First Films
Cinema history is dotted with thunderous works of art that announced their makers’ brilliance right out of the gate.
| Spine # | Title | Director | Country | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The Fall of Otrar | Ardak Amirkulov | Kazakhstan, | 1991 | |
|
Yam daabo | Idrissa Ouédraogo | Burkina Faso, | 1987 | |
| 1293 |
|
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure | Tim Burton | United States, | 1985 |
| 1292 |
|
Salaam Bombay! | Mira Nair | India, | 1988 |
| 1288 |
|
Hell’s Angels | Howard Hughes | United States, | 1930 |
|
The Traveler | Abbas Kiarostami | Iran, | 1974 | |
| 1287 |
|
House Party | Reginald Hudlin | United States, | 1990 |
| 12 |
|
This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | United States, | 1984 |
| 1274 |
|
Compensation | Zeinabu irene Davis | United States, | 1999 |
| 1276 |
|
Saving Face | Alice Wu | United States, | 2004 |
| 1271 |
|
You Can Count on Me | Kenneth Lonergan | United States, | 2000 |
| 5 |
|
The 400 Blows | François Truffaut | France, | 1959 |
| 1262 |
|
Killer of Sheep | Charles Burnett | United States, | 1977 |
| 119 |
|
Withnail and I | Bruce Robinson | United Kingdom, | 1987 |
| 1260 |
|
Basquiat | Julian Schnabel | United States, | 1996 |
| 691 |
|
Thief | Michael Mann | United States, | 1981 |
| 1252 |
|
Performance | Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg | United Kingdom, | 1970 |
| 551 |
|
Cronos | Guillermo del Toro | Mexico, | 1993 |
| 1247 |
|
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling | Richard Pryor | United States, | 1986 |
| 1238 |
|
Gummo | Harmony Korine | United States, | 1997 |
|
The Seventh Victim | Mark Robson | United States, | 1943 | |
| 654 |
|
Repo Man | Alex Cox | United States, | 1984 |
| 1231 |
|
Real Life | Albert Brooks | United States, | 1979 |
| 1230 |
|
Not a Pretty Picture | Martha Coolidge | United States, | 1975 |
|
Brief Encounters | Kira Muratova | Ukraine, | 1967 | |
| 1227 |
|
Risky Business | Paul Brickman | United States, | 1983 |
|
Orlando, My Political Biography | Paul B. Preciado | France, | 2023 | |
| 1220 |
|
Bound | Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski | United States, | 1996 |
| 1219 |
|
Girlfight | Karyn Kusama | United States, | 2000 |
| 1209 |
|
Nothing but a Man | Michael Roemer | United States, | 1964 |
|
Je tu il elle | Chantal Akerman | Belgium, | 1975 | |
|
Saute ma ville | Chantal Akerman | Belgium, | 1968 | |
| 834 |
|
Blood Simple | Joel Coen | United States, | 1984 |
| 783 |
|
Pather Panchali | Satyajit Ray | India, | 1955 |
|
Bim, the Little Donkey | Albert Lamorisse | France, | 1951 | |
| 428 |
|
Blast of Silence | Allen Baron | United States, | 1961 |
| 1196 |
|
Nanny | Nikyatu Jusu | United States, | 2022 |
| 1190 |
|
Drylongso | Cauleen Smith | United States, | 1998 |
|
The Baby Carriage | Bo Widerberg | Sweden, | 1963 | |
| 408 |
|
Breathless | Jean-Luc Godard | France, | 1960 |
| 1184 |
|
The Watermelon Woman | Cheryl Dunye | United States, | 1996 |
| 1183 |
|
Medicine for Melancholy | Barry Jenkins | United States, | 2008 |
|
Accattone | Pier Paolo Pasolini | Italy, | 1961 | |
| 1179 |
|
Targets | Peter Bogdanovich | United States, | 1968 |
| 1173 |
|
Hollywood Shuffle | Robert Townsend | United States, | 1987 |
| 80 |
|
The Element of Crime | Lars von Trier | Denmark, | 1984 |
|
Loving Couples | Mai Zetterling | Sweden, | 1964 | |
|
The Seventh Continent | Michael Haneke | Austria, | 1989 | |
| 1154 |
|
Eve’s Bayou | Kasi Lemmons | United States, | 1997 |
| 909 |
|
Night of the Living Dead | George A. Romero | United States, | 1968 |
| 1151 |
|
Sound of Metal | Darius Marder | United States, | 2019 |
