Every year, we invite our staff to pick their top 10 films of the year, as well to answer a few questions about their most memorable cinematic experiences of 2017. Happy New Year from everyone here at the Film Society of Lincoln Center!
Also, on this week’s The Close-Up, Michael Koresky sat down with four other members of the staff here at the Film Society of Lincoln Center to talk about the year in moviegoing. He was joined by Digital Marketing Manager Jordan Raup, Publicist Rachel Allen, Programming Operations Assistant Madeline Whittle, and Assistant Programmer Dan Sullivan to talk about the year’s best films, rediscovered classics, and favorite repertory series in New York’s bustling art house cinema scene. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
Lesli Klainberg. Executive Director and Co-Publisher of Film Comment
#1: Call Me by Your Name
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Battle of the Sexes
Cielo
Dunkirk
Faces Places
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
Strong Island
Wonderstruck
Wonder Woman
Honorable Mentions: War for the Planet of the Apes, Logan, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
Dennis Lim, Director of Programming
1. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch)
2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Western (Valeska Grisebach)
5. Streetscapes [Dialogue] (Heinz Emigholz)
6. (tie) The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)
Claire’s Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
7. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)
8. Arabia (Joao Dumans and Affonso Uchoa)
9. Tonsler Park (Kevin Jerome Everson)
10. Electro-Pythagoras: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett (Luke Fowler)
Eugene Hernandez, Deputy Director and Co-Publisher of Film Comment
1. Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes)
2. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)
3. The Square (Ruben Ă–stlund)
4. In Transit (Albert Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker, Ben Wu)
5. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. Dunkirk (Christoper Nolan)
7. Voyeur (Myles Kane & Josh Koury)
8. Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
9. Brimstone & Glory (Viktor Jakovleski)
10. Coco (Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina)
Honorable Mentions (alphabetical): A Ciambra (Jonas Carpignano), All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak), Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman), God’s Own Country (Francis Lee), Good Time (Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie), The Florida Project (Sean Baker), Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig), The Lovers (Azazel Jacobs), mother! (Darren Aronofsky), Strong Island (Yance Ford)
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2018? Claire Denis’s High Life
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year? Melodrama!!
What’s the best movie you saw this year that never played at the Film Society? Loveless!
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF? The screening of The Opera House at the Metropolitan Opera!
What was your favorite Q&A of the year? On stage at the Walter Reade for a discussion with Chris Nolan following our 70mm screening of Dunkirk.
Florence Almozini, Associate Director of Programming
Nocturama
The Square
​On The Beach at Night Alone
I Am Not Your Negro
Hermia and Helena
By the Time It Gets Dark
Wonderstruck
The Death of Louis XIV
The Other Side Of Hope
The Human Surge
Personal Shopper
Blade Runner 2049
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
The most anticipated and surprising but not exactly the most “enjoyable” will have to be La concentration by Philippe Garrel.
What’s the best old movie you saw for the millionth time this year?
Among too many, I will pick only two:Â Cranes Are Flying by Kalatozov and Two English Girls by Truffaut.
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2018?
Zama, Zama, Zama, which would also be on the top of 2017 list but I want to save it for next year!
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year?
I will go with Emotion Pictures for the scope and diversity of films in the show.
What was your favorite repertory series elsewhere?
Antonioni at MoMA
What’s the best movie you saw this year that never played at the Film Society?
Blade Runner 2049
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF?
Hmmm, if I go by memorable that would be when I was being berated on stage by Abel Ferrara who much preferred general audience questions to my carefully prepared written notes!
What was your favorite Q&A of the year?
Hong Sang-soo for The Day After and On the Beach at Night Alone
Describe a memorable interaction you had with a Film Society guest (talent, member, or moviegoer)
Drinking with director Hong!
Rachel Allen, Publicist
1 (tie): Lady Bird & Faces Places
3-10 in alphabetical order:
Call Me by Your Name
The Florida Project
Get Out
A Ghost Story
Kedi
Menashe
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Quest
**Caveat: I still haven’t seen A Quiet Passion or Phantom Thread – on my must see list to watch before end of year!
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2018?
I can’t wait for A Wrinkle in Time!
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year?
I loved our Jane Campion retrospective- seeing her films on the big screen in 35mm for the first time, with Jane in person to talk about her work, was such an emotional experience. She’s absolutely brilliant.
What was your favorite Q&A of the year?
Film Forum had the most wonderful Crossing Delancey reunion with Joan Micklin Silver, Amy Irving, and Peter Riegert. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and they told so many anecdotes I had never heard about it’s making, and clearly were having a blast being back together. There was a sense of collective adoration from the uber-New York FF crowd- I just had the best time.
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF?
The after party for our Centerpiece selection Wonderstruck at the American Museum of Natural History was truly a night I’ll never forget. It was totally magical being at the museum after hours and it perfectly reflected the joyous spirit of the movie, in party form!
Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
By the Time It Gets Dark
A Ghost Story
The Human Surge
The Lost City of Z
Personal Shopper
Phantom Thread
The Post
A Quiet Passion
Wonderstruck
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
Friedkin’s 1977 Sorcerer, which I had foolishly resisted for years as an unnecessary remake, and which, after having experienced on the big screen, seems as necessary as The Wages of Fear.
What’s the best old movie you saw for the millionth time this year?
Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis, one of my ten favorite films of all time, which i’ve nearly memorized line for line, and which always thrills and delights me to see with an audience, wondering which lines of dialogue they’ll react to most. (This year, down at Metrograph, they were way into Grandpa.) Every damn scene in that movie just rips.
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year?
’77, which gave me a chance to see Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Sorcerer (see above) on the same very sad evening.
