''First Match'' is a 2018 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by

Olivia Newman Olivia Newman is an American film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing '' First Match'' (2018) and '' Where the Crawdads Sing'' (2022). Life and career Newman was born in Hoboken, New Jersey and graduated from The Hudso ...

, based on her 2010 short film of the same name. The film stars Elvire Emanuelle,

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (; born July 15, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films ''Aquaman'' (2018) and '' Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'' (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama ...

Colman Domingo Colman Jason Domingo (born November 28, 1969) is an American actor, writer, and director widely known for his performance as Mr. Bones in the Broadway musical '' The Scottsboro Boys'' (2011), and for his role as recovering drug addict Ali on HBO ...

Jharrel Jerome Jharrel Jerome (born October 9, 1997) is an American actor and rapper who is best known for appearing in Barry Jenkins's acclaimed drama film ''Moonlight'' (2016), and for portraying Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries '' When They ...

, and Jared Kemp. The film premiered at the 2018 South by Southwest festival on March 12 where it won the Audience Award and the LUNA/Gamechanger Award. It was then released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on March 30, 2018.

Cast

* Elvire Emanuelle as Monique *

as Darrel, Monique's father *

as Coach Castile *

as Omari * Jared Kemp as Malik *

Allen Maldonado Allen Maldonado (born May 20, 1983) is an American actor and filmmaker best known for his roles as Curtis in ''Black-ish'' and Bobby in ''The Last O.G.'' He is also an entrepreneur and runs his own clothing line and an app called ''Everybody Digit ...

as Juan

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, and an average rating of .

References

External links

* 2018 independent films 2010s sports drama films 2010s teen drama films 2018 films American independent films American teen drama films Films set in Brooklyn Films shot in New York City English-language Netflix original films Sport wrestling films American sports drama films Teen sports films African-American drama films 2018 drama films 2018 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{sport-film-stub