This summer, we’re highlighting those directors who have made their feature debuts since the year 2000—and who have all but begun to define what a 21st-century cinema might look like. The past two decades have been a transformative period shaped by new technologies, transnational cinemas, and hyper-expanding media culture, and a different cinematic landscape has emerged, along with new directors who have built upon its ever-shifting terrain. Made up of a series of double features, pairing such exceptional debuts as Jordan Peele’s Get Out with Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and Maren Ade’s The Forest for the Trees with Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha, This Is Cinema Now: 21st Century Debuts celebrates our unpredictable cinematic present and recognizes the new class of filmmakers who will be defining the medium for years to come.

Acknowledgements:
American Genre Film Archive; Arthouse Hotel NYC; Cinemateca Portuguesa; Institut Francais and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy NY; Thai Film Archive; Lisandro Alonso