Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context originally English) The main, full-length film in a cinema program that also included a short film and often a newsreel 2 Any film produced to be shown in cinemas before being released for home viewing
WordNet
n. the principal (full-length) film in a program at a movie theater; "the feature tonight is `Casablanca'" [syn: feature]
Wikipedia
A feature film is a film (also called a movie or motion picture) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program. The notion of how long this should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, and British Film Institute, a feature film runs for 40 minutes or longer, while the Screen Actors Guild states that it is 80 minutes or longer.
The majority of feature films are between 70 and 210 minutes long. The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906, Australia) was the first dramatic feature film released (running at approximately 60 minutes). An earlier The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897, U.S.) is considered by some as the first documentary feature film (running time is 100 minutes), however it is more accurately characterized as a sports program as it included the full unedited boxing match. The first feature-length adaptation was Les Misérables (1909, U.S.). Other early feature films include The Inferno (L'Inferno) (1911), Quo Vadis? (1913), Oliver Twist (1912), Richard III (1912), From the Manger to the Cross (1912), and Cleopatra (1912).
Usage examples of "feature film".
Anyone daydreaming of a feature film of NEUROMANCER might want to pause to ponder just how the hell one might go about depicting this climax (and it is the climax) on the screen.
Filmmakers have begun to use computers to create -- or significantly enhance -- the good, old-fashioned feature film.
If a daily rough of a feature film is destroyed in a fire the muses may weep but at least the producers recoup their money.
And there'd be a TV show, maybe even a feature film, about this hunter.
But a feature film requires more of an actor's performance than being willing to take a bubble bath in a see-through tub.
She sounded as if she were discussing a Walt Disney feature film, one of those with all the cute little animals.
Then thefinale: the pre-credits sequence of a feature film (her debut, herswansong), a striptease in the back room of a gentleman's club full ofsweating young stockbrokers, and Nicola up on a table wearing ametal showercap and, at first, the usual seven veils, dancing withminimal movements but with fierce address of eyes and mouth until,just before she vanished in the smoke and the shadow, you saw allher young body.
Just a few months later, Carson would be invited to direct the film Star Trek Generations, giving the British director his first opportunity to take charge of an American feature film.