What was Stanley Kubrick's first feature film?

Stanley Kubrick’s first feature film was Fear and Desire.

Released in 1953, the film was a low-budget, independently financed anti-war allegory about soldiers stranded behind enemy lines after a plane crash. Kubrick directed, photographed, and edited the project, while his friend Howard Sackler wrote the screenplay.

Kubrick assembled a very small crew and filmed for about five weeks in California’s San Gabriel Mountains. The production began under the title The Trap, was later renamed The Shape of Fear, and finally became Fear and Desire. Financing came largely from family and friends, with additional support from his uncle Martin Perveler.

A frequent mix-up is The Killing, which was Kubrick’s first fully professional feature with an established cast and crew, not his first feature overall. Before Fear and Desire, he had directed short documentaries including Day of the Fight and Flying Padre. Kubrick later expressed severe dissatisfaction with Fear and Desire and tried to keep it out of circulation.