First Run Features
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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First Run Features, located in New York City, is one of the largest independent theatrical and home video distributors in the United States, releasing 12 to 15 films a year in theatres nationwide and 50 to 60 videos and DVDs annually.
First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers to advance the distribution of independent film. Under the leadership of the late independent film pioneer, Fran Spielman, First Run Features quickly gained a reputation for its controversial catalog of daring independent fiction and non-fiction films.
The First Run legacy includes films by such notable directors as: Michael Apted, Ross McElwee, Lizzie Borden, Spike Lee, Claude Chabrol, Monika Treut, Rose Troche, Sven Nykvist, Jane Campion, Michael Winterbottom, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Barbara Kopple, Peter Jackson, Daniel Bergman, Dariush Mehrjui, David O. Russell, Jan Švankmajer, Claire Denis, Benoit Jacquot, Marleen Gorris, Radley Metzger, Deborah Shaffer, Victor Nunez, The Brothers Quay, George Sluizer, and Satyajit Ray.
In the spring of 2001 First Run's diverse collection of award winning independent, foreign, fiction, non-fiction and children's films was honored with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
