The wait is over! 2023 was our first full year back in theaters and it was quite an exciting 365 days filled with festivals, retrospectives, restorations, and more. Per our annual tradition, our staff publishes a selection of their top films and memorable cinematic experiences. Explore below:

Amanda Bogacz, Senior Coordinator, Major Gifts & Foundations

1. Aftersun
2. Descendant
3. Nope
4. Men
5. Triangle of Sadness
6. Tar
7. Saint Omer
8. Bones & All
9. Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
10. The Woman King

Honorable mention: The Fabelmans, Till, The Nortman, The Innocents, After Yang, The Banshees of Inisherin, Close, Bullet Train

Jordan Raup, Assistant Director, Marketing

10. Mr. Bachmann and His Class
9. Crimes of the Future
8. All That Breathes
7. The Fabelmans
6. Saint Omer
5. Both Sides of the Blade
4. EO
3. One Fine Morning
2. The Girl and the Spider
1. Aftersun

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Comrades, A Love Story
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? Blow Out
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) Tie: Mike Leigh and Dario Argento
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Histoire(s) du cinéma at MoMA
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Scorsese’s intro for My Personality Crisis at NYFF60

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? The Way of the Wind (again)

Nicholas Byrne, Front of House

Top 4 2022 Films (in no particular order):

De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sang-soo)
Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo)
A Short Story (Bi Gan)

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Lilya 4-Ever (2002, Lukas Moodysson)
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? What Time Is It There? (2001, Tsai Ming-liang)
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) The Hong Sangsoo Multiverse: A Retrospective of Double Features
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Tsai Ming-Liang: In Dialogue with Time, Memory, and Self, MoMA
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Hong Sang-soo Q&A in between The Woman Who Ran and Woman is the Future of Man
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Whatever Hong releases

Chris Torres, Front of House
Top 12 (de-ranked):

Banshees of Inisherin – McDonaughThe Batman – Reeves
Bones and All – Guadagnino
Coma – Bonello
De Humani Corporis Fabrica – Castaing-Taylor/Paravel
Elvis – Luhrmann
Nope – Peele
RRR – Rajamuli
Showing Up – Reichardt
Tar – Fields
Walk Up – Hong
Women Talking – Polley

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Inland Empire by David Lynch. I don’t think any film has filled me with such dread over what it’s supposed to be saying about acting and art and human existence.
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? Jackass 1, 2, and 3D by Jeff Tremaine. There was a brief moment during MoMI’s ‘Jackass-a-thon’ where the sound on the 35mm print cut out and we were watching Steve-O get a fish hook pushed through his cheek and jump into shark infested waters. For those moments I couldn’t remember if I was watching Jackass or Charlie Chaplin. It was the single greatest moment I’ve ever felt in a movie theater (especially post-pandemic) laughing with everyone over our silent dumbass childhood idols/friends.
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) Beware of Dario Argento opened my eyes to an utter master of film and manipulator of human fear. I was very thankful to see so many of these incredible films for the first time not only on the big screen but with an audience that could cheer on every crushed bone, or giant mantis.
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? IFC Center, Documentary Now…And Forever! You will never feel like a more perfect audience for an episode of doc now than immediately after watching its serious subject matter in a crowd of people. I will never laugh harder about this series than I did in those theaters this year. Thank you!
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Director Hong x Dennis Lim. Everyone on staff was on hand for the couple of talks given by Hong Sang-Soo this year and his films inspired so much connection between us. I only hope that you can find some time to watch them and talk with us about them too. We hung onto every word he had to say. I went and got and read the books he talked about. He is a blessing.

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Magic Mike’s Last Dance. If you don’t enjoy these films beyond any sense of reason then I don’t think you have a soul.

Walter Blum, Front of House

1. RRR – Dir. S. S. Rajamouli
2. Nope [in IMAX] – Dir. Jordan Peele
3. The Fabelmans – Dir. Steven Spielberg
4. Tar – Dir. Todd Field
5. The Northman – Dir. Robert Eggers
6. Everything Everywhere All at Once – Dir. The Daniels
7. Funny Pages [in 35mm] – Dir. Owen Kline
8. Armageddon Time – Dir. James Gray
9. Ambulance – Dir. Michael Bay
10. Avatar: The Way of the Water – Dir. James Cameron

