| Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature | |
| Presenter: | Independent Spirit Awards |
| Year: | She's Gotta Have It (1986) |
| Holder: | A Thousand and One (2023) |
The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is usually given to the director (or directors) and producer (or producers). The "first feature" designation is applied to the director not the producer(s). Therefore, producers have been nominated multiple times. It was first presented in 1986 with Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It being the first recipient of the award.
In 2000, this category was split into two separate categories: one for films with budgets over $500,000 and a new category, the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, which was restricted to films with budgets under $500,000. In 2001, films could be eligible regardless of their budget as long as it was feature film directorial debut.
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 [1] | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | |
| Belizaire the Cajun | Allan L. Durand | ||
| A Great Wall | Shirley Sun | ||
| Hoosiers | John Daly, Carter DeHaven, Derek Gibson and Angelo Pizzo | ||
| True Stories | Gary Kurfirst | ||
| 1987 | Dirty Dancing | Emile Ardolino | Linda Gottlieb |
| Anna | Zanne Devine | ||
| Hollywood Shuffle | Carl Craig | ||
| Siesta | Gary Kurfirst | ||
| Waiting for the Moon | Sandra Schulberg | ||
| 1988 | Mystic Pizza | Donald Petrie | Mark Levinson and Scott M. Rosenfelt |
| Border Radio | Marcus DeLeon | ||
| The Chocolate War | Jonathan D. Krane | ||
| The Prince of Pennsylvania | Jonathan D. Krane | ||
| The Wash | Calvin Skaggs | ||
| 1989 | Heathers | Michael Lehmann | Denise Di Novi |
| 84 Charlie Mopic | Michael Nolan | ||
| Powwow Highway | Jan Wieringa | ||
| Sidewalk Stories | Howard M. Brickner | ||
| Talking to Strangers | J.K. Eareckson | ||
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Metropolitan | Whit Stillman | |
| House Party | Warrington Hudlin | ||
| Lightning Over Braddock[2] | Tony Buba | ||
| The Natural History of Parking Lots | Aziz Ghazal | ||
| Twister | |||
| 1991 | Straight Out of Brooklyn | Matty Rich | |
| Chameleon Street | Wendell B. Harris Jr. | ||
| Poison | Christine Vachon | ||
| The Rapture | Karen Koch, Nancy Tenenbaum and Nick Wechsler | ||
| Slacker | Richard Linklater | ||
| 1992 | The Waterdance | Neal Jimenez and Michael Steinberg | Gale Anne Hurd, Marie Cantin and Guy Riedel |
| Laws of Gravity | Bob Gosse and Larry Meistrich | ||
| My New Gun | Michael Flynn | ||
| Reservoir Dogs | Lawrence Bender | ||
| Swoon | Christine Vachon | ||
| 1993 | El Mariachi | Robert Rodriguez | Robert Rodriguez and Carlos Gallardo |
| American Heart | Jeff Bridges and Rosilyn Heller | ||
| Combination Platter | Tony Chan and Judy Moy | ||
| Mac | Brenda Goodman and Nancy Tenenbaum | ||
| Menace II Society | Darin Scott | ||
| 1994 | Spanking the Monkey | David O. Russell | Dean Silvers |
| Clean, Shaven | Lodge Kerrigan | ||
| Clerks | Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier | ||
| I Like It Like That | Lane Janger | ||
| Suture | David Siegel, Scott McGehee, and Michele Petin | ||
| 1995 | The Brothers McMullen | Edward Burns | Dick Fisher |
| Kids | Cary Woods | ||
| Little Odessa | Paul Webster | ||
| Picture Bride | Diane Mei Lin Mark and Lisa Onodera | ||
| River of Grass | Jesse Hartman | ||
| 1996 | Sling Blade | Billy Bob Thornton | David L. Bushell and Brandon Rosser |
| Big Night | Jonathan Filley | ||
| I Shot Andy Warhol | Tom Kalin and Christine Vachon | ||
| Manny & Lo | Marlen Hecht and Dean Silvers | ||
| Trees Lounge | Chris Hanley and Brad Wyman | ||
| 1997 | Eve's Bayou | Kasi Lemmons | Caldecot Chubb and Samuel L. Jackson |
| The Bible and Gun Club | Daniel J. Harris[3] | ||
| Hard Eight | Robert Jones and John S. Lyons | ||
| In the Company of Men | Mark Archer and Stephen Pevner | ||
| Star Maps | Matthew Greenfield | ||
