Full-length narrative film for theatrical release, minimum 40 minutes — distinct from docs, TV, and shorts by budget, distribution, and storytelling scope.
A feature film isn't about abstract categorization; it's about working with a different set of economic and narrative rules. You have a budget that starts in the six figures (realistically), a distribution structure behind you, cinema seats booked, and you need to sustain a story for 90-150 minutes that drives people to the cinema. This fundamentally distinguishes it from anything else called "film."
Practically, on set this means you plan in different rhythms. With a documentary or a series, you work episodically, iteratively – you can shoot scenes multiple times, gather material. For a feature film, every shooting day is calculated. Your DP plans setups that carry a closed, internally coherent narrative. There's a classic three-act structure or modern variations thereof – but the dramaturgy must work because the audience sits still for two hours and has paid admission for it. This is a different psychological contract than with a series, where you can skip an episode, or with a short film, where 15 minutes of patience is enough.
In the edit, you immediately notice the difference: you edit for the cinema sound mix, for DCP color grading on a large format, for a screen. Your colorist has different requirements because a feature film needs to look the same in a hundred cinemas simultaneously – consistent, mastered for different projectors. A web series? 1080p, done. A feature film? DCI 2K, 4K intermediate, Dolby Vision, Auro. Post-production is many times more complex.
Financially, it's also a different league: a feature film has distribution costs, a marketing budget, perhaps festival travel. For this, it also requires a distributor and a financing structure before the first scene is shot. This makes it more predictable, but also more rigid. A short film can be shot with three friends over a weekend. A feature film requires production management, a UPM, insurance – the full infrastructure. It's not better or worse, just a different craft. Whoever makes a feature film works within a system that presupposes cinema.