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year?  – Daddy Longlegs [in 35mm] – Dir. The Safdie Brothers
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year?  – Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (Dir. Les Clark, Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson) [in 70mm] and Zodiac (Dir. David Fincher) [in 35mm] (at New Beverly Cinema, with a 16mm print of The Ducksters by Chuck Jones)
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) – The Argento Series
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? – The Class of 07’ Series at Nitehawk Cinema
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year?  – James Gray and Jeremy Strong for Armageddon Time (NYFF)

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? – Oppenheimer [in IMAX 70mm] – Dir. Christopher Nolan

Florence Almozini, Senior Director of Programming 

The Girl and the Spider by Ramon and Silvan ZĂŒrcher
Nope by Jordan Peele
Saint Omer by Alice Diop
Armageddon Time by James Gray
The Eternal Daughter by Joanna Hogg
One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Love
EO by Jerzy Skolimowski
The African Desperate by Martine Syms
The Cathedral by Ricky d’Ambrose
The Inspection by Elegance Bratton

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Drylongso by Cauleen Smith
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) Dario Argento retrospective with him in person!
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? A series of touring Cine-Concert that include Sight Unseen with Lee Ranaldo, Carpenter’s Dark Star with L’Etrangleuse, Tod Browning’s The Unknown with Rodolphe Burger.
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? The Talk with Joanna Hogg and Kelly Reichardt at NYFF

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? New Bruno Dumont, new Bertrand Bonello, new Justine Triet.

Rebecca Slaman, House Manager
Top Ten films of 2022:Women Talking
TĂĄr
RRR
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Nope
Pinocchio
Glass Onion
Matilda the Musical
Elvis
The Bob’s Burgers Movie

What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? The Women Talking press conference as part of NYFF!

Clinton Krute, Co-Deputy Editor, Film Comment

1. One Fine Morning
2. The Novelist’s Film
3. Saint Omer
4. We
5. The Eternal Daughter
6. The Fabelmans
7. In Front of Your Face
8. Both Sides of the Blade
9. Decision to Leave
10. White Noise

Late-Breaking Contender: Harvest Time (“There’s great power in simplicity”–Neil Young)

Best older movie you saw for the first time this year? A Confucian Confusion
Best older movie you saw again this year? Tale of Cinema
Favorite programming at FLC this year? The Hong Sangsoo Multiverse: A Retrospective of Double Features
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Film Comment Live: Best of 2022
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Killers of the Flower Moon. Less basic: Eureka (Lisandro Alonso) and Music (Angela Schanelec)

Lisa Schroeder, Chief Administrative Officer

1. Women Talking
2. Scarlet
3. She Said
4. Living
5. Empire of Light
6. One Fine Morning
7. Tar
8. Sr.
9. Corsage
10. The Wonder

Harrison Asen, Manager, Ticketing Services

Aftersun
The Banshees of Inishrin
Corsage
Barbarian
Crimes of the Future
Fire Island
Glass Onion
Nope
Showing Up
Triangle of Sadness

Honorable Mention: The January 6th Hearings
What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Last Year at Marienbad
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Dan Sullivan, Programmer

2022 Premieres:

1. Crimes of the Future
2. Showing Up
3. Pacifiction
4. The Novelist’s Film
5. EO
6. Avatar: The Way of Water
7. Jackass Forever
8. The Cathedral
9. Unrest
10. RRR

Alice Winkler, Director, Human Resources

Favorite Movie: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

James Malzone, Front of House

Aftersun
The Cathedral
Crimes of the Future
The Fabelmans
Nope
The Novelist’s Film
RRR
Saint Omer
TÁR
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Hiroshima Mon Amour
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters or Buffalo ’66
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.)The Hong Sangsoo Multiverse; Animating Funny Pages
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Tsai Ming-liang @ MoMA; Catherine Breillat @ IFC; Wong Kar-Wai @ IFC (keep it going in 2023!); “Photographing the Ether” @ BAM
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Hong Sangsoo
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Manny Lage-Valera, Manager, Theater Operations

Top Ten:

1. See You Friday, Robinson (Mitra Farahani) / Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)
2. Radical Thought (Bradley Eros) / The Mushroom Archive (Bradley Eros) / The Munsters (Rob Zombie)
3. The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sangsoo) / Answering the Sun (Rainer Kohlberger)
4. De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel) / Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
5. Instant Life (OJOBOCA, Andrew Kim)
6. In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun (Sylvia Schedelbauer)
7. Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine)
8. Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)
9. RRR (S. S. Rajamouli)
10. Blonde (Andrew Dominik) / The Plains (David Easteal)

