1. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
2. The Sword in the Stone (1963)
3. Wicked (2024)
4. Practical Magic (1998)
5. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)
6. The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
7. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
8. The Love Witch (2016)
9. Hocus Pocus (1993)
10. The Craft (1996)

Honorable Mentions: Four Rooms (1995), The Wizard of oz (1939), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Bibi Blocksberg (2002)

1. Movies about weird people falling in love (Science of Sleep, Eagle vs. Shark, Silver Linings Playbook, etc.)
2. Coming of age movies about weird/outcast teens (Rushmore, Ghost World, Juno, etc.)
3. Movies that are just one long deep conversation (My dinner with Andre, Before Sunrise-trilogy, etc.)
4. Psychological thrillers (bonus if “erotic” and/or from the 90s)
5. Girly teen movies (80s/90s/00s) 
6. Rom Coms (especially the 90s ones)
7. Extremely fucked up movies dealing with uncomfortable subjects like rape, pedophilia or self-harm/suicide in a kind of way that doesn’t feel inauthentic or like trauma porn (think Todd Solondz movies)
8. Atypical horror that is more focused on fucking you up psychologically rather than with gore (Ari Aster movies, Jordan Peele movies, etc.)
9. Movies about dysfunctional families that are both devastating and hopeful (think Little Miss Sunshine, Kajillionaire, etc.)
10. Documentaries about artists or musicians

Honorable Mentions: Screwball comedies from the 30s/40s, many different documentary sub-genres, mockumentaries, christmas movies, movies about queer people that are actually made by queer people, movies about dreamers (they’re almost always autistic-coded lol), classic murder mystery movies, stoner films, movies about music nerds,

Chick flicks are movies that are marketed towards women, mostly romantic comedies or sappy love stories.
They’re often (falsely) regarded as lowbrow entertainment.
I grew up loving the whole genre and had a huge collection, first on VHS then DVD. But when I was a teenager I started feeling insecure about how much I loved them. I wanted to be seen by others as a respectable cinephile with impeccable taste, so I started hiding all of my DVDs that I thought were embarrassing or uncool inside of a secret drawer and a few years later I just gave all of them away. 🥲
In recent years I’ve started buying all the same ones I used to have again whenever I see them at thrift stores and I’m happy to say my collection is slowly growing back to its original size. \o/

For me teen movies are a separate genre so I’ve excluded them on this list. I’ve also excluded Jane Austen adaptations. There are just so many that I love and I didn’t want them to take up all the space.

1. The First Wives Club (1996)
2. 13 going on 30 (2004)
3. Heartbreakers (2001)
4. Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001)
5. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
6. Ever After (1998)
7. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
8. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
9. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
10. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Honorable Mentions: Moonstruck (1987), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Jumping Jack Flash (1986), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), Legally Blonde (2001),
Uptown Girls (2003), What Women Want (2000)

Movies I liked/loved by people who for some reason only ever made one feature film.

I don’t count movies like “Sorry to bother you” or “Aftersun”, because they came out not that long ago and I’m pretty sure the directors are going to end up making some more films.

The idea for this list came from my friend Katja (shoutout!)

1. Gen Sekiguchi – Survive Style 5+ (2004)
   
   This is one of my all time favorite movies and I’m so sad that the director never made another one. It is complete perfection in my opinion and I recommend it a lot to friends because it’s relatively obscure and I want more people to know about it.
   Aesthetically incredible beautiful and artsy, very original, sweet, sad at times, funny!!! This movie has it all.
   
2. David Byrne – True Stories (1986)
   
   David Byrne is not only a musical genius but also a really great director and I find it very unfortunate that he never got back into filmmaking. The movie is very very pretty, well written, funny, original. You can really see how detail-oriented this guy is because every little thing in it is just perfect.
   Highly recommend!
   
3. Matthew Ryan Hoge – United States of Leland (2003)
   
   Also one of my favorite movies and my favorite performance of Ryan Gosling, who plays the lead.
   The movie is underrated in my opinion (3.3 average on Letterboxd) and also not really well-known despite having an absurdly stacked cast (Kevin Spacey, Don Cheadle, Jena Malone, Martin Donovan, Michelle Williams).
   I really related to the movie when I was a teen and it still touched me very deeply when I recently rewatched it.
   But TW: the premise is that a teen boy kills a disabled kid and no one knows his motive. And the film empathises with the killer and doesn’t straight up frame him as an evil monster.
   
4. Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade (2018)
   
   This movie was made during Bo Burnham’s hiatus from stand up in between “Make Happy” and “Inside”. His anxiety had gotten really bad and he felt unable to perform in front of an audience. The idea behind the movie was him channeling all that anxiety into a story about a teenage girl who’s also anxious constantly and that idea really paid off. I’ve watched it multiple times now and I’m still stunned every time that this movie was made by an adult man. It feels so authentic.
   There is one scene in it (I won’t spoil it) that I think every guy should watch to truly get how fucking scary it is to be a girl.
   
5. Yoshifumi Kondo – Whisper of the Heart (1995)
   
   This is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies and I only just recently found out that the director was set out to be next star director for the studio, but sadly passed away only a few years after making the movie. He had worked on many Ghibli movies before but this was his first time directing.
   
6. Jessica Sharzer – Speak (2004)
   
   A really great film adaptation of an amazing young adult novel. When I first watched the film I was so taken with it that I had to read the book right after, which for me always is the most obvious sign of a successful adaptation.
   It features a teenaged Kristen Stewart as the lead and her acting in this is incredible. Probably my favorite role of hers.
   The story is about sexual trauma (so big trigger warning!), but you don’t really know what exactly happened for most of it. It deals with the subject by showing the effects, the feelings and behavior of someone who went through trauma and is overwhelmed with having to deal with the aftermath.
   One of the best movies about this subject in my opinion.
   
7. John Swayback – The Big Kahuna (1999)
   
   This film is based on a play whose writer also wrote the screenplay. It’s a chamber play (small cast, set in one place during a small time frame) which I looove in movies.
   The 3 important characters are played by Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli (the vampire dad in Twilight).
   It’s basically just long philosophical discussions about life and work between two older, very jaded guys and one young guy who’s very naive and optimistic. I really like this movie.
   
8. Chris Blum – Big Time (1988)
   
   Great concert movie from the 80s about Tom Waits.
   It’s one of the best concert movies I’ve seen and there’s a lot of effort put in for it to be original and interesting.
   And the sets are really cool looking.
   Would recommend to any fans of Tom Waits’ music.
   
9. Nicholas Jasenovec – Paper Heart (2009)
   
   This is not the best movie ever, but it’s really cute and romantic and features cool animation throughout.
   It’s a mockumentary about the comedian/actor Lo Mutuc, who also wrote the script (You might know them by a different name. They are out as genderfluid now but the movie came out before) searching for love and interviewing random people about their relationships and experiences with finding love. They end up meeting Michael Cera (also playing himself) and they like each other and start dating. Mutuc and Cera play fictionalised versions of themselves and the director is played by Jake Johnson (Nick from New Girl) which is very random, but the interviews about love are all real afaik.
   
10. Drew Barrymore – Whip it (2009)
    
    Cute coming of age movie about a roller derby team featuring Elliot Page in the main role. It’s also not the best in my opinion but worth a watch if you like Elliot Page, roller derby or the aesthetics of 2000s coming-of-age indie movies.
    

Honorable Mention: Gabriel Sunday – Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston? (2015)

I unfortunately couldn’t put it on the list because it’s a short film but it’s probably my favorite short film ever made.
It’s about and starring Daniel Johnston, one of my favorite musicians and artists, who sadly passed away since it came out.
It is really really well done and features the singer Soko in a small role. There is also a beautiful cover of “Some things last a long time” sung by Lana Del Rey in it, that was recorded just for the movie.
Both Mac Miller and her contributed a lot of money to the kickstarter campaign that funded the movie.
It’s only 15 minutes and you can find it on YouTube.

I only count feature films. Most directors make short films early in their careers but they don’t really count as their debut to me.

Also I didn’t rank the films only on how much I like them but on how impressive of a feat it is in my opinion to have a movie that is that well crafted in all regards and that has such universal appeal to be your first movie. (so some movies that are a more acquired taste are ranked lower even though I love them the most)

It is crazy to me that all of these movies were someone’s first try at making feature films. The first 10 are obvious 10/10s to me.

1. Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023)
2. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
3. American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
4. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999)
5. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
6. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
7. Blood Simple (Coen Brothers, 1984)
8. Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005)
9. Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July, 2005)
10. Go Fish (Rose Troche, 1994)
    

Honorable Mentions:

Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)
Garden State (Zach Braff, 2004)
Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)
Sorry to bother you (Boots Riley, 2018)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, 2020)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)

If you know of more (good) movies that fit the description please tell me. It’s like one of my favorite genres. I love loser girls. They make me feel seen. <3

The main girl(s) needs to be really unpopular/bullied and socially awkward in a school setting or grown up and a real fuck-up who can’t get their shit together resulting in their life falling apart.
Bonus if they still live with their parents and have max. 1 friend and fail to date anyone (successfully).

