A lot of famous actors made their directing debuts in 2025, but none of their efforts were good enough to make it onto this list. That sucks for me, because I’d probably get more clicks on this article if I included a few of them. Nevertheless, as Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin likes to say, the standard is the standard.
If you’re not familiar with the way I compile this annual feature, I don’t count documentary filmmakers here because they get mentioned in my best documentaries post, which will be online momentarily. KPop Demon Hunters does not make this list because one of its directors has a previous directing credit. (Chris Appelhans directed Wish Dragon.) By the same token, the Safdie brothers split up and both came out with solo efforts this year, but neither of those makes this list.
I don’t mention the best second films by directors, but rather the ones who showed significant improvement between their first and second films, and those in 2025 are: Sophie Brooks (Oh, Hi!), Zach Cregger (Weapons), Victor Danell a.k.a. Crazy Pictures (Watch the Skies), James Griffiths (The Ballad of Wallis Island), Angus McLachlan (A Little Prayer), Rungano Nyoni (On Becoming a Guinea Fowl), Matt Shakman (The Fantastic Four: First Steps), James Sweeney (Twinless), Shih-Ching Tsou (Left-Handed Girl), and Max Walker-Silverman (Rebuilding). Now let’s get to our illustrious debutantes.
Kate Beecroft
Sometimes, the movie finds you. The British actress was on a road trip around the Rocky Mountains when she encountered Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga selling horses and dealing with the sudden death of Tabatha’s husband, and so she made East of Wall out of the story with the Zimiga women portraying themselves. The result was a Western that felt modern and lived-in.
Ugo Bienvenu
In a year that didn’t have KPop Demon Hunters, his Arco would have been good enough to be the year’s best animated movie. The 38-year-old Frenchman (who grew up in Guatemala, interestingly enough) delivered a brilliantly colored science-fiction film about a boy who travels through time and helps save the human race from environmental disaster.
Emilie Blichfeldt
The 34-year-old Norwegian did a number of short films before coming up with a delirious and gruesome patch on the Cinderella story in The Ugly Stepsister. Against the beauty of the fairy-tale setting there’s horrifying stuff about what women do to their bodies to be considered beautiful, and it’s no wonder that the film’s trailer mimicked the one for The Substance. If Norway hadn’t produced Sentimental Value in the same year, this would have been a worthy Oscar-race entry for the country.
Andrew DeYoung
The 43-year-old Californian has a lengthy resumé in both short films and TV (A.P. Bio, PEN15, Our Flag Means Death), and he seemed to find a kindred spirit in Tim Robinson. They collaborated on Friendship, a great example of cringe comedy about a man’s attempt to make male friends that only creeps out other men. That shroom trip in a Subway sandwich shop will make you see those fast-food outlets in a new light.
Drew Hancock
Oh, how cleverly Companion holds up under multiple viewings. The 46-year-old Omaha native had worked extensively writing TV shows like Suburgatory and My Dead Ex, and his first feature film was a patch on Ex Machina that was a lot funnier than Alex Garland’s original. The movie probably would have earned more money at the box office if the major plot revelation hadn’t handcuffed Warner Bros.’ marketing department.
Lawrence Lamont
Bless them, there are critics who haven’t forgotten his One of Them Days, which hit theaters back in the second week of January. While I haven’t gone so far as to name that movie as one of the best of the year, I still appreciate it as a mainstream comedy for Black audiences that addresses serious issues while also scoring laughs. The 35-year-old Detroit native previously directed music videos for Big Sean, and you won’t soon forget his depiction of the payday loan place.
Alexis Langlois
The non-binary 36-year-old French filmmaker used their experience directing music videos to make the gayest movie of 2025, Queens of Drama. The feverish nightmare about a tortured romance between two lesbian music stars is a glitterbomb of a musical scored alternately with aggressively wholesome pop and grimy punk songs.
Ben Leonberg
One way to get your attention is to cast your dog as the star of your movie. It’s an eye-catching gimmick, but thankfully, his Good Boy had more than that. The 38-year-old New Jersey native came over from the world of advertising to create one of the year’s most original horror films, one that speculated on what grief must be like for a pet whose owner is dying.
Carson Lund
I already mentioned his Eephus in my post about the year’s best movie dialogue. The New Hampshirite and film critic for Slant magazine made a gently poignant hangout movie about two baseball teams playing one final game on a field that’s set to be plowed over for the construction of a school. Any time a film critic crosses over and does themselves proud like this, I have to recognize it.
Charlie Polinger
The Plague is still playing at the AMC Grapevine Mills this coming weekend. The Washington D.C. native conceived the film while recovering from COVID and reading through the journals he kept when he was 12. He delivered a fine and visually striking study of pre-teen bullying with a protagonist who is both victim and perpetrator of it. Next, he’s adapting “The Masque of the Red Death” with Mikey Madison. Oooh!
Michael Shanks
As I mentioned in my review of his Together, he’s not to be confused with the Canadian actor by the same name. Rather, this Michael Shanks is an Australian who was filming the pilot for a web series when he was still in high school. He based his body horror movie on his own relationship with a woman he’s been with for 15 years, and it made us laugh and feel deeply uncomfortable this past summer.
Eva Victor
Their Sorry, Baby made my top 10 list, so of course they land a spot here. The non-binary 31-year-old Paris native worked as a writer for Reductress and The New Yorker and did some stand-up before breaking through as an actor on TV’s Billions. Their film made great comedy out of the fallout from a woman being raped and receiving no closure except her rapist’s job and office.
Honorable mention: Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down … Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse … Embeth Davidtz’ Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight … Harris Dickinson’s Urchin … Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch … Hwang Byeong-guk’s Yadang: The Snitch … Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight … Rebecca Lenkiewicz’ Hot Milk … Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams … Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life … Alex Russell’s Lurker … Leonardo van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet.
