There is a longstanding belief that the second films of promising young directors often fail to live up to their attention grabbing first features, but 2007 has offered up numerous examples of directors who managed to equal or even gain ground (either artistically or at the box office) on their promising debuts.

Zack Snyder followed up his well-regarded remake of Dawn of the Dead with 300, the first blockbuster of the year, and the first movie of 2007 to make over 200 million at the box office.

Greg Mottola took over a decade to follow up his first feature - the critically favored indie comedy The Daytrippers, but Superbad defied many expectations becoming a big hit even though it was an R rated comedy aimed at teens with almost no bankable stars in the cast.

Judd Apatow redefined the boundaries of what a Hollywood romantic comedy could be with his debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but this year’s Knocked Up did bigger box office and got even better reviews than his previous film.

Edgar Wright cooked up one of the best films of 2004 with his zombie movie Shaun of the Dead. He and his filmmaking partners Simon Pegg and Nick Frost captured lightning in a bottle once again with Hot Fuzz, a film that simultaneously spoofed and emulated every action movie featuring buddy cops - and earned nearly twice in America what his first film did.

Jason Reitman proved he was a director to watch with the wicked satire Thank You For Smoking, but the soon to be released Juno, featuring an excellent debut script by Diablo Cody, will most likely earn nearly unanimous critical praise and the PG-13 rating should help bring this film to a bigger audience than his first.