1. Muriels Wedding
2.Welcome to the Dollhouse
3. May
4. Frances Ha.
5. Ghost World
6. Young Adult
7. Eighth Grade
8. Shiva Baby
9. Drop Dead Fred
10. Bottoms


Honorable Mentions: Fleabag (if you count the pro-shot of the play as a movie), Booksmart, Dinner in America and Ingrid goes West.

I have decided to make 2 separate lists for 90s teen movies, one fun and one serious, because I just love them all so much I couldn’t fit them into one.

1. Rushmore (1998)
2. 10 things I hate about you (1999)
3. But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
4. Dazed and Confused (1993)
5. The Doom Generation (1995)
6. Election (1999)
7. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
8. She’s all that (1999)
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
10. Jawbreaker (1999)

Honorable Mentions: Clueless (1995), Can’t Hardly Wait (1998), Dick (1999), The Opposite of Sex (1998), American Pie (1999)

(Most of the honorable mentions are guilty pleasures because of how problematic and/or stupid they are, so please don’t judge me too harshly for how much I love them)

1. Charlie Kaufman – Favs: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004), “Adaptation.” (2002), “Being John Malkovich” (1999), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008)
2. Miranda July – Favs: “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005) and “Kajillionaire” (2020)
3. Paul Thomas Anderson – Favs: “Magnolia” (1999), “Punch Drunk Love” (2002), “Boogie Nights” (1997), “There Will Be Blood” (2007)
4. Sofia Coppola – Favs: “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), “Lost in Translation” (2003), “Priscilla” (2023)
5. Wes Anderson – Favs: “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), “Rushmore” (1998), “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012)
6. Wong Kar-Wai – Favs: “Chungking Express” (1994), “Fallen Angels” (1995), “Happy Together” (1997)
7. Michel Gondry – Favs: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and “Science of Sleep” (2006)
8. Todd Solondz – Favs: “Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995), “Happiness”(1998), “Storytelling” (2001)
9. Yorgos Lanthimos – Favs: “The Favorite” (2018), “Poor Things” (2023), The Lobster” (2015)
10. Richard Linklater – Favs: “Before”-Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013), “Waking Life” (2001), “Dazed and Confused” (1993)

Honorable Mentions: Park chan wook – Favs: “Oldboy” (2003), “Lady Vengeance” (2005), “I’m a Cyborg, But That’s ok” (2006)

Mike Mills – Favs: “20th Century Women” (2016) and “C’mon C’mon” (2021)

Greta Gerwig – Favs: “Ladybird”(2017), “Frances Ha” (2012), “Mistress America” (2015)

Jim Jarmusch – Favs: “Night on Earth” (1990) and “Only Lovers Left Alive” (2013)

Gregg Araki – Favs: The Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (1993, 1995, 1997), “Mysterious Skin” (2004), “Smiley Face” (2007)

Terry Zwigoff – Favs: “Ghost World” (2001), “Crumb” (1994), “Art School Confidential” (2006)

Jordan Peele – Favs: “Get Out” (2017) and “Us” (2019)

Coen Brothers- Favs: “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “Fargo” (1996), “Blood Simple” (1984)

Satoshi Kon – Favs: “Tokyo Godfathers” (2003), “Perfect Blue” (1997), “Paranoia Agent” (Miniseries, 2004)

Diablo Cody – Favs: “Juno” (2007), “Young Adult” (2011), “Tully” (2018)

I got a request from a friend for a “Top 10 horror franchises” list, but unfortunately, despite having seen a lot of horror movies, the only franchise I have really strong positive feelings for/feel dedicated to, beyond watching 1-2 movies is “Scream” (I’ve seen every single one). So that would’ve been a very short list.
I thought instead I could just do horror movies in general. I hope that’s fine, too. 🥺

1. Silence of the Lambs (1990)
2. Get Out (2017)
3. May (2002)
4. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
5. The Wicker Man (1973)
6. Funny Games (1997)
7. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
8. Us (2019)
9. Scream (1996)
10. Midsommar (2019)

Honorable Mentions: Carrie (1976), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Audition (1999), House (1977), The Addiction (1995), The Shining (1980), Black Swan (2010), Repulsion (1965),

Also there are some movies that are labeled “Horror” but for some reason just don’t feel like horror movies to me, which is why I omitted them from this list, despite loving them a lot.
-> Freaks (1932), Perfect Blue (1997), American Psycho (2000), Sinners (2025),