Poster for EUGENE O'NEILL'S - THE FIRST MAN, directed by Hardeep Giani, AFIN 2025

Feature Film AFIN 282

EUGENE O'NEILL'S - THE FIRST MAN

Directed by Hardeep Giani

AFIN 2025 Nominee

  • 2025
  • 2h 28m
  • UK, USA
  • English
  • PG
  • Drama
  • Classic
  • Period Drama
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Stills

4 frames

Nominee

Best Art Direction

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Credits

Cinematography

Production Design

Synopsis

* Viewing copy has available French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese and English subtitles.

This is the first-ever film adaptation of The First Man - an early and rare story from the pen of Nobel laureate and Pulitzer prize winner, Eugene O'Neill. This psychological romantic drama set in 1920s Connecticut, delves into themes of obsession, grief and betrayal.

World renowned anthropologist Curtis is consumed by grief over his young daughters' deaths. He finds solace in immersing himself in preparations for his upcoming expedition to Asia, where he aims to unravel the mystery of "The First Man." However, he must confront an undercurrent of family conflict as he battles against his relatives' unsettling suspicions that his wife Martha is carrying his best friend Bigelow's child.

100 years after it was first published, Pulitzer and Nobel literature award winning writer Eugene O’Neill’s 1920’s story - ‘The First Man’ has been lovingly crafted as a feature film by a team of UK based film-makers led by auteur director Hardeep Giani - and this is his very first Feature film. Director and Producer Hardeep Giani explains his vision: 'Eugene O’neill’s incredible script was a pleasure to make into a feature film.

What we wanted to do was to make this independent film for a modern audience - to produce a story examining the conflict of love in an environment of social and family prejudice, and how a bereavement can inflict psychosis in a grieving father.'

Director's Statement

Hardeep Giani, filmmaker portrait provided to AFIN.

I am always looking to tell stories in film, and be creative on a very low budget. I love and promote Indie Film making, and champion its philosophy.

What makes this one special

From the Judges

From the Judges

Costume and production design anchor this adaptation of a classic American stage drama, rendered with such care that the panel found itself transported straight into the period. It reads as a handsome, fully realised world, with every room and every garment doing its part to hold the era in place. Craft of that texture is a pleasure to recognise.

Curated, anonymised highlights drawn from the judges' notes.

Director's Biography

Hardeep Giani, filmmaker portrait provided to AFIN. Hardeep Giani Director

Hardeep Giani is a renowned Director and Producer in Film and Television. He has worked for the BBC, Channel 4, Talkback, RDF and Silver River television companies. Having studied film directing in New York at the NYFA and Motion Picture Pro - he has also gained qualifications from NFTS, London Film School, Raindance and Dov-Simens Producers course. His Short films Rose, Mary and Time, If You Go Away and The Years of Laughter and Forgetting have won numerous awards at film festivals. His long form documentary 'F**K It, It's Over' also won many awards at film festivals and he directed the TV documentary 'Megan and Harry: A Revolutionary Romance'. His First Feature 'Eugene O'Neill's - The First Man' is due for release in 2025.

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EUGENE O'NEILL'S - THE FIRST MAN was an official Nominee for Best Art Direction at the AFIN International Film Festival 2025, a Top 100 Best Reviewed and IMDb-qualifying festival.

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