Does A First Time For Everything Have A Movie Adaptation?

Sometimes I get caught thinking that cinema is like an enormous scrapbook for humanity’s 'firsts' — first loves, first days, first victories, first betrayals — and honestly, a lot of those moments have shown up on screen. There are whole genres built around beginnings: coming-of-age films like 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' or 'Lady Bird' live and breathe first awkward romances and first tastes of freedom. Then you have more specific firsts captured brilliantly, like the first major public breakthrough in 'The Social Network' or the slow, life-wide firsts in 'Boyhood', which felt like watching a series of literal firsts stitched into one life.

But not every tiny personal 'first' becomes its own big-budget film. Tons of firsts exist as subplots — a first kiss might be a ten-minute scene in a rom-com, a first job is a chapter in a drama. Indie filmmakers and short films are the ones most likely to capture niche, intimate firsts: first heartbreaks in tiny cafés, first gender-realizations in a single apartment, first surgeries in documentary shorts. Global cinema adds whole cultural firsts I hadn’t known about until I watched them.

So, does every first have a movie adaptation? Practically no — but the spirit of firsts is everywhere in film. I love spotting that moment on screen; it still makes me grin when a tiny human milestone gets its cinematic spotlight.

Great question — the truth is a little nuanced: there isn’t a single, widely-known film formally titled 'A First Time for Everything' that I can point to as the definitive adaptation, but the idea of 'first times' is one of the most adapted and revisited themes in movies. Filmmakers love that electric mix of awkwardness, discovery, triumph, and heartbreak that comes with someone’s first experience of love, sex, war, loss, or independence. So while you might not find a canonical movie under that exact name, you’ll find tons of films adapted from books, plays, and true stories that are all about those pivotal “firsts.”

If you look at adaptations, there are plenty of examples where a book or other source material zeroes in on a major first and becomes a film. For instance, 'Call Me By Your Name' (from André Aciman’s novel) is practically built around a character’s first adult love and the bewildering beauty of it. 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' came from Stephen Chbosky’s novel and captures multiple firsts for a teen: first real friends, first party, first heartbreak. 'An Education' adapted from a memoir dramatizes a young woman’s first encounter with a world that feels thrilling and dangerous in equal measure. Graphic novels and plays also join the list; 'Blue Is the Warmest Colour' began as a graphic novel and became an intense film about first love, and 'Moonlight' drew on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play to convey a young man’s first confrontations with identity and intimacy.

There are also explicit movie titles that play with the phrase 'first time' — you’ve got indie rom-coms like 'The First Time' (2012) and various international films and shorts that literally use the phrase in their title. Beyond exact titles, the genre that loves 'firsts' is coming-of-age: 'Lady Bird' nails that messy year of first independence and first real rebellion; 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' isn’t about a single first, but it is obsessed with the first encounters and the desire to erase or relive them. Even memoir adaptations like 'Room' or 'The Fault in Our Stars' put a spotlight on intense firsts — motherhood, real love, real suffering — that translate incredibly well to film because they’re so human and relatable.

What I love as a fan is how movies give texture to those first moments: the tiny details, the stammered lines, the music that suddenly feels like everything. So if you’re hunting for a film that captures the spirit of 'a first time for everything,' you’ve got an embarrassment of riches — whether you prefer literary adaptations, indie festivals, or mainstream dramas. Personally, I keep coming back to these films because they remind me how awkward and brilliant being new at something can feel.

I like to think of movies as a buffet of beginnings: some are main courses, others are tiny hors d'oeuvres. Plenty of obvious firsts appear over and over — first loves in 'Call Me by Your Name', first rebellions in 'Dead Poets Society', first major wins in sports movies like 'Rocky'. Then there are first-times that hide in plain sight: the first time someone realizes who they are can be a subplot in 'Moonlight' or 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', and anime often frames first supernatural encounters as life-changing, like in 'Your Name'.

It’s also worth noting festivals and shorts: filmmakers love to explore very specific firsts that commercial studios usually ignore. So while you won’t find a blockbuster about every tiny milestone, the cinematic world is filled with versions of almost every universal first — if you know where to look. I always enjoy hunting those small, honest films that nail the moment.

Let me give you a clearer take: not every first becomes a standalone film, but the reasons why are interesting. Filmmakers pick firsts that deliver dramatic arcs or universal resonance. A ‘first’ that shapes future choices — a first crime, first betrayal, first heartbreak — has narrative weight and marketability. That’s why biopics and prestige dramas mine first public breakthroughs: 'The King’s Speech' elevates a first major public success, and 'Hidden Figures' frames monumental firsts within a societal arc. Conversely, intensely private or mundane firsts (first time you tied shoelaces, first awkward elevator conversation) rarely get feature treatment unless they’re used as a metaphor.

Economics matter: studios fund stories that promise an audience; indie filmmakers chase frank, niche firsts and experimental forms. Documentaries and shorts are the real treasure troves for unusual firsts — from first migrations to first medical procedures — because they can focus tightly without needing a traditional structure. In short, the cinema reflects many beginnings, but selection depends on emotional payoff, cultural interest, and narrative potential. I find that negotiation between intimacy and spectacle endlessly fascinating.

I catch myself thinking about this whenever I rewatch 'Boyhood' — it doesn’t dramatize every single first, but it stitches so many beginnings into a life that the feeling of firsts becomes the film’s heartbeat. Smaller films and countless shorts have taken single firsts and treated them like their whole universe; those are the ones that often surprise me the most because they zero in on a tiny, specific moment.

So no, there isn’t a movie for literally every first, but the ones that do get made often tell us more about being human than a list could. I like that movies pick and choose, and that leaves room for me to find the rest in books, music, and memories — it’s kind of comforting.