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year?
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (King Vidor, 1941), 35mm at FLC
El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1966), 35mm at MoMI
Minamata Revolt: A People’s Quest for Life (Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1973), 16mm at MoMI
Dice Rules (Jay Dubin, 1991), 35mm at Roxy Cinema
Max Turheim (Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller, 2002-2021), 16mm at Anthology Film Archvies
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, 1931), 35mm at Roxy Cinema; Dracula 3D (Dario Argento, 2012), 3-D at FLC
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema; The Hong Sangsoo Multiverse: A Retrospective of Double Features; King Vidor
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Imageless Films, Anthology Film Archives and Microscope Gallery; Pierre Clémenti, MoMA
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Hong Sangsoo & Matías Piñeiro
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin

Matt Dinda, Sr. Manager, Partnerships and Advertising

AFTERSUN
AFTER YANG
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
BENEDICTION
A CHIARA
THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER
PLEASURE
TÁR
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
WOMEN TALKING

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Finally catching up with Terence Davies’ THE LONG DAY CLOSES was a highlight of 2022. Shoutout to friend and former FLC colleague John Oursler, for whom the film is a favorite of. I should’ve listened to him and watched it 5-7 years earlier. It’s been nearly a year since I screened it (it made that much of an impression), and can’t wait to dive in again, and deeper.
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? I’m most excited for: Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER, Alice Rohrwacher’s LA CHIMERA, Sofia Coppola’s PRISCILLA, and Jane Schoenbrun’s I SAW THE TV GLOW. Very intrigued as well by Marielle Heller’s NIGHTBITCH. Fingers crossed that some or all of these find their way to Film at Lincoln Center’s screens over the next year.

Paige Nelligan, Front of House

Top 10 2022:

1. The Rehearsal
2. Jackass Forever
3. De humani corporis fabrica
4. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
5. Holy spider
6. EO
7. TĂĄr
8. A Short Story
9. Everything Everywhere All at Once
10. The Kingdom Exodus

Best older movie seen for first time this year: Poetry (2010)
Best older movie rewatched this year: Lilja 4-ever (2002) and Inland Empire (2006)
Favorite programming at FLC this year: Mike Leigh retrospective
Favorite programming elsewhere: Catherine Breillat retrospective at IFC and Dans le labyrinthe at Metrograph
Best Q&A / Talk at FLC this year: Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska on the Making of EO

Most anticipated movie 2023: Coma (Bertrand Bonello)

Katie Skelly, Manager, Marketing Programming and Brand

1. Aftersun
2. The Eternal Daughter
3. RRR
4. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
5. After Yang
6. Speak No Evil
7. Everything Everywhere All at Once
8. NOPE
9. Pearl
10. The Northman

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? TENEBRE
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? THE PARENT TRAP (1998) on 35mm
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) BEWARE OF DARIO ARGENTO
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Too Much is Never Enough: The Films of Gaspar Noé (IFC Center)
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Alice Diop on Saint Omer at NYFF60

 

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Tie: JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 and BEAU IS AFRAID

Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival

2022 premieres:

1. Pacifiction
2. The Novelist’s Film
3. Showing Up
4. The Plains
5. Unrest
6. Aftersun
7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica
8. Walk Up
9. The United States of America
10. Saint Omer

Ten more: Coma, Crimes of the Future, Dry Ground Burning, The Eternal Daughter, No Bears, Nope, One Fine Morning, Rewind and Play, Trenque Lauquen, You Have to Come and See It

Tyler Wilson, Programmer

2022 Premieres:

Pacifiction
Stonewalling
Crimes of the Future
Saint Omer
The Plains
Dry Ground Burning
The Cathedral
Aftersun
NOPE
Funny Pages

Eric Maala, Theater Manager

1. Crimes of the Future
2. Three Thousand Years of Longing
3. Trenque Lauquen
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
5. Turning Red
6. Nope
7. Stars at Noon
8. TÁR
9.Glass Onion
10. Human Flowers of Flesh

Favorite classic first watch: Bullet Ballet/Wild at Heart–  2023 style goals.
Favorite classic rewatch: Golden Eighties– double feature with Newsies at BAM, number one on my Sight & Sound ballot.
Favorite FLC programming at FLC: Jonas Mekas Retrospective– “salvation by yourself, or salvation together with others,” “and it’s still beautiful in my memory.”
Favorite programming elsewhere: Mike De Leon Retrospective at MoMA– I truly won’t shut up about how I’m Filipino.
Most Anticipated: One Fine Morning– hotly anticipated sequel to Bergman Island, I’ll be there day one cosplaying as Tim Roth not listening to his wife.
Best Q&A at FLC: Mike Leigh, every last one of ’em– “you keep on rowin’, and I’ll keep on smiling.”

