The First Wave is a feature documentary film by Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker Matthew Heineman that follows the lives of doctors, nurses and patients in one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospital systems during the harrowing first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Released in January 2022, the film was directed, produced, and shot by Matthew Heineman, considered by Sundance Film Festival as "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today." The film is driven by its characters in a cinéma vérité style from the frontlines of the global pandemic.