Sanga’s directoral style is firm and confident, especially when he weaves his way through fascinating elliptical loops of storytelling.

| Dec 20, 2022

Writer/director Karen Sanga offers us a look back to our high school days. The days that were full of heartbreak, love, fun and growth.

| May 24, 2022

The film is simultaneously funny and cute as it is anxiety-inducing and heartbreaking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2020

First Girl I Loved confirms the promise of Sanga as a distinctive new filmmaking voice.

| Aug 29, 2018

A new take on a love triangle and narrative storytelling, but one that doesn't feel complete.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 14, 2018

First Girl I Loved is earnest and awkward, hilarious and touching.

| Apr 26, 2018

To anyone who remembers his or her first heartbreak, First Girl I Loved will ring true.

| Aug 7, 2017

Some of the behaviours on display are really quite intense, and while the film is hardly a thriller, it definitely has an edge missing from many a "cuter" coming-of-age and coming out in high school festival crowd-pleaser.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2017

It's not the first teen romance to explore how the phone makes it easier to make mistakes, but it's one of the first to show us how it works as Cupid's arrow - and that offers some balance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2017

The film's title is love-struck, but this is a deceptively wrenching story of self-discovery and honesty.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2017

The film's title is love-struck, but this is a deceptively wrenching story of self-discovery and honesty.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 9, 2017

Crushingly tender, it's a film firmly in the now, as streams of phone text conversations are shown to be a reasonable place to fall in love.

| Jul 6, 2017

This is a small film worth seeking out.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 30, 2017

Though First Girl I Loved can't quite come to a conclusion on the myriad questions it raises about consent, it gently delivers the modest, honest story promised in its title.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2017

I pretty much adored everything about First Girl I Loved.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jun 12, 2017

Kerem Sanga's teen romantic drama, First Girl I Loved is a beautiful portrayal of the joys but especially the fears that come with love when it takes an unconventional form.

| Original Score: 17/20 | Apr 17, 2017

Director Kerem Sanga's gift for quantum observation is one thing, but it's the performances that make this Sundance audience favourite really sing.

| Nov 21, 2016

The plot isn't really the film's focus. Sanga paints his characters with such sensitivity and compassion that even when they're making the wrong choices, perhaps even because they're making the wrong choices, our heart goes out to them.

| Original Score: 9.1/10 | Oct 27, 2016

A sophisticated and complex teenage coming of age story.

| Oct 22, 2016

A woozy and wonderful queer teen romance.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 18, 2016