| 1998 | The Opposite of Sex | Don Roos | David Kirkpatrick and Michael Besman |
| Buffalo '66 | Chris Hanley | ||
| High Art | Dolly Hall, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Susan A. Stover | ||
| Eric Watson | |||
| Slums of Beverly Hills | Michael Nozik and Stan Wlodkowski | ||
| 1999 | Being John Malkovich | Spike Jonze | Michael Stipe, Sandy Stern, Steve Golin and Vincent Landay |
| Boys Don't Cry | Jeffrey Sharp, John Hart, Eva Kolodner and Christine Vachon | ||
| Three Seasons | Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente | ||
| Twin Falls Idaho | Marshall Persinger, Rena Ronson and Steven J. Wolfe | ||
| Joan Chen and Wai-Chung Chan | |||
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | You Can Count on Me | Kenneth Lonergan | John Hart, Jeffrey Sharp, Barbara De Fina and Larry Meistrich |
| Boiler Room | Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd | ||
| Girlfight | Maggie Renzi, Sarah Green and Martha Griffin | ||
| Love & Basketball | Spike Lee and Sam Kitt | ||
| The Visit | Jordan Walker-Pearlman | ||
| 2001 | In the Bedroom | Todd Field | Todd Field, Ross Katz, and Graham Leader |
| The Anniversary Party | Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh | ||
| The Believer | Susan Hoffman and Christopher Roberts | ||
| Donnie Darko | Sean McKittrick, Nancy Juvonen, and Adam Fields | ||
| Ghost World | Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich, and Russell Smith | ||
| 2002 | The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys | Peter Care | Jodie Foster, Meg LeFauve, Jay Shapiro, and Todd McFarlane |
| Interview with the Assassin | Brian Koppelman and David Levien | ||
| Manito | Jesse Scolaro and Allen Bain | ||
| Paid in Full | Damon Dash, Jay-Z, Brett Ratner, Azie Faison, and Steve Rifkind | ||
| Roger Dodger | Dylan Kidd | Dylan Kidd, Anne Chaisson, and Campbell Scott | |
| 2003 | Monster | Patty Jenkins | Mark Damon, Donald Kushner, Clark Peterson, Charlize Theron and Brad Wyman |
| Bomb the System | Ben Rekhi and Sol Tryon | ||
| House of Sand and Fog | Vadim Perelman and Michael London | ||
| Quattro Noza | Joey Curtis[4] | Fredric King | |
| Thirteen | Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Michael London | ||
| 2004 | Garden State | Zach Braff | Pamela Abdy, Gary Gilbert, Dan Halsted and Richard Klubeck |
| Brother to Brother | Rodney Evans, Jim McKay, Isen Robbins and Aimee Schoof | ||
| Napoleon Dynamite | Jeremy Coon, Sean Covel and Chris Wyatt | ||
| Saints and Soldiers | Ryan Little and Adam Abel | ||
| The Woodsman | Lee Daniels | ||
| 2005 | Crash | Paul Haggis | Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Mark R. Harris and Bobby Moresco |
| Lackawanna Blues | Halle Berry, Vince Cirrincione, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Nellie Nugiel and Shelby Stone | ||
| Me and You and Everyone We Know | Gina Kwon | ||
| Thumbsucker | Anthony Bregman and Bob Stephenson | ||
| Transamerica | Sebastian Dungan, Linda Moran and Rene Bastian | ||
| 2006 | Sweet Land | Ali Selim | Alan Cumming and James Bigham |
| Day Night Day Night | Melanie Judd and Jessica Levin | ||
| Man Push Cart | Pradip Ghosh and Bedford T. Bentley | ||
| The Motel | Matthew Greenfield, Miguel Arteta, Gina Kwon and Karin Chien | ||
| Adam Sherman, Chris Coen, Tatiana Kelly and Mikal P. Lazarev | |||
| 2007 | The Lookout | Scott Frank | Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Laurence Mark and Walter F. Parkes |
| 2 Days in Paris | Christophe Mazodier and Thierry Potok | ||
| Great World of Sound | Craig Zobel, Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green and Richard A. Wright | ||
| Rocket Science | Effie Brown and Sean Welch | ||
| Vanaja | Latha R. Domalapalli | ||
| 2008 | Synecdoche, New York | Charlie Kaufman | Charlie Kaufman, Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze and Sidney Kimmel |
| Afterschool | T. Sean Durkin and Josh Mond | ||
| Medicine for Melancholy | Justin Barber | ||
