Early-career Short Films By Your Favourite Filmmakers
Whatever they said about a journey of a thousand miles, yes
Before the awards campaigns and studio budgets, the most renowned filmmakers of the world were working with scraps: borrowed cameras, favours from friends, and budgets scrambled from college funds and gambling wins. Christopher Nolan trapped a man inside a looping nightmare in a cramped apartment. Abbas Kiarostami built tension from a boy, a loaf of bread, and a stray dog blocking an alley. Martin Scorsese turned a morning shave into an act of self-destruction. These were not calling cards polished for prestige. But they were important steps to their journey either way. As any filmmaker would tell you, the first step in being a director is to actually take a camera and start shooting anything.
The following short films are proof of where that advice can take you. Some, like We Anderson's Bottle Rocket, single-handedly launched their director's career. Others set the blueprint for their future works. Long before global fame, these short films were your favourite director's stepping stone to that big break.
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Doodlebug, Christopher Nolan (1997)
Before nonlinear timelines became his trademark, Nolan explored recursion in a three-minute chamber piece. Doodlebug follows a man, played by Jeremy Theobald, who frantically tries to kill a tiny insect in his apartment. The pursuit ends with a revelation: the “bug” is a miniature version of himself. The film folds reality inward, trapping its protagonist inside a loop of self-destruction. The obsession with doubling and fractured identity would later resurface in Memento and Inception.
Where to watch: YouTube
Bread and Alley, Abbas Kiarostami (1970)
Kiarostami’s debut short tracks a boy walking home with a loaf of bread. A stray dog blocks the narrow alley he must cross. It's not a grand premise, but at a runtime of barely ten minutes, it captures Kiarostami’s lifelong focus on moral choice in everyday life. The child experiments with distance, distraction, and patience before finding a way past the animal. The tension rests in a simple encounter, proving that drama does not require grand spectacles.
Where to watch: Kanopy
Vincent, Tim Burton (1982)
Vincent centers on a boy who imagines himself as a gothic horror figure. Shot in stop-motion with stark lighting, the film channels Burton's signature German Expressionism references through suburban fantasy. The child’s interior world overtakes reality, creating a tragicomic portrait of creative obsession. Burton’s fascination with misunderstood outsiders and stylized morbidity emerges fully formed here.
Where to watch: Disney+
Judgement, Park Chan-wook (1999)
Set after a department store collapse, Judgement revolves around two families claiming the same unidentified body for compensation. The bureaucratic setting intensifies the moral ugliness on display. Park stages the dispute as a bitter satire on greed and opportunism. Themes of guilt and retribution that later shaped Oldboy are already visible in this early work.
Where to watch: MUBI
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The Big Shave, Martin Scorsese (1967)
A young man shaves in a pristine bathroom while “I Can’t Get Started” plays on the soundtrack. He continues even after drawing blood, turning routine grooming into an act of self-harm. The film is widely read as a metaphor for America’s involvement in Vietnam. Scorsese fuses Catholic guilt with political anger, presenting violence as ritual for self-purification.
Where to watch: Criterion Channel
Cigarettes & Coffee, Paul Thomas Anderson (1993)
Structured around a single twenty-dollar bill, the film weaves together several strangers inside a diner. Their conversations hint at gambling debts and moral compromise. Anderson experiments with intersecting storylines and character-driven tension. The emphasis on flawed men navigating risk would later define Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood.
Where to watch: YouTube
Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB, George Lucas (1967)
Set in an underground dystopia, the short follows a man attempting escape from a surveillance state governed by numeric identities. The film blends stark production design with documentary-style realism. Lucas builds a world through architecture and sound, privileging atmosphere over dialogue. The concept later expanded into THX 1138, establishing his interest in systems of control that would echo through Star Wars.
Where to watch: YouTube
Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson (1994)
Co-written with Owen Wilson, the black-and-white short introduces three friends planning a string of ill-fated crimes. The tone mixes deadpan humor with melancholy. Even at thirteen minutes, Anderson’s symmetrical framing and fixation on male friendship are evident. The expanded feature retained the core dynamic while broadening the emotional stakes.
Where to watch: Criterion Channel
REW-FFWD, Denis Villeneuve (1994)
Told through the “black box” of a photojournalist’s memory, the film moves back and forth across time as he reflects on an assignment in Jamaica. Fiction merges with documentary interviews about culture and identity. Villeneuve treats memory as an editing process, foreshadowing the fractured perception that later shaped Arrival.
Where to watch: National Film Board of Canada
Boy and Bicycle, Ridley Scott (1965)
Starring his brother Tony Scott, the film follows a schoolboy skipping class to roam through industrial Hartlepool on a bicycle. The narrative is minimal, yet the emphasis on landscape and movement stands out. Scott frames factories, shoreline, and sky with painterly precision. The visual control that later defined Blade Runner begins here with a boy riding through northern England.
Where to watch: YouTube