“A wildly eclectic, cutting edge and globe-spanning lineup has always epitomized New Directors/New Films,” Beatrice Loayza began her festival preview for The New York Times. Presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films is currently in full swing, and for the first time, the festival is being presented in theaters and virtually nationwide.
With this year’s festivities including 27 features, 11 shorts (over two programs), three free virtual filmmaker alumni talks, and one retrospective that spans 30 years, there’s been much to see and experience, and we’ve been running around (sometimes virtually) attempting to capture it all.
If you’ve missed any films you wanted to check out, all 27 features and 11 shorts from this year’s line-up are still available to view via our Virtual All-Access Pass. Through Thursday, May 13 use promo code “SAVE40” to save an additional 40% off your pass purchase and access the entire lineup.
In-person screenings also continue through May 13th in our Walter Reade Theater. View the schedule and take a look at our health and safety guidelines.
Below you will find highlights of photos and Q&As with a few of the filmmakers featured in this year’s festival, as well as news on ND/NF screening information and where the films’ journeys continue from here. To learn more about each film, visit newdirectors.org, follow ND/NF on Twitter and Facebook, and check out our Letterboxd for reviews, showtimes, and more.
El Planeta (Opening Night film)
Writer-director-star Amalia Ulman’s delightful and slyly dark breakthrough presents a captivating portrait in miniature of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain’s northwestern seaside town Gijón.
The film will be released later this year, courtesy of Utopia.
TICKET STATUS
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
All the Light We Can See
Assistant Programmer Dan Sullivan introducing Pablo Escoto Luna’s “All the Light We Can See.” Photo by Arin Sang-urai
Director Pablo Escoto Luna’ introducing his feature, “All the Light We Can See.” Photo by Arin Sang-urai
Director Pablo Escoto Luna (“All the Light We Can See) outside the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Photo by Arin Sang-urai
Mexican filmmaker Pablo Escoto Luna’s All the Light We Can See begins as the tale of a woman who runs off into the forest when forced to marry a bandit in some indeterminate past before revealing itself as a time-bending work of metaphysical beauty and folkloric power.
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: Through May 11th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
All Light Everywhere (Closing Night film)
The closing night film of this year’s ND/NF, Theo Anthony’s breakthrough sophomore feature uses the increased regularity of body cams in U.S. law enforcement as the anchor point for an ever-expanding treatise on perception, power, and policing.
Hear Anthony discuss the film in a wide-ranging conversation with Assistant Programmer Tyler Wilson on this week’s episode of the Film at Lincoln Center podcast here.
The film will be released June 4th, courtesy of Super LTD.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Saturday, May 8th at 5:45pm (SOLD OUT) and 9pm (SOLD OUT)
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: May 8th—May 13th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Bebia, à mon seul dési
In her strikingly filmed black-and-white debut, Juja Dobrachkous crafts a story of transformation, tradition, and identity, concerning a model who is summoned home to her rural Georgian village for her grandmother’s funeral.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Tuesday, May 11th at 3:30pm
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: Through May 9th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Destello Bravio
A small town in southwestern Spain provides the setting for Ainhoa Rodríguez’s singular vision, a prismatic, alternately realist and uncanny rendering of lives in the rural Extremadura region.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Monday, May 10th at 12:30pm
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: May 7th—May 12th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Faya Dayi
In her hypnotic documentary feature, Ethopian-Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir explores the coexistence of everyday life and its mythical undercurrents, focusing on her hometown of Harar, its rural Oromo community of farmers, and the harvesting of the country’s most sought-after export: the euphoria-inducing khat plant.
The film will be released this summer, courtesy of Janus Films.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Friday, May 7th at 5:30pm (VERY LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN) and Monday, May 1oth at 7pm
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: May 8th—May 13th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Friends and Strangers
Australian director James Vaughan examines the fumbling, hesitant overtures of wayward young people seeking romantic and professional satisfaction in this structurally surprising film that gently pushes the boundaries of comic realism.
The film will be released this summer, courtesy of Grasshopper Film.
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Madalena
In this hauntingly oblique yet vivid moral drama, set in a rural Brazilian town, three characters’ lives are affected in different ways by the death of Madalena, a trans woman whose body is found in one of the vast soybean fields that stretch across the region.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Sunday, May 9th at 12:30pm
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: Through May 7th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Moon, 66 Questions
In Greek filmmaker Jacqueline Lentzou’s boldly experimental, nakedly emotional feature debut, a twentysomething tentatively reunites with her estranged father after he is diagnosed with a debilitating illness.
The film will be released later this year, courtesy of Film Movement.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Friday, May 7th at 9pm
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Pebbles
In this economical and anxious story, an impoverished, alcoholic Tamil man embarks on a mission with his young son to retrieve his runaway wife.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Friday, May 7th at 12:30pm
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Shorts Program 1
Shorts Program 1 consists of Sameh Alaa’s I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, Tebogo Malebogo’s Heaven Reaches Down to Earth, Ana Elena Tejera’s A Love Song in Spanish, Manuela Eguía’s Hola, abuelo (Hi, Grandpa), Morgan Quaintance’s Surviving You, Always, and Livia Huang’s More Happiness. For individual plot synopses, click here.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Saturday, May 8th at 12:30pm
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Shorts Program 2
Shorts Program 2 consists of Denise Fernandes’ Nha Mila, Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Limousine, Ostin Fam’s Binh, Damian Kocur’s Beyond Is the Day, and Fernando Criollo’s Summits and Ashes. For individual plot synopses, click here.
TICKET STATUS
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: Through May 9th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
Stop-Zemlia
Kateryna Gornostai’s penetrating study of the confusions and beauty of youth takes enormous emotional care as it observes a class of Ukrainian 11th graders over the course of one year.
TICKET STATUS
In-person screening at Film at Lincoln Center: Tuesday, May 11 at 7pm
Available via FLC Virtual Cinema: Through May 10th (6pm ET)
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Actress Anna Cobb and director Jane Schoenbrun introduce “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.” Photo by Arin Sang-urai
Actress Anna Cobb introducing “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.” Photo by Arin Sang-urai
Director Jane Schoenbrun introduce “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.”
A remarkable, rare combination of frightening and tender, Jane Schoenbrun’s accomplished narrative debut is a hypnotic and destabilizing tale of the fragility of online existence and the human capacity for change.
The film will be released next year, courtesy of HBO MAX and Utopia.
TICKET STATUS
Available via our Virtual All-Access Pass: Through May 13th (6pm ET)
What have you seen at this year’s New Directors/New Films? What films do you recommend? What films do you still plan on seeing? Share with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and stay tuned for more conversations on cinema.
