Steven Spielberg and QuentinTarantino were among the friends who joined Barrymore on the red carpet to celebrate the screening, which took place at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Whip It tells the story Bliss Cavendar, played by Academy Award nominee Ellen Page, who dreams of escaping her tiny, truck-stop of a town Bodeen, Texas but has to fend off her mother's attempt to make her into a beauty queen.
Barrymore said that getting behind the camera is something she had always wanted to do.
"Of course, I wanted to believe I could pull this off, I wasn't sure if I could," explained Barrymore. "But, that is where you need to be with your life is constantly challenging yourself and if you know that you can do it, that means you have done it. It is time to turn the fear factor on again, reach new heights. This was everything I wanted to do my whole life, so here I went with it."