Why Your First Scene Is Killing Your Film
Anora-Mikey-Madison-Neon
There’s a reason film festival programmers can tell within the first few minutes whether a film is worth their full attention.
It’s all about the first scene.
And most indie filmmakers get it wrong!
What Most Filmmakers Think the First Scene Is For
- Introduce the main character
- Set up the plot
- Establish the world
Look familiar? It’s not wrong. But it’s incomplete.
Incomplete first scenes are one of the most common reasons films lose their audience before the story even gets going.
At a festival, where programmers are watching hundreds of films, the decision-making happens fast. You have minutes to make the case for your film.
You don’t have time to warm up.
Arguably the first scene is the most vital to the entire film.
A great opening scene signals exactly what kind of experience your audience is in for.
When your first scene works, the audience stops questioning the film and start experiencing it.
When it doesn’t work, they’re already half-checked out. And getting them back is almost impossible.
What a First Scene Actually Has to Do
Establish tone. How should the audience feel right now? Unsettled? Curious? Thrilled? Heartbroken?
Plant a question. The question is something the audience needs answered badly enough to keep watching.
Show character through action. Show a character’s surroundings, physical behavior, and choices in the first scene which will communicate a lot more than scrolling Star Wars text at the beginning of your film.
Make it visual. The first frame tells the audience what kind of film this is. Make sure it says what you mean.
What Great First Scenes Actually Look Like
The films that get this right are worth studying closely. Here are three from the last two years that absolutely nail it.
The Brutalist (2024)
Brady Corbet opens on darkness. Chaos. Sound before sight.
The opening scene drops viewers in the belly of a ship bound for America, barely able to make out anything as people rush and shove, with sounds of heavy breathing that make you feel claustrophobic.
Then the character pushes through a door — and suddenly, there’s the Statue of Liberty. Except it’s upside down.
Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley warp the moment by presenting the iconic structure upside down at the top of the frame — a warped symbol of the American dream, an overture of the film’s main theme.
In two and a half minutes, without a word of plot, you know exactly what kind of film you’re watching.
That’s tone established through a single image.
Anora (2024)
Sean Baker opens on a strip club. Loud. Energetic. Mikey Madison’s character moves through the room with complete confidence and ownership — and Take That’s “Greatest Day” is blasting over all of it.
The opening credits feature a colorful, almost floral typeface against a vibrant and glamorous environment while complemented by the pop anthem “Greatest Day,” visually and musically imbuing the opening with a nostalgic warmth.
Baker approached the first act knowing he was going to employ the tropes of a romantic comedy — essentially giving the audience a fairy tale for the first almost-hour of the movie.
The audience trusted the film. Then the rug gets pulled.
You can’t do that if the first scene doesn’t work. The opening earns the ending.
Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler opens with someone talking about a kind of music so powerful it can pierce the boundary between life and death, past and future.
And then the film shows you exactly what that sounds like.
As IndieWire noted, Sinners opens with someone talking about a kind of music “so pure it can pierce the veil between life and death, past and future” — and then proceeds to show the audience exactly what that sounds like.
In the first two minutes, Coogler tells you this film is about music as a spiritual force — and then every scene that follows is built on that foundation.
Coogler introduces the twin brothers as the archetypal prodigal sons, and every sequence of their triumphant but ill-fated return paints a meticulously textured slice-of-life portrait of the American South during Jim Crow. The world is established through texture, behavior, and atmosphere.
The Most Common First Scene Mistakes
At the Utah International Film Festival, we’ve seen so many versions of bad openings.
Here’s what we see over and over:
The slow build. The film opens on a character doing something ordinary — waking up, making coffee, driving — with no tension, no visual question, no emotional hook. The filmmaker knows what’s coming. The audience doesn’t yet. And without a reason to care, they pull out their phones and you lost them.
The over-explainer. Dialogue that tells us what we’re about to see. Narration that sets up context we don’t need yet. When you explain too much upfront, you remove the question. And without a question, there’s nothing to pull the audience along your story.