| 1148 |
|
Kalpana | Uday Shankar | India, | 1948 |
| 1146 |
|
Muna moto | Dikongué-Pipa | Cameroon, | 1975 |
| 1145 |
|
Chess of the Wind | Mohammad Reza Aslani | Iran, | 1976 |
| 1143 |
|
Sambizanga | Sarah Maldoror | Angola, | 1972 |
| 1141 |
|
Faya dayi | Jessica Beshir | Ethiopia, | 2021 |
| 1140 |
|
Buck and the Preacher | Sidney Poitier | United States, | 1972 |
| 1138 |
|
Daddy Longlegs | Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie | United States, | 2009 |
| 1137 |
|
Frownland | Ronald Bronstein | United States, | 2007 |
| 920 |
|
The Virgin Suicides | Sofia Coppola | United States, | 1999 |
| 1128 |
|
Farewell Amor | Ekwa Msangi | United States, | 2020 |
| 1125 |
|
The Funeral | Juzo Itami | Japan, | 1984 |
| 1121 |
|
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) | Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri | Nigeria, | 2020 |
| 1117 |
|
love jones | Theodore Witcher | United States, | 1997 |
| 1108 |
|
The Celebration | Thomas Vinterberg | Denmark, | 1998 |
| 1106 |
|
One Night in Miami . . . | Regina King | United States, | 2020 |
| 1105 |
|
Menace II Society | Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes | United States, | 1993 |
| 1104 |
|
Citizen Kane | Orson Welles | United States, | 1941 |
| 1083 |
|
Pariah | Dee Rees | United States, | 2011 |
| 107 |
|
Mona Lisa | Neil Jordan | United Kingdom, | 1986 |
| 1093 |
|
The Story of a Three Day Pass | Melvin Van Peebles | France, | 1967 |
| 1061 |
|
Minding the Gap | Bing Liu | United States, | 2018 |
| 1060 |
|
Amores perros | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Mexico, | 2000 |
| 685 |
|
Touki bouki | Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal, | 1973 |
| 1031 |
|
Wildlife | Paul Dano | United States, | 2018 |
| 1026 |
|
Me and You and Everyone We Know | Miranda July | United States, | 2005 |
| 1018 |
|
Paris Is Burning | Jennie Livingston | United States, | 1990 |
| 980 |
|
La vie de Jésus | Bruno Dumont | France, | 1997 |
| 951 |
|
True Stories | David Byrne | United States, | 1986 |
| 941 |
|
Smithereens | Susan Seidelman | United States, | 1982 |
| 938 |
|
sex, lies, and videotape | Steven Soderbergh | United States, | 1989 |
| 936 |
|
Bull Durham | Ron Shelton | United States, | 1988 |
| 335 |
|
Elevator to the Gallows | Louis Malle | France, | 1958 |
| 902 |
|
Desert Hearts | Donna Deitch | United States, | 1985 |
| 896 |
|
The Lure | Agnieszka Smoczyńska | Poland, | 2015 |
| 545 |
|
Easy Rider | Dennis Hopper | United States, | 1969 |
| 802 |
|
Paris Belongs to Us | Jacques Rivette | France, | 1961 |
| 799 |
|
The Kid | Charles Chaplin | United States, | 1921 |
| 787 |
|
Jellyfish Eyes | Takashi Murakami | Japan, | 2013 |
| 766 |
|
Here Is Your Life | Jan Troell | Sweden, | 1966 |
| 196 |
|
Hiroshima mon amour | Alain Resnais | France, | 1959 |
| 743 |
|
La Ciénaga | Lucrecia Martel | Argentina, | 2001 |
| 730 |
|
Jour de fête | Jacques Tati | France, | 1949 |
| 725 |
|
Eraserhead | David Lynch | United States, | 1977 |
| 152 |
|
George Washington | David Gordon Green | United States, | 2000 |
|
Love Is Colder Than Death | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Germany, | 1969 | |
| 658 |
|
Medium Cool | Haskell Wexler | United States, | 1969 |
|
The Suitor | Pierre Etaix | France, | 1963 | |
| 651 |
|
Badlands | Terrence Malick | United States, | 1973 |
| 638 |
|
Following | Christopher Nolan | United Kingdom, | 1999 |
| 640 |
|
Koyaanisqatsi | Godfrey Reggio | United States, | 1983 |
|
Madonna of the Seven Moons | Arthur Crabtree | United Kingdom, | 1945 | |
|
Wild 90 | Norman Mailer | United States, | 1968 | |
| 616 |
