First Features
A first film is a singular moment in a director’s career — sometimes taking the tentative first step down a long path, sometimes announcing the arrival of a fully-formed vision and sensibility. The disparate films collected here represent the debut features of some of the great directors of the last 100 years.
Amores Perros
(Amores perros)
Love. Betrayal. Death.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Mexico • 2000
- Director Alejandro González Iñárritu
- Cast Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Bauche, Goya Toledo, Alvaro Guerrero, Emilio Echevarría, Jorge Salinas
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Tubi TV, Freevee, Hoopla
The White Balloon
(بادکنک سفید)
Seven-year-old Razieh and her brother set out for the pet shop, after Razieh sets her heart on a goldfish in the shop window.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran • 1995
- Director Jafar Panahi
- Cast Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kafili, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Anna Borkowska, Mohammad Shahani
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on Criterion Channel
Salaam Bombay!
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, India, France • 1988
- Director Mira Nair
- Cast Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma, Anita Kanwar, Nana Patekar
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Black Girl
(La Noire de...)
Senegalese woman goes to work for a family in France, only to be blindsided by her new employers' racism and brutality.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Senegal, France • 1966
- Director Ousmane Sembène
- Cast Mbissine Thérèse Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine, Momar Nar Sene, Toto Bissainthe, Sophie Leclerc
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Plex, Plex Channel
Ivan's Childhood
(Иваново детство)
Based on a short story by Vladimir Bogomolov, the film tells the story of an orphan whose family is killed by the invading German forces during World War I,
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1962
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Nikolay Grinko, Yevgeni Zharikov, Valentina Malyavina, Irma Raush
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Plex, Plex Channel
Hiroshima Mon Amour
(Hiroshima mon amour)
The story of a young French actress and her affair with a Japanese man while on assignment in Hiroshima.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Japan • 1959
- Director Alain Resnais
- Cast Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud, Bernard Fresson
- Genre Drama, History, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
The 400 Blows
(Les Quatre Cents Coups)
The story of a misunderstood adolescent boy growing up in Paris.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1959
- Director François Truffaut
- Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Georges Flamant, Patrick Auffay, Robert Beauvais
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
La Pointe-Courte
A penetrating drama about a marriage on the brink of disintegration.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1955
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Silvia Monfort, Philippe Noiret, Marcel Jouet, Albert Lubrano, Anna Banegas, André Lubrano
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, DocAlliance Films, Max Amazon Channel
Pather Panchali
(পথের পাঁচালী)
Together, Apu and his sister, Durga, make do with what they have and enjoy the simple joys of childhood.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- India • 1955
- Director Satyajit Ray
- Cast Subir Banerjee, Uma Das Gupta, Karuna Banerjee, Kanu Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Runki Banerjee
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Hoichoi, Max Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Sanshiro Sugata
(姿三四郎)
Sanshiro, a stubborn young man, travels into the city in order to learn Jujutsu. But upon his arrival he discovers a new form of self-defence: Judo.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1943
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Denjirō Ōkōchi, Susumu Fujita, Yukiko Todoroki, Ryūnosuke Tsukigata, Takashi Shimura, Ranko Hanai
- Genre News
- Available on Criterion Channel, Plex, Plex Channel
The Golden Age
(L'Âge d'Or)
A surrealist masterpiece.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1930
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Caridad de Laberdesque, Max Ernst, Josep Llorens Artigas, Lionel Salem
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on FlixFling, IndieFlix, Kino Film Collection, Amazon Video, Kanopy
Strike
(Стачка)
Set in 1903, the film depicts a factory on the verge of unrest, which is then plunged into a strike after the suicide of one of the workers.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1925
- Director Sergei Eisenstein
- Cast Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov, Ivan Klyukvin, Aleksandr Antonov, I. Ivanov
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, FlixFling, Amazon Video, Kanopy, Public Domain Movies