| Sangre de Mi Sangre | Christopher Zalla | Per Melita and Ben Odell | |
| Sleep Dealer | Anthony Bregman | ||
| 2009 | Crazy Heart | Scott Cooper | Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo and T-Bone Burnett |
| Easier with Practice | Cookie Carosella | ||
| The Messenger | Mark Gordon, Lawrence Inglee and Zach Miller | ||
| Paranormal Activity | Oren Peli and Jason Blum | ||
| A Single Man | Tom Ford, Chris Weitz, Andrew Miano and Robert Salerno | ||
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Get Low | Aaron Schneider | Dean Zanuck and David Gundlach |
| Everything Strange and New | Laura Techera Francia and A.D. Liano | ||
| The Last Exorcism | Eric Newman, Eli Roth, Marc Abraham and Thomas A. Bliss | ||
| Night Catches Us | Ronald Simon, Sean Costello and Jason Orans | ||
| Tiny Furniture | Kyle Martin and Alicia Van Couvering | ||
| 2011 | Margin Call | J. C. Chandor | Joe Jenckes, Robert Ogden Barnum, Corey Moosa, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson and Zachary Quinto |
| Another Earth | Hunter Gray, Mike Cahill, Brit Marling and Nicholas Shumaker | ||
| In the Family | Patrick Wang | Patrick Wang, Andrew van den Houten and Robert Tonino | |
| Martha Marcy May Marlene | Sean Durkin | Josh Mond, Antonio Campos, Chris Maybach and Patrick Cunningham | |
| Natural Selection | Robbie Pickering | Brion Hambell and Paul Jensen | |
| 2012 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Stephen Chbosky | Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith and John Malkovich |
| Fill the Void | Assaf Amir | ||
| Gimme the Loot | Natalie Difford, Dominic Buchanan and Jamund Washington | ||
| Safety Not Guaranteed | Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Stephanie Langhoff, Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow | ||
| Sound of My Voice | Hans Ritter, Brit Marling and Shelley Surpin | ||
| 2013 | Fruitvale Station | Ryan Coogler | Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker |
| Blue Caprice | Isen Robbins, Aimee Schoof, Ron Simons, Stephen Tedeschi, Brian O'Connell, Kim Jackson and Will Rowbotham | ||
| Concussion | Cliff Chenfeld, Anthony Cupo and Rose Troche | ||
| Una Noche | Daniel Mulloy, Lucy Mulloy, Maite Artieda and Sandy Perez Aguila | ||
| Wadjda | Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul | ||
| 2014 | Nightcrawler | Dan Gilroy | Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Michel Litvak, Jake Gyllenhaal and David Lancaster |
| Dear White People | Effie Brown, Ann Le, Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Justin Simien and Lena Waithe | ||
| A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | Justin Begnaud and Sina Sayyah | ||
| Obvious Child | Elisabeth Holm | ||
| She's Lost Control | Anja Marquardt, Mollye Asher and Kiara C. Jones | ||
| The Diary of a Teenage Girl | Marielle Heller | Miranda Bailey, Anne Carey, Bert Hamelinck, and Madeline Samit | |
| James White | Max Born, Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Melody Roscher, and Eric Schultz | ||
| Manos sucias | Josef Kubota Wladyka | Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes | |
| Mediterranea | Jason Michael Berman, Chris Columbus, Jon Coplon, Christoph Daniel, Andrew Kortschak, John Lesher, Ryan Lough, Justin Nappi, Alain Peyrollaz, Gwyn Sannia, Marc Schmidheiny, Victor Shapiro, and Ryan Zacarias | ||
| Songs My Brother Taught Me | Chloé Zhao, Mollye Asher, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Angela C. Lee, and Forest Whitaker | ||
| 2016 [5] [6] | The Witch | Robert Eggers | Robert Eggers, Daniel Bekerman, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, and Rodrigo Teixeira |
| The Childhood of a Leader | Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Chris Coen, Ron Curtis, Helena Danielsson, Mona Fastvold, and István Major | ||
| The Fits | Anna Rose Holmer and Lisa Kjerulff | ||
| Other People | Sam Bisbee, Adam Scott, and Naomi Scott | ||