|
Shallow Grave | Danny Boyle | United Kingdom, | 1994 |
|
Babo 73 | Robert Downey Sr. | United States, | 1964 | |
| 611 |
|
Being John Malkovich | Spike Jonze | United States, | 1999 |
| 604 |
|
In Which We Serve | David Lean and Noël Coward | United Kingdom, | 1942 |
| 596 |
|
Three Outlaw Samurai | Hideo Gosha | Japan, | 1964 |
| 597 |
|
Tiny Furniture | Lena Dunham | United States, | 2010 |
| 591 |
|
12 Angry Men | Sidney Lumet | United States, | 1957 |
| 580 |
|
Le beau Serge | Claude Chabrol | France, | 1958 |
|
À propos de Nice | Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman | France, | 1930 | |
| 569 |
|
People on Sunday | Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer | Germany, | 1930 |
| 547 |
|
Drive, He Said | Jack Nicholson | United States, | 1970 |
| 544 |
|
Head | Bob Rafelson | United States, | 1968 |
| 548 |
|
A Safe Place | Henry Jaglom | United States, | 1971 |
| 541 |
|
The Night of the Hunter | Charles Laughton | United States, | 1955 |
| 539 |
|
House | Nobuhiko Obayashi | Japan, | 1977 |
|
Warrendale | Allan King | Canada, | 1967 | |
|
Crisis | Ingmar Bergman | Sweden, | 1946 | |
| 534 |
|
L’enfance nue | Maurice Pialat | France, | 1968 |
| 532 |
|
Louie Bluie | Terry Zwigoff | United States, | 1985 |
| 41 |
|
Henry V | Laurence Olivier | United Kingdom, | 1944 |
| 165 |
|
Man Bites Dog | Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoit Poelvoorde | Belgium, | 1992 |
| 162 |
|
Ratcatcher | Lynne Ramsay | United Kingdom, | 1999 |
|
Sanshiro Sugata | Akira Kurosawa | Japan, | 1943 | |
|
Major Barbara | Gabriel Pascal | United Kingdom, | 1941 | |
| 504 |
|
Hunger | Steve McQueen | Ireland, | 2008 |
|
Hotel Monterey | Chantal Akerman | United States, | 1972 | |
|
Man Is Not a Bird | Dušan Makavejev | Yugoslavia, | 1965 | |
|
I Am Waiting | Koreyoshi Kurahara | Japan, | 1957 | |
| 450 |
|
Bottle Rocket | Wes Anderson | United States, | 1996 |
| 215 |
|
Knife in the Water | Roman Polanski | Poland, | 1962 |
| 436 |
|
Before the Rain | Milcho Manchevski | Republic of Macedonia, | 1994 |
|
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? | William Klein | France, | 1966 | |
| 419 |
|
La Pointe Courte | Agnès Varda | France, | 1955 |
| 417 |
|
This Sporting Life | Lindsay Anderson | United Kingdom, | 1963 |
| 407 |
|
Mala Noche | Gus Van Sant | United States, | 1985 |
| 875 |
|
Mysterious Object at Noon | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Thailand, | 2000 |
| 399 |
|
House of Games | David Mamet | United States, | 1987 |
|
I Shot Jesse James | Samuel Fuller | United States, | 1949 | |
| 397 |
|
Ivan’s Childhood | Andrei Tarkovsky | Soviet Union, | 1962 |
| 362 |
|
Border Radio | Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss | United States, | 1987 |
| 360 |
|
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves | William Greaves | United States, | |
| 356 |
|
Sweetie | Jane Campion | New Zealand, | 1989 |
| 354 |
|
Clean, Shaven | Lodge Kerrigan | United States, | 1994 |
| 353 |
|
Sólo con tu pareja | Alfonso Cuarón | Mexico, | 1991 |
| 351 |
|
The Spirit of the Beehive | Víctor Erice | Spain, | 1973 |
| 349 |
|
Kicking and Screaming | Noah Baumbach | United States, | 1995 |
| 334 |
|
Harlan County USA | Barbara Kopple | United States, | 1976 |
| 333 |
|
Fists in the Pocket | Marco Bellocchio | Italy, | 1965 |
| 326 |
|
Metropolitan | Whit Stillman | United States, | 1990 |
| 283 |
|
A Generation | Andrzej Wajda | Poland, | 1955 |
| 279 |
|
Young Törless | Volker Schlöndorff | Germany, | 1966 |
| 251 |
|
Shadows | John Cassavetes | United States, | 1959 |
| 77 |
|
And God Created Woman | Roger Vadim | France, | 1956 |