First Run Features

Overview

First Run Features is a New York-based independent film distribution company founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers to advance the distribution of independent film. The company releases approximately 10 films per year theatrically and an additional 20 films annually to educational institutions, home video, television broadcasters, and digital platforms. Its catalog exceeds 400 titles, making it one of the largest truly independent distributors in North America.

The company is headquartered at The Film Center Building, 630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1213, New York, NY 10036. Vice President Marc Mauceri oversees acquisitions and operations. First Run was founded under the leadership of the late Fran Spielman, who built the company's reputation for controversial documentaries and fiction films. Seymour Wishman continued that legacy for 38 years. The company has survived FBI surveillance, the demise of numerous competitors, and every major technological transition in home entertainment, from VHS to DVD to streaming.

First Run celebrated its 200th release with a retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and in 2001 received a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. For documentary filmmakers working in political, social-issue, and international categories, First Run offers a distribution partner with a 45-year track record and established relationships with arthouse cinemas, universities, and advocacy organizations across the United States.

Distribution Model

First Run distributes theatrically through partnerships with independent arthouse cinemas across the United States. The company handles its own marketing and publicity for theatrical releases, targeting audiences in university towns, advocacy communities, and urban arthouse markets. Theatrical releases typically open in 5 to 15 markets, with expansion driven by critical reception and community engagement rather than mass-market advertising spend.

The company's home video catalog is one of the most significant collections of US political and social documentary available. First Run manages its own DVD label and distributes digitally across platforms including Kanopy, Tubi, and major transactional VOD services. The educational and non-theatrical division licenses films to universities, libraries, and community organizations, generating revenue streams that extend well beyond the initial theatrical window. This educational market is where First Run's political and social-issue catalog generates consistent long-tail revenue that generalist distributors cannot access.

First Run's P&A budgets are modest by industry standards. A typical theatrical release campaign runs in the low five figures, focused on targeted press outreach, community partnerships, and social media rather than television advertising. The company does not operate a streaming platform and licenses content to third-party services after the theatrical window.

What Filmmakers Should Know

First Run is a realistic acquisition target for documentary filmmakers working in political, social-issue, environmental, and international documentary categories. The company acquires through festival relationships, direct outreach from filmmakers and sales agents, and filmmaker submissions. Films that have screened at Sundance, Tribeca, Hot Docs, or specialty documentary festivals are the most likely acquisition targets.

The company accepts direct submissions. Filmmakers should email acquisitions@firstrunfeatures.com with a description of the film, a trailer link, and background information. If the company is interested, it will request a screening link. Due to the volume of inquiries, First Run only responds to submissions it wants to pursue.

Deal structures typically involve a modest or no minimum guarantee (MG) against a revenue split across theatrical, home video, educational, and digital windows. The distribution fee generally ranges from 25% to 35%. P&A costs are recoupable from gross receipts before the filmmaker's share. Filmmakers should expect First Run's offers to fall below those of higher-profile documentary distributors like IFC Films, Magnolia Pictures, or Neon, but with more targeted audience reach in the educational and advocacy sectors.

The primary value of a First Run deal is theatrical placement in the US arthouse and educational market combined with the company's established catalog brand among political documentary audiences. Films distributed by First Run benefit from the company's relationships with university screening programs, advocacy organizations, and community groups that generalist distributors do not reach.

Recent Releases

First Run's 2025-2026 slate includes Changing Lanes (2026), a documentary about urban street design featuring David Byrne and Janette Sadik-Khan, opening at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles in April 2026; Without Arrows (2025), a documentary filmed over 13 years chronicling three generations of a Lakota family on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation, directed by Jonathan Olshefski and Elizabeth Day; and The Cinema Within (2025), a documentary about the psychology of film editing featuring editor Walter Murch and scholar David Bordwell, directed by Chad Freidrichs.

The company's broader catalog includes For They Know Not What They Do (2020), Daniel Karslake's follow-up to the Oscar-shortlisted For the Bible Tells Me So, which First Run distributed as one of its highest-grossing titles; Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly; Bellingcat: Truth in a Post-Truth World; Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island; and The Quiet Epidemic. The catalog spans political documentary, environmental journalism, human rights advocacy, arts biography, and international cinema.

Historical Context

First Run Features was founded in 1979, a period when independent film distribution in the United States was fragmented and dominated by studio-owned specialty labels. The company's founding mission was to advance the distribution of independent film, with an early catalog built around controversial documentaries and fiction films that mainstream distributors would not touch. Under Fran Spielman's leadership, First Run gained a reputation for daring content that attracted both audiences and, at times, FBI surveillance.

The company has navigated every major technological transition in US film distribution: from 16mm educational prints to VHS home video, from DVD to streaming, and from physical theatrical booking to digital cinema. Throughout these transitions, First Run has maintained its editorial identity around political and social-issue documentary, even as larger distributors entered and exited the documentary market. The company's survival across 45 years makes it one of the longest continuously operating independent distributors in the United States.

See Also

For how documentary distribution serves political and educational audiences alongside the general arthouse market, see Distribution Deals Explained. For documentary financing strategies that incorporate educational and community screening revenues, see Documentary Financing: Building Your Stack. To model revenue from a theatrical-plus-educational release strategy, use the Revenue Forecast Calculator. For understanding how distribution fees and P&A recoupment affect filmmaker receipts, see What Does a Distributor Keep?.