What was your favorite repertory series elsewhere?
Jonathan Demme at BAM
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF?
Seeing Lucrecia Martel’s extraordinary Zama with Martel in attendance and, most gratifyingly, a huge sold-out audience in the enormous Alice Tully Hall.
Emily Vito, Assistant Director of Development
Baby Driver
Voyeur
Dunkirk
Wonder Woman
Get Out
Detroit
Mudbound
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
Faces Places
Blade Runner 2049
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
Wages of Fear, so now I finally know what everyone is talking about.
What’s the best old movie you saw for the millionth time this year?
The Secret of NIMH, because I’m a sucker for cartoons I loved when I was a kid.
What’s your most anticipated movie?
Phantom Thread
What’s the best movie you saw this year that never played at the Film Society?
Get Out and Wonder Woman
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF?
Watching Susan Sarandon and Agnes Varda act like BFFs in the Hauser Lounge
What was your favorite Q&A of the year?
Detroit, by far. From the opening with Michael Eric Dyson announcing that “the patriarchy is on a ventilator,” to Questlove talking about a recent run-in with an officer, to Ramarley Graham’s cousin in the audience challenging the panel with “my pain, your art,” the whole session was riveting and added to the movie we had just seen.
Jordan Raup, Digital Marketing Manager
1. A Ghost Story
2. Song to Song
3. Phantom Thread
4. Dawson City: Frozen Time
5. Nocturama
6. Call Me by Your Name
7. Good Time
8. Princess Cyd
9. A Quiet Passion
10. The Work
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
Two-Lane Blacktop, Le Boucher, and the entire Antoine Doinel series (in one day).
What’s the best old movie you saw for the millionth time this year?
Red Desert and Stalker
What’s your most anticipated movie of 2018?
Radegund (Terrence Malick), Maya (Mia Hansen-Løve), Domino (Brian De Palma), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan), and Mandy (Panos Cosmatos)
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year?
’77 and Emotion Pictures
What was the most memorable experience you had at NYFF?
Talking cinematography with Ed Lachman.
What was your favorite Q&A of the year?
Laura Dern
John Oursler, Senior Major Gifts Officer
1. Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo
2. Call Me By Your Name
3. A Quiet Passion
4. A Ghost Story
5. Faces Places
6. Ingrid Goes West
7. Get Out
8. The Other Side of Hope
9. Lady Bird
10. I, Tonya
Harrison Asen, Ticketing Services Manager
Good Time
Get Out
Personal Shopper
Nocturama
Lady Bird
The best old movie I saw for the first time this year was Stalker.
Ted Vasquez, Chief Financial Officer
The Square
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
The Post
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
Wonder Woman
Lady Bird
God’s Own Country
The Big Sick
All the Money in the World
Matthew Dinda, Corporate Sponsorship Associate
The Beguiled
Call Me by Your Name
The Florida Project
A Ghost Story
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
mother!
Phantom Thread
Personal Shopper
Your Name.
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
I caught up with Kim Stanley’s powerhouse performance in Bryan Forbes’ Seance on a Wet Afternoon earlier this year and was completely bowled over. Same as seeing Jean Simmons in Richard Brooks’ The Happy Ending, a film I hadn’t heard anything about before–and is not remarkable in plot or film-making–but has a performance by Simmons that shouldn’t be missed or forgotten.
Madeline Whittle, Programming Operations Assistant
1. Columbus
2. The Florida Project
3. Phantom Thread
4. mother!
5. Get Out
6. Good Time
7. The Other Side of Hope
8. Lady Macbeth
9. Song to Song
10. The Beguiled
Dan Sullivan, Assistant Programmer
1. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch)
2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
3. Western (Valeska Grisebach)
4-6. On the Beach at Night Alone + Claire’s Camera + The Day After (Hong Sangsoo)
7. Streetscapes [Dialogue] (Heinz Emigholz)
8. Milla (Valerie Massadian)
9. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
10. Mediums (James N. Kienitz Wilkins)
Best old movie I saw for the first time this year: Longing (Valeska Grisebach, 2006) and Black Gravel (Helmut Käutner, 1961)
Best old movie I saw for the millionth time this year: Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
Tyler Wilson, Programming Associate
By the Time It Gets Dark
The Death of Louis XIV
Félicité
The Future Perfect
Good Time
The Human Surge
Nocturama
The Other Side of Hope
Phantom Thread
A Quiet Passion
Best old movie I saw for the first time: The Cremator
Best old movie I saw for the millionth time: The Trial
Manny Lage-Valera, House Manager
The Day After (Hong Sangsoo)
Family Life (Alicia Scherson, Cristián Jiménez)
A Gentle Creature (Sergey Loznitsa)
Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders)
Happy Death Day (Christopher B. Landon)
Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis)
Lover for a Day (Philippe Garrel)
Ulysses in the Subway (Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs, Paul Kaiser, Marc Downie)
Unrest (Philippe Grandrieux)
Western (Valeska Grisebach)
What’s the best old movie you saw for the first time this year?
Stan Brakhage’s The Art of Vision
What was your favorite repertory series at the Film Society this year?
The Non-Actor / Peter Nestler / Yvonne Rainer
What was your favorite Q&A of the year?
Henrikku Morisaki for the Shūji Terayama retrospective at Anthology Film Archives
Rebecca Williamson, Events Manager
Lady Bird
The Florida Project
Phantom Thread
Get Out
Mudbound
Faces Places
Call Me by Your Name
Girls Trip
Amy Poux, Education Consultant
What’s the best old movies you saw for the millionth times this year?
Moonstruck, Strictly Ballroom, and The Chorus