The tonal mismatch. The first scene feels like a different movie than the second scene. If the tone of your first scene doesn’t match the tone of your film, the audience is disoriented before the story even begins. Unless that is the point of your film, I recommend avoiding this.
The setup without any stakes. Introducing a character without giving the audience a reason to care about them is what I mean by incomplete. A first scene that shows us who someone is without showing us what they want — or what they’re afraid of — gives the audience no one to care about following for the next several 15-90 minutes.
What Festival Programmers Want
We want every film to be the buzz of the festival, and that starts with your first scene. Hook their attention and keep it.
Every element of your film has to work. And nothing works harder for you — or against you — than the first scene.
At UIFF, we’re asking the same questions in the first few minutes that we ask about the whole film:
- Does this film know what it is?
- Does it trust the audience?
- Is there something at stake?
- Do I want to know what happens next?
If the answer to any of those is no, it’s gonna be an uphill slog to get this programmed.
If the answer is yes across the board — thrown in your PTO request because we will want to see you in January at the festival.
Quick Reference: First Scene That Works vs. First Scene That Doesn’t
The One Thing to Remember
The Brutalist made one of the most arresting opening sequences in recent memory for $10 million total — by keeping the camera close, staying in the dark, and letting a single upside-down image say everything.
Get the first scene right, and the rest of the film has a fighting chance.
Get it wrong, and you’re working twice as hard to recover something the audience already stopped believing in.
Submit your film to the Utah International Film Festival at FilmFreeway.
References
Coogler, R. (Director). (2025). Sinners [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Ehrlich, D. (2025, April). Sinners opens portals between blues, rap, heaven and hell. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5381034/sinners-ryan-coogler-blues-rap-religion
Filmmakers Academy. (2026, February 12). The look of Sinners. https://www.filmmakersacademy.com/blog-the-look-of-sinners/
Indie Shorts Mag. (2025, July 30). How to submit your short film to festivals and get accepted. https://www.indieshortsmag.com/tutorials/marketing-tutorials/2025/07/how-to-submit-your-short-film-to-festivals-and-get-accepted/
New Orleans Film Society. (n.d.). Film submissions — selection statistics. https://neworleansfilmsociety.org/submit/
Baker, S. (Director). (2024). Anora [Film]. Neon.
Baker, S. (2024, October 11). Anora director Sean Baker on why he chose Brit boy band Take That to soundtrack the opening strip club scene. Variety. https://variety.com/2024/film/global/anora-sean-baker-take-that-opening-scene-1236175108/
Baker, S. (2024, October 16). I want it to feel as real as a documentary: Sean Baker on Anora, editing breaks, and old-school camera tricks. The Film Stage. https://thefilmstage.com/i-want-it-to-feel-as-real-as-a-documentary-sean-baker-on-anora-editing-breaks-and-old-school-camera-tricks/
Baker, S. (2025, March 3). There’s only one life, and I believe in Tarantino’s idea of a strong, solid filmography: Sean Baker on his Oscar-winning Anora. Filmmaker Magazine. https://filmmakermagazine.com/127271-interview-sean-baker-anora/
Corbet, B. (Director). (2024). The Brutalist [Film]. Focus Features.
Crawley, L. (2025, February 19). It doesn’t have to always cost $200 million: DP Lol Crawley on shooting The Brutalist (mostly) in VistaVision. Filmmaker Magazine. https://filmmakermagazine.com/129617-interview-cinematographer-lol-crawley-the-brutalist/
Fastvold, M. (2025, February 12). How The Brutalist team created the unforgettable opening scene. Gold Derby. https://www.goldderby.com/film/2025/oscars-the-brutalist-opening-scene-ending-explained/
Sharf, Z. (2024, December 23). Inside ‘The Brutalist’ opening: Creating the incredible scene pulling into New York Harbor. IndieWire. https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/the-brutalist-opening-statue-of-liberty-scene-interview-1235075160/
Shore Scripts. (2025, August 14). How to craft the best film festival strategy for your short film. https://www.shorescripts.com/crafting-your-short-films-festival-strategy/
