Award-winning writer and director Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, NYFF 2014 and Corpo Celeste, NYFF 2011) will be our 2016 Filmmaker in Residence, the fourth annual initiative and partnership between the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Past participants include Athina Rachel Tsangari (Chevalier), Lisandro Alonso (Jauja), and Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank), whose residency project American Honey will premiere in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“With Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, which was developed at our first Filmmaker in Residence three years ago, debuting this week, we are thrilled to unveil the name of our next artist in residence,” said Film Society of Lincoln Center Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez. “A distinctive filmmaker with a warm, infectious spirit, Alice Rohrwacher is one of international cinema’s brightest lights, and throughout her career we have championed her work at the Film Society. We are excited to be able to offer Alice an opportunity to finish writing her next feature film, My Bitter Land, in New York this fall and equally excited to welcome her back to the New York Film Festival, where she will connect with other filmmakers and also engage with students and emerging artists.”

“I can’t imagine a better gift than to spend time in New York, take part in the events at the New York Film Festival, and to have the time to research in local archives and libraries for my next film,” said Rohrwacher. “It was 2011 when I crossed the ocean, for the first time in my life, to present my debut feature, Corpo Celeste, at NYFF, so New York is very much interconnected with the festival for me. I vividly remember my first impressions of the city—like taking part in an archaeological mission into the future. Where I live, to the contrary, we dig underground into the past. This clash of past vs. future, vertical vs. underground will be fascinating to me and my work.”

During her residency in New York, Rohrwacher will continue to write her third feature, My Bitter Land, about the adventures of a man living on the margins of his society who can seemingly travel through time.

Rohrwacher was born in Florence, Italy, in 1981. She graduated with a degree in Classic Literature from Torino University, and wrote for theater and worked as a musician before approaching filmmaking, initially as a documentary editor. Her first feature, Corpo Celeste, premiered in Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2011, and was then selected for Sundance, New York, London, Rio, and Tokyo film festivals before being released in the U.S., UK, and France. Rohrwacher’s second feature, The Wonders, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival along with the Best Film Prize at Filmfest München, and the Black Pearl Award at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival. In 2015 she directed The Djess, a short film commissioned by Prada as part of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales film series that premiered during New York Fashion Week, and was also presented at Venice Film Festival. She is currently working on directing her first opera, a new version of La Traviata for Teatri di Reggio Emilia that will open in Fall 2016.

The Filmmaker in Residence program was launched in 2013 by Jaeger-LeCoultre and the Film Society of Lincoln Center as an annual initiative designed to support filmmakers at an early stage in the creative process against the backdrop of New York City and the New York Film Festival.

The 2013 Filmmaker in Residence, Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights, Fish Tank, Red Road), utilized her residency to develop the script and work on pre-production for her first feature project shot in the United States, American Honey, starring Shia LaBeouf. The film will have its World Premiere in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival this weekend.

The 2014 Filmmaker in Residence, Lisandro Alonso (Jauja, Liverpool, Fantasma, Los Muertos) is working on an untitled project that began during his residency at the Film Society and is aiming to shoot soon in the United States.

The latest feature from 2015 Filmmaker in Residence Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg), buddy comedy Chevalier, was picked up by Strand Releasing following its U.S. premiere at NYFF 2015, and will be released theatrically on May 27 at various locations nationally, including the Film Society’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Tsangari’s White Knuckles, the screwball heist comedy she worked on during her residency, is currently in development as her second English-language film, executive-produced by Christos V. Konstantakopoulos.

Click here for more information about the Filmmaker in Residence program.