Manuel Santini, Senior Manager, Programming

Top 8 in alphabetical order:

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Aftersun
Beba
Katrina Babies
Petite maman
Simulacros de liberaciĂłn
Trenque Lauquen (parts 1 & 2)
Unrest

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? VERA DRAKE / ATTICA
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) NYFF60 Revivals
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? Mike Leigh, NAKED Q&A

 

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World (Radu Jude) & To Close One’s Eyes (VĂ­ctor Erice)

Chelsea Tomasi, Front of House

In no particular order:

Nope
The Novelist’s Film
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Crimes of the Future
Funny Pages
Prey
Dry Ground Burning
Women Talking
Significant Other
RRR

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Three-way tie between The Washing Machine at Spectacle or Diva @ Film Forum or Inferno @ the Walter Reade.
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? AI @ The Roxy
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) The Hong Sang Soo—niverse
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? Horror @ MOMA
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? A conversation with Effie T. Brown @ NYFF
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? It’s between Greta Gerwig’s Barbie with Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers

Maddie Whittle, Assistant Programmer

1. Saint Omer
2. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
3. One Fine Morning
4. Aftersun
5. EO
6. The Cathedral
7. Mad God
8. Ahed’s Knee
9. Both Sides of the Blade
10. Crimes of the Future

Sabrina Tenteromano, Associate, Marketing Outreach & Engagement

In reverse order of release:
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen)
Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano)
Il buco (Michelangelo Frammartino)
After Yang (Kogonada)
Italian Studies (Adam Leon)

Fernando Martinez, Manager, Ticketing Systems

Favorite 2022 release: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Arin Sang-urai, Video Producer & Editor

The Cathedral
Hustle
TÁR
Blonde
Jackass Forever
Violent Night
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Maverick
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Resurrection
Ambulance

Sureme Laster Bey, Senior Coordinator, Membership

1. The Woman King
2.  Till
3. Elvis
4.  Do Revenge
5. Ms. Harris Goes to Paris
6. Black Panther
7. Nope
8. Avatar
9. The Inspection
10. TÁR

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? The Joy Luck Club
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? White Christmas
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) The Wiz
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? The Till Talkback
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? The Little Mermaid and The Color Purple Musical Movie

Tarik Cummings, Front of House

Top 10 movies of the year no order:

The Batman
EEAAO
Pearl
Prey
The Woman King
The Menu
Avatar: Way of Water
Nanny
The Princess

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Police Story 3 aka Supercop (1992)
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) New York Asian Film Festival
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? IFC’s late night favorites
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year?  I forget the person’s name but it was in the New York experimental/underground cinema
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Tie between Rebel Moon and Creed 3

Jasmine Abbasov, Manager, Digital Marketing

Aftersun
After Yang
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Decision to Leave
De humani corporis fabrica
EO
NOPE
Saint Omer
Showing Up
TÁR

What’s the best older movie you saw for the first time this year? Lilly & Lana Wachowski’s Bound, MĂĄrta MĂ©szĂĄros’ Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!, David Cronenberg’s Crash, Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break, Shu Lea Cheang’sFresh Kill(on 35mm!) at BAM, Stanley Kwan’s Rougeat BAM
What’s the best older movie you saw again this year? McG’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (on 35mm!) at Nitehawk Williamsburg, Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends at Metrograph, Roman Kachanov’s The Secret of the Third Planet
What was your favorite programming at FLC this year? (Can be series, retrospective, special event, etc.) Human Conditions: The Films of Mike Leigh, Jonas Mekas Retrospective, Beware of Dario Argento: A 20-Film Retrospective
What was your favorite programming elsewhere? The Music Box 70MM Film Festival 2022 at Music Box Theater, Films from Iran for Iran at Another Screen/Another Gaze Journal, Roadtrip at Metrograph, Love Sucks at Nitehawk Williamsburg
What was the best Q&A/talk you watched that FLC conducted this year? NYFF60 Talk with Nan Goldin

 

What’s your most anticipated movie of 2023? Isabel Sandoval’s Tropical Gothic, Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid + more!