even then, Welles had several notable films to his credit (his adaptations of Macbeth and Othello; The Third Man; The Magnificent Ambersons; Touch of Evil; The Trial).

	dummo:	Sep 5th, 2009 at 14:42 GMT	1 point
	So many great directors there... yet for some reason everyone recognizes Rob Zombie ahead of them.

	jpgill:	Sep 6th, 2009 at 01:17 GMT	2 points
	Here are some more debuts of people you might know... Boys N the Hood The Producers What's Up Tiger Lilly? Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sixteen Candles Adventures in Babysitting That Thing You Do Dumb and Dumber Bottle Rocket 40 Year Old Virgin Caddyshack She Gotta Have it Clerks The Brother McMullen Heaven Can Wait Hells Angels

	rbartlewski:	Sep 6th, 2009 at 17:22 GMT	2 points
	@haman karn welles acted in the third man but he did not direct it. the film was directed by carol reed

	Muhammad Ali Baba:	Sep 8th, 2009 at 06:58 GMT	-2 points
	One of the worst quizzes ever to appear on Sporcle. Without the names of the movies, you're just pulling names of directors out your ass.

	baronac:	Sep 25th, 2009 at 02:04 GMT	1 point
	@cigarette: Despite what you might think of the guy, Mel Gibson is a substantial actor/director (much more so on the directing front). And, as mentioned, Robert Redford. They both outshine Penny Marshall by a landslide.

	Splodge:	Jan 19th, 2010 at 22:33 GMT	1 point
	Yeah, a surprising number of actors-turned-directors here. Fun nevertheless!