The New American Cinema was a movement to create independent films that expressed the countercultural moods and sensibilities of the late 1950s and early 1960s; these films represented a break away from the standardization and conformity of corporate Hollywood and from the ideological conservatism of the American mainstream. The term refers both to the films of the period and to the independent film distribution collective of the same name which was established in New York by some New American Cinema filmmakers.