# List of avant-garde films of the 1940s

A list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1940s.
| Title | Director | Cast | Nation | Notes |
| 1941 |||||
| Moods of the Sea | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman | | United States | Black & white, sound (Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (overture) |
| Who Has Been Rocking My Dream Boat | Kenneth Anger | | United States | Lost film. |
| 1942 |||||
| By Night with Torch and Spear | Joseph Cornell | | United States | |
| Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style | Charles A. Ridley | | United Kingdom | British propaganda short, which "remixes" marching Nazis to a pop song. |
| Tinsel Tree | Kenneth Anger | | United States | Lost film |
| Variations on a Circle | James Whitney (filmmaker) | | United States | Color, silent. Abstract animation, shot in 8mm. |
| 1943 |||||
| Allegretto | Oskar Fischinger | | United States | Abstract animation, color, sound. Third version, completed in 1943 |
| The Geography of the Body | Willard Maas | Willard Maas, Marie Menken | United States | Film poem, text written and read by George Barker (poet) |
| Meshes of the Afternoon | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | United States | Black & white; sound by composer Teiji Ito added in 1959. Established the movement known as "New American Cinema." |
| The Witch's Cradle | Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp | Marcel Duchamp, Pajarito Matta | United States | Black & white; silent. Never finished; survives as workprint or gathering of trims. |
| 1944 |||||
| At Land | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Parker Tyler, John Cage | United States | |
| 1945 |||||
| The Eye and the Ear | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | | United Kingdom | |
| Le Vampire | Jean Painlevé | | France | |
| Out-Takes From a Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | |
| A Study in Choreography for Camera | Maya Deren | Talley Beatty | United States | |
| Visual Variations on Noguchi | Marie Menken | | United States | |
| 1946 |||||
| The Potted Psalm | Sidney Peterson, James Broughton | Beatrix Perry, Harry Honig | United States | Live action surrealist short. |
| Ritual in Transfigured Time | Maya Deren | Maya Deren, Rita Christiani, Frank Westbrook, Anaïs Nin | United States | |
| 1947 |||||
| The Cage | Sidney Peterson | | United States | |
| Dreams That Money Can Buy | Hans Richter | Max Ernst | United States | |
| Fireworks | Kenneth Anger | Kenneth Anger, Bill Seltzer, Gordon Gray | United States | |
| Forest Murmurs | Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman | | United States | Black & white, sound; made for MGM, but withheld from release. Jacobs dates it to 1941; most other sources give 1947. |
| Lady in the Lake | Robert Montgomery | Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter | United States | |
| Motion Painting No. 1 | Oskar Fischinger | | United States | |
| Private Life of a Cat | Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | | United States | |
| Le Tempestaire | Jean Epstein | | France | |
| Transmutation | Jordan Belson | | United States | Belson's first film, shown at Art in Cinema screenings in San Francisco in the early '50s; lost film. |
| 1948 |||||
| Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort | Gregory Markopoulos | | United States | Color, 70 min. Begun in Los Angeles in 1947; finished in Toledo, Ohio. In three parts: Psyche, Lysis & Charmides. |
| In the Street | Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee | | United States | Silent; sound version issued in 1952 |
| Meditation on Violence | Maya Deren | Chao Li Chi | United States | |
| The Petrified Dog | Sidney Peterson | Gail Randall, Marie Hirsh, Jo Landor | United States | |
| Weegee's New York | Weegee | | United States | |
| 1949 |||||
| Christmas, U.S.A. | Gregory Markopoulos | | United States | |
| The Lead Shoes | Sidney Peterson | | United States | |
| Medusa | Maya Deren | | United States | |
| Pacific 231 | Jean Mitry | | France | |
| Puce Moment | Kenneth Anger | | United States | |