Ivan Passer, a director who joined Milos Forman and others in ushering in the filmmaking movement known as the Czech New Wave in the 1960s, then went on to direct American features, including “Born to Win,” “Cutter’s Way” and “Creator,” died on Thursday at his home in Reno, Nev. He was 86.

Rodney Sumpter, a lawyer and spokesman for Mr. Passer’s family, said the cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Passer’s debut feature, “Intimate Lighting,” released in Czechoslovakia in 1965, was widely hailed as helping to establish a new level of cinema in that country, where Mr. Forman’s early success, “Loves of a Blonde,” had been released the same year.

“Intimate Lighting” was a sparse, elegantly told tale of a cellist from Prague who visits a country town for a concert and reunites with an old friend. The film drew acclaim when it played at the New York Film Festival in 1966 and again when it was given a theatrical release in the United States in 1969.