Getting feature directing gigs after doing shorts

Whenever I see a new film being released or making the news I always look up the director on imdb. A common trend I've seen is the director made a few shorts before their first feature. In some cases the shorts have been award winning, but not in all cases. And some directors have even gone from shorts to million dollar productions. Not all of these directors have written their own films either.

So if you've made a few really good short films, and even won a few awards, what is the correct path to getting yourself directing gigs on some low budget features? Representation? Word of mouth? Networking? Obviously there is the route of writing your own films and raising the funds yourself, but I'm talking about getting offered the director chair on an already funded project.

Cheers.
 
Yeah I figured networking played a huge part in it, and having "friends in high places". Not all the directors of works I've seen have gone through the self-financing route. I'm sure a lot of them do, but not all. Here's an example: Rupert Sanders. He went from directing two short films to directing Snow White & The Huntsman (which he didn't write). But now looking at his bio he's married to the daughter of one of the leads lol.

But there are other examples where I've seen directors go from a couple of shorts to say a $3mil picture. Just always wondered what they were doing different!
 
"So if you've made a few really good short films, and even won a few awards, what is the correct path..."

You may have already answered *part* of your question. Along with agreeing with the other responders, my hunch is they had good stories and demonstrated solid storytelling-on-film ability. That shines through, and in the right place at the right time?....
 
If you want to go from a few shorts immediately to the director's chair of a big budget production you need to know someone high up in the industry who believes in you. there's no way around that. and even then, this is extremely hard to pull off, never really happens anymore.

You need to build your career from the ground up. You have to make your first couple feature films yourself.
 
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