Subscription
Great Debuts
First impressions count. These features launched some of cinema's highest achievers, showing the themes and techniques to which many would return.
Whether on land, at sea or on the road, these debuts show what happens when an instinct for storytelling meets the medium in which it will blossom.
Donnie Darko Donnie Darko
Drama 2001 113 mins Director: Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly's astounding debut feature is a mix of stylish eighties veneer and existential horror starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled teen who is haunted by a giant rabbit prophesying the apocalypse.
Suture Suture
Thriller 1994 96 mins Director: Scott Mcgehee and David Siegel
David Siegel and Scott McGehee's sumptuously shot neo-noir is a moody, monochrome meditation on race and identity politics.
Spanking the Monkey Spanking the Monkey
Comedy 1994 95 mins Director: David O. Russell
David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) made his feature debut in 1994 with this biting black comedy, which caused a stir with its incestuous subplot and portrayal of adolescent restlessness.
Breathless [À bout de souffle] Breathless [À bout de souffle]
Film noir 1960 90 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave.
The Ninth Configuration The Ninth Configuration
Horror 1979 118 mins Director: William Peter Blatty
From the writer of The Exorcist, one of the ultimate cult film experiences: William Peter Blatty's unclassifiable blend of unhinged psychological thriller and anarchic comedy.
Shadows Shadows
Drama 1959 82 mins Director: John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes' directorial debut follows the relationship between a mixed-race woman and a white man.
Under the Skin Under the Skin
Melodrama 1997 83 mins Director: Carine Adler
Carine Adler’s sexy and dark debut, starring Samantha Morton in her first major feature film role.
Sixteen Sixteen
Drama 2013 79 mins Director: Rob Brown
A former child soldier in Congo, now living in London, witnesses a crime and is drawn into a violent world he'd hoped to leave behind.
The Goob The Goob
Drama 2015 84 mins Director: Guy Myhill
A teen seeks meaning as an East Anglian summer and a violent outsider threaten to overwhelm.
Distant Voices, Still Lives Distant Voices, Still Lives
Biopic 1988 84 mins Director: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.
The Falls The Falls
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 195 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
Following a series of inventive shorts, Peter Greenaway arrived fully formed as a feature filmmaker with this highly confident, audacious epic.
Radio On Radio On
Road movie 1979 100 mins Director: Chris Petit
A haunting blend of edgy mystery story and existential road movie.
Katzelmacher Katzelmacher
Drama 1969 89 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
A Greek immigrant unleashes jealousy and xenophobia among a group of Munich neighbours in Fassbinder’s shocking adaptation of his own play.
Sanshiro Sugata Sanshiro Sugata
Crime 1943 79 mins Director: Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s assured debut film about a young man’s spiritual journey through the study and practice of judo.
The Immortal One The Immortal One
Drama 1962 101 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
The debut feature from famed novelist and screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet is a daring examination of fantasy and memory set in Turkey.
Hotel Salvation Hotel Salvation
Drama 2016 99 mins Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani
This gentle, tender and award-winning Indian comedy follows the ordeal of an over-worked modern son forced to accompany his 77-year-old father to the holy city of Varanasi, where he plans to end his days.
Court Court
Drama 2014 116 mins Director: Chaitanya Tamhane
Hailed as a modern classic channelling the spirit of Satyajit Ray, Chaitanya Tamhane's film is an absurdist portrait of injustice in contemporary India.
Chameleon Chameleon
Drama 2016 82 mins Director: Jorge Riquelme Serrano
Two women are terrorised by an unwanted stranger in this impeccably-styled bourgeois nightmare.
Loving Memory Loving Memory
Drama 1970 52 mins Director: Tony Scott
An unsettling portrait of love and loss by the director of Top Gun.
Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1967 77 mins Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Walerian Borowczyk's (The Beast, Immoral Tales) first feature-length work is an existential marital drama set in a bizarre wasteland populated by exotic flora and fauna.
Nocturna Artificialia Nocturna Artificialia
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1979 21 mins Director: Brothers Quay
The debut film from the Brothers Quay follows a dreamer who's seduced by the mystery of the city at night. He leaves his room and goes into the street, where a tram-car carries him away.
Unrelated Unrelated
Drama 2008 96 mins Director: Joanna Hogg
On a Tuscan break a fortysomething woman finds herself drawn to the company of a group of partying teens, including a young Tom Hiddleston.
In Which We Serve In Which We Serve
War 1942 114 mins Director: David Lean and Noël Coward
Noel Coward and David Lean direct this affecting drama of a Royal Navy crew recalling their lives in flashback, as their ship sinks.
A Moving Image A Moving Image
Drama 2017 74 mins Director: Shola Amoo
The gentrification of London’s Brixton is examined in this probing and stylistically ambitious debut feature.
Room 237 Room 237
Documentary 2012 103 mins Director: Rodney Ascher
Rodney Ascher's enigmatic essay film weaves together the contrasting theories of five different narrators who believe Stanley Kubrick deliberately buried hidden messages in his 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
The Incident The Incident
Drama 2016 94 mins Director: Jane Linfoot
Jane Linfoot's clinically constructed study of guilt, betrayal and responsibility concerns a comfortable family whose seemingly perfect lives are suddenly thrown into turmoil.
Gone Too Far! Gone Too Far!
Comedy 2014 88 mins Director: Destiny Ekaragha
Riotous urban comedy adapted from the hit Royal Court play, about a Peckham teen affronted by the arrival of his long-lost Nigerian sibling.
Watch SVOD Films