(Credit: Press)
There are many people in Hollywood who have reached dizzying levels of success from a very young age, with directors like Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson all directing some of their best work before the age of 30. It’s enough to make you retreat forever and give up on you dreams entirely, making you feel less than adequate when you remember that Whiplash and Boogie Nights were both debut feature films.
However, within the wider context of the film industry, directors like Xavier Dolan exploded onto the scene at a much younger age, with his titular film I Killed My Mother being released when the French wunderkind was just 20 years old. The director since went on to make films like Mommy, Lawrence Always and Matthias and Maxime, despite his statement in recent years that he was going to quit filmmaking altogether after not receiving enough critical attention. Perhaps there is such a thing as peaking early.
One young filmmaker broke the world record as the youngest director to make a feature-length film, with Saugat Bista making Love You Baba at just the age of seven. The film follows a single father as he cares for his children after his partner dies during childbirth. While Bista broke a record for being the youngest director, he is not the youngest Hollywood director, as the film was made in Nepal.
But there is one director who made her first feature film at just the age of 12, and remains as the youngest Hollywood director of all time.
Who is the youngest director to make a Hollywood movie?
Pathogen was directed in 2006 by Emily Hagins and is a unique spin on the zombie apocalypse genre. The Austin-based director was just 12 when she helmed the independent horror, she wrote, produced and directed the film herself. After writing the script in 2004, she received a grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund to make the film in 2005. The film was met well by a niche community of horror lovers, with Hagins then going on to make several other films, such as The Retelling and My Sucky Teen Romance.
In recent years, the pioneering director partnered with Netflix for Coin Heist, as well as a digital series called Hold to Your Best Self. She has done all of this by the age of 27, which is enough to cast your own creative exploits in a harsh light.
Who is the youngest director to win an Oscar?
While Hagins was not met with critical acclaim for her films, there have been other directors to soar to unseen heights at a young age. After directing Whiplash, Chazelle was being eyed as one of the most impressive newcomers in the industry. Through the proof of concept for his jazz-based thriller, the director then received funding for a 19-day feature film shoot and worked with Miles Teller to bring his vision to life.
The success of the film then led to the creation of La La Land, and the rest, as they say, is history. The modern love story was showered with awards, with the director winning the coveted Oscar for ‘Best Director’ at just the age of 32. In addition, Emma Stone won her first Oscar for ‘Best Actress’, with the project also winning ‘Best Original Score’ and being famously mistaken with Moonlight during the Best Picture announcement.
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