| My First Film | |
| Director: | Zia Anger |
| Music: | Perfume Genius |
| Cinematography: | Ashley Connor |
| Distributor: | Mubi |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
My First Film is a 2024 American drama film, directed by Zia Anger from a screenplay by Anger and Billy Feldman. It stars Odessa Young, Devon Ross, Cole Doman, Jane Wickline, Eamon Farren, Seth Steinberg, Sage Ftacek, Abram Kurtz, Jackson Anthony, Philip Ettinger, Sarah Michelson and Ruby Max Fury.
It had its world premiere at CPH:DOX on March 19, 2024. It was released in a limited release on August 30, 2024, prior to streaming on Mubi on September 6, 2024.
A young filmmaker recounts the struggle to make her first feature.
Between 2010 and 2012, Zia Anger shot her first feature attempt, Always All Ways, Anne Marie having family and friends participate as cast and crew.[2] [3] The project was rejected by multiple film festivals and left as "abandoned" on IMDB.[4]
Anger then created an interactive live performance due to her frustration with filmmaking and festivals, using a TextEdit documentary, and QuickTime files of the feature, involving viewers through iMessage and AirDrop.[5] [6] Anger began writing a feature film version alongside Billy Feldman during the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] [8]
In November 2022, it was announced Odessa Young, Devon Ross, Cole Doman, Jane Wickline, Philip Ettinger,Eamon Farren, Eleanore Hendricks, Sage Ftacek, Jackson Anthony, Seth Steinberg, Hailey Gates, Sarah Michelson, Abram Kurtz and Ruby Max Fury had joined the cast of the film, with Zia Anger directing from a screenplay she wrote, and Mubi set to produce and distribute.[9]
It had its world premiere at CPH:DOX on March 19, 2024.[10] It was released in a limited release on August 30, 2024, prior to streaming on Mubi on September 6, 2024.[11]
Natalie Winkelman of IndieWire gave the film an A- writing: "My First Film is, at its core, a movie not about upheaval but about yearning, and about how, sometimes, giving that yearning up can be a beautiful, generous act of creation all its own."[14] Richard Brody of The New Yorker praised the film writing: "A masterwork of an artistic coming of age and a virtuosic reconception of the art of cinema itself."[15]