The following 10 films were either directed, written, or produced by – or based on original source material from – professional creators born into filmmaking prestige.
Each comes from the children of Oscar nominees, who either earned Academy Award recognition for directing or another related discipline. While an established legacy may have lent advantage to their next of kin – all of whom were exposed to the Hollywood system at an early age – there is no taking away from what they (their children) were able to achieve when given the opportunity to thrive on their own merit.
Rails & Ties (2007)
From Alison Eastwood, the oldest daughter of Oscar-winning actor/director Clint Eastwood, comes this drama starring Kevin Bacon and a young Miles Heizer (13 Reasons Why).
Eastwood's directorial debut moved audiences beyond expectation. It told the story of the unlikely bond between a young boy (Heizer) and the train engineer (Bacon) who accidentally killed his mentally-ill, suicidal mother. Though she has only directed once more since Rails & Tails, most modern moviegoers will remember Eastwood's turn as her real-life father's estranged daughter in The Mule (2018).
World War Z (2013)
Marc Foster and Brad Pitt's apocalyptic action horror – which is quite a relevant film to watch right now – was based on Max Brooks' 2006 novel.
Brooks is the son of noted Hollywood power couple, Mel Brooks and the late Anne Bancroft (The Graduate). While the younger Brooks provided the blueprint for an eventual-commercial smash, his comedian legend father earned Oscar nominations for the scripts of two films he directed, Young Frankenstein and The Producers. The latter even took home Original Screenplay gold in 1969.
Asthma (2015)
Gus and Ruby are a rock-and-roller and a tattoo artist on the joyride of a lifetime in Jake Hoffman's directorial debut.
When he's not sporadically appearing as a character actor in Martin Scorsese movies, Hoffman – the son of Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman – makes his further career pursuits readily known. Especially in this incredibly-slept on picture, which provided a starring film vehicle for noted TV actress Krysten Ritter (Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 and Jessica Jones).
All Things Must Pass (2015)
Interestingly, Colin Hanks followed in the footstep of his father Tom Hanks when he churned out a music-focused behind-the-camera vehicle for his filmmaking debut.
As its "The Rise and Fall of Tower Records" subtitle indicates, the documentary focuses on the beginning and the end of the famous end of the eponymous enterprise. In their review, Variety argued Hanks' film helps baby boomers and Gen Xers "fondly recall the joys of discovery during shopping sprees in brick-and-mortar music stores." As one would expect, the soundtrack shreds too.
Nightcrawler (2014)
A-lister Jake Gyllenhaal commenced his foray into producing with Dan Gilroy's thriller, for which he delivered a Golden Globe-nominated performance as an ambitious, crime-staging photographer. Furthermore, he and sister Maggie also helm from a pair of filmmakers, one of whom once earned a screenplay nomination at The Academy Awards.
While Gyllenhall's father Stephen is more known for directing, mother Naomi Foni – whose directorial debut Very Good Girls (2013) starred Dakota Fanning – received an Oscar nomination for her work on the Running on Empty (1988) script some 24 years earlier.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
"Walk hard."
Having first teamed up within the writer's room for the short-lived cult TV series Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000), Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan struck cult-hit gold yet again with Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, their Walk the Line (2005) musical/biopic parody.
The latter filmmaker and scribe is the son of Lawrence Kasdan, who has earned four Oscar nominations total for writing and producing the following (which he also directed): The Big Chill (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1998), and Grand Canyon (1991).
The Man On Lincoln's Nose (2000)
Alfred Hitchcock's late daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, lived her life relatively out of the spotlight. Nevertheless, she notably served as a producer on the Oscar-nominated short documentary about Hitchcock's frequent collaborator and art director, Robert F. Boyle.
The title refers to a key moment in North by Northwest (1959), where two characters dangle from Lincoln's Mount Rushmore facial carving. If one is eager to learn exactly how Hitchcock and Boyle pulled this climactic scene off, then The Man On Lincoln's Nose should be the next film they watch.
Thank You For Smoking (2005)
It is no secret multi-Oscar nominee Jason Reitman is himself the son of a fellow Oscar-nominee, director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Twins). Although the elder Reitman's nomination did not come for a directorial effort of his own, but rather for producing Jason's Up in the Air.
Yet, it was the younger Reitman's work on Thank You For Smoking that perhaps marveled audiences the most. The satirical black comedy impressively convinced viewers to root for Big Tobacco's chief spokesman (Eckhart), whose exploits exclusively involve convincing American citizens to smoke.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), an institutionalized con man who pleaded insanity to avoid jail time, transforms into something else entirely by the end of director Milos Forman's Oscar-sweeping film.
The same rang true for the film's producer, Michael Douglas, who fought hard to develop the eventual Best Picture-winner prior to becoming an A-list actor himself. As a result, he established clout independent of his fellow Oscar-nominated actor/producer father, the late Kirk Douglas.
Alpha Dog (2006)
Nick Cassavetes' roman-à-clef about a true-life drug debt-inspired kidnapping gone wrong struggled to match the success of his biggest hit, 2004's The Notebook, largely due to release-delaying distribution woes. However, his Scorsesian deployment of the film's ever-resonate Wizard of Oz motif helped it gain new life; first over DVD and more recently on Netflix.
In his ensemble headlined by an MTV Movie Award-winning breakout performance from popstar Justin Timberlake, Cassavetes also drew many critical comparisons to his father, John Cassavetes. The late Cassavetes was nominated for three separate Oscars in the midst of his "New Hollywood" heyday: Supporting Actor (The Dirty Dozen), Original Screenplay (Faces), and Director (A Woman Under the Influence).