Distributor
First Run Features
The Film Center Building, 630 Ninth Ave. Ste. 1213 , New York, NY 10036
- Official Website
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marcm@firstrunfeatures.com
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First Run Features was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers to advance the distribution of independent film. Under the leadership of the late Fran Spielman, First Run Features quickly gained a reputation for its controversial catalog of daring documentaries and fiction films. Seymour Wishman continued her legacy over the next 38 years. Today First Run remains one of the largest independent distributors in North America, releasing 10 films a year in theaters nationwide and an additional 20 films annually to educational institutions, on home video, to television broadcasters, and online through a diverse mix of digital platforms.
The First Run legacy includes films by such notable directors as Spike Lee, Michael Apted, Peter Jackson, Alex Gibney, Joe Berlinger, Allan Miller, Rose Troche, Josh Aronson, Sven Nykvist, Jane Campion, Ross McElwee, Michael Winterbottom, DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Barbara Kopple, Dariush Mehrjui, David O. Russell, Lizzie Borden, Michael Verhoeven, Claude Chabrol, Jan Svankmajer, Claire Denis, Benoit Jacquot, Marleen Gorris, Radley Metzger, Deborah Shaffer, Manfred Kirchheimer, The Brothers Quay, George Sluizer, Monika Treut and Satyajit Ray.
Over the years, First Run Features has survived everything from FBI surveillance to the demise of so many of its competitors. First Run proudly celebrated its 30th Anniversary in August 2009 with a retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In 2001 we were honored with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
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Release Calendar
Quiet Voices in a Noisy World
November 14, 2025 | Limited
African American volunteers in Jasper, Texas work to overcome their community's history of racial violence and reclaim dignity through grassroots projects, museums, and memorials following the 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr.
Dusty & Stones
October 11, 2024 | Limited
Two struggling country music singers from the tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland journey to Texas determined to win big at a battle of the bands.
Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story
July 19, 2024 | Limited
A documentary exploring the life and work of influential mid-century architect and designer, Eliot Noyes, who is best remembered as the man behind IBM's landmark design program in the 1950s and 1960s.
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
March 20, 2024 | Limited
A feminist feature documentary about the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown with never-before-told stories.
Much Ado About Dying
March 15, 2024 | Limited
Looking after his madcap gay actor uncle, filmmaker Simon is engulfed in a whirl of Shakespeare and clutter, as uncle David lends his credit card to neighbors, greets visitors in the nude and teaches Simon a profound lesson on dying happy.
Down in Dallas Town
November 17, 2023 | Limited
Down in Dallas Town is a startling film about the shifting terrain of public memory sixty years after the murder of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the imp... Read all
Algren
October 1, 2021 | Limited
Charts the rise and fall of Nelson Algren, a writer whose transgressions, compassion and thirst for justice pushed him to become a champion of America's underclass and one of the 20th century's most consequential literary voices.
Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman
March 5, 2021
The dramatic story of American furniture designer, architect and early lifestyle entrepreneur Gustav Stickley and his rise, fall and eventual resurrection as an icon and founder of the first true "American style".
You Go to My Head
February 14, 2020 | Limited
Following a mysterious car accident in the desert, Dafne suffers from post-traumatic amnesia. Jake, the first person she sees when she regains consciousness, tells her he's her husband.
To-Date: $10,682
To Be of Service
November 1, 2019 | Limited
A documentary film about veterans with PTSD who find that, after other treatments fall short, a service dog helps them return to an independent-feeling life.
To-Date: $6,173