| Swiss Army Man | Miranda Bailey, Lawrence Inglee, Lauren Mann, Amanda Marshall, Eyal Rimmon, and Jonathan Wang | ||
| 2017 [7] | Ingrid Goes West | Matt Spicer | Jared Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, and Trevor White |
| Columbus | Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, and Chris Weitz | ||
| Menashe | Joshua Z. Weinstein | Yoni Brook, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, and Alex Lipschultz | |
| Oh Lucy! | Atsuko Hirayanagi | Jessica Elbaum, Yukie Kito, and Han West | |
| Patti Cake$ | Geremy Jasper | Chris Columbus, Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Noah Stahl, and Rodrigo Teixeira | |
| Sorry to Bother You | Boots Riley | Nina Yang Bongiovi, Kelly Williams, Jonathan Duffy, Charles D. King, George Rush, and Forest Whitaker | |
| Hereditary | Kevin Frakes, Lars Knudsen, and Buddy Patrick | ||
| The Tale | Jennifer Fox, Oren Moverman, Laura Rister, Mynette Louie, Simone Pero, Lawrence Inglee, Sol Bondy, Regina K. Scully, Lynda Weinman, and Reka Posta | ||
| We the Animals | Jeremy Yaches, Christina D. King, Andrew Goldman, and Paul Mezey | ||
| Wildlife | Oren Moverman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, Ann Ruark, Alex Saks, Andrew Duncan, and Paul Dano | ||
| 2019 [8] | Booksmart | Olivia Wilde | Megan Ellison, Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfield, Jessica Elbaum, Katie Silberman |
| The Climb | Michael Angelo Covino | Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, and Noah Lang | |
| Diane | Kent Jones | Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, and Oren Moverman | |
| The Last Black Man in San Francisco | Khaliah Neal, Joe Talbot, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Christina Oh | ||
| The Mustang | Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | Alain Goldman | |
| See You Yesterday | Spike Lee | ||
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 [9] | Sound of Metal | Darius Marder | Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Bill Benz and Kathy Benz |
| The 40-Year-Old Version | Lena Waithe, Jordan Fudge, Radha Blank, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jennifer Semler and Rishi Rajani | ||
| I Carry You With Me | Heidi Ewing, Mynette Louie, Gabriela Maire and Edher Campos | ||
| Miss Juneteenth | Toby Halbrooks, Tim Headington, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Theresa Page and Neil Creque Williams | ||
| Nine Days | Edson Oda | Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Linder, Laura Tunstall and Datari Turner | |
| 2021 [10] | 7 Days | Roshan Sethi | Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn |
| Holler | Nicole Riegel | Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie McNeill, Jamie Patricof and Christy Spitzer Thornton | |
| Queen of Glory | Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks and Jamund Washington | ||
| Test Pattern | Pin-Chun Liu and Yu-Hao Su | ||
| Wild Indian | Thomas Mahoney, Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., and Eric Tavitian | ||
| 2022 [11] | Aftersun | Charlotte Wells | Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski |
| Emily the Criminal | John Patton Ford | Tyler Davidson, Aubrey Plaza, Drew Sykes | |
| The Inspection | Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon | ||
| Murina | Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira | ||
| Palm Trees and Power Lines | Jamie Dack | Leah Chen Baker | |
| 2023 [12] | A Thousand and One | A. V. Rockwell | Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, and Brad Weston |
| All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | Raven Jackson | ||
| Chronicles of a Wandering Saint | Tomás Gómez Bustillo | Gewan Brown and Amanda Freedman | |
| Earth Mama | Sam Bisbee, Shirley O'Connor, Medb Riordan, and Cody Ryder | ||
| Upon Entry | Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez | Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, and Xosé Zapata |