This annual survey of essential—and often wild—films is New York’s most exhaustive selection of titles from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries across Southeast Asia. Programmed and operated by the New York Asian Film Foundation, NYAFF features contemporary premieres and classic titles, plus a host of in-person appearances and Q&As with up-and-coming and established stars and auteurs.

Listen to David Fincher discuss his career and approach to filmmaking with critic Todd McCarthy in one of our HBO Directors Dialogues at the 48th New York Film Festival.

The Social Network (David Fincher) (Opening Night)
The Tempest (Julie Taymor) (Centerpiece)
Hereafter (Clint Eastwood) (Closing Night)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
Aurora (Cristi Puiu)
Black Venus (Abdellatif Kechiche)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami)
Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson)
LennoNYC (Michael Epstein)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt) with Day Trip (Zoe McIntosh)
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa)
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz)
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois)
Oki’s Movie (Hong Sangsoo) with All Flowers in Time (Jonathan Caouette)
Old Cats (Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Silva) with Protect the Nation (Candice Reisser)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong)
Post Mortem (Pablo Larraín) with The Accordion (Jafar Panahi)
Le quattro volte (Michelangelo Frammartino)
Revolución (Various)
The Robber (Benjamin Heisenberg) with Mary Last Seen (Sean Durkin)
Robinson in Ruins (Patrick Keiller) with Translating Edwin Honig: A Poet’s Alzheimer’s (Alan Berliner)
Silent Souls (Aleksei Fedorchenko) with Deu ci sia (Gianluigi Tarditi)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira) with Nulepsy (Jessica Sarah Rinland)
Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean) with Blokes (Marialy Rivas)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
We Are What We Are (Jorge Michel Grau)

Though the Walter Reade Theater proved to be a versatile and popular space for the New York moviegoing audience, with its expansive 365-days-a-year programming, special events, press screenings, rentals, and more, the Film Society, eventually recognized the need for more than one screening facility. A new theater space would also give the organization the ability to offer longer bookings of first-run films and new releases. So after more than a decade of planning for redevelopment and expansion, thanks to the efforts led by Film Society Board Chairwoman Ann Tenenbaum and President Daniel Stern, a new building was constructed across from the Walter Reade Theater, connected by a bridge passing over 65th Street. The state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe, designed by David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, opened in June 2011, boasting the 150-seat Francesca Beale Theater, the 90-seat Howard Gilman Theater, and a 75-seat Amphitheater for special events and live talks. Since opening, the EBM has become an essential part of the city’s cinematic landscape, allowing for extended runs of groundbreaking new releases and more spaces for an expansive New York Film Festival, which now features multiple sidebars, programs, talks, and showcase events.

Listen to Joel and Ethan Coen discuss filmmaking with Noah Baumbach at opening of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, and the night’s topic was opening shots. The three directors examined the openings of many of their films as a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging discussion of their careers.

Carnage (Roman Polanski) (Opening Night)
My Week with Marilyn (Simon Curtis) (Centerpiece)
The Descendants (Alexander Payne) (Closing Night)
A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg) (Special Gala)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodóvar) (Special Gala)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Corpo celeste (Alice Rohrwacher)
Footnote (Joseph Cedar)
4:44 Last Day on Earth (Abel Ferrara)
George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese)
Goodbye First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve)
The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki)
The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
Melancholia (Lars von Trier)
Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Pina (Wim Wenders)
Play (Ruben Östlund)
Policeman (Nadav Lapid)
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
Shame (Steve McQueen)
Sleeping Sickness (Ulrich Köhler)
The Student (Santiago Mitre)
This Is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi)
The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr)

Listen to Jonathan Demme discuss two of his early films, Citizens Band (1977) and Melvin and Howard (1980), during our series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the New York Film Festival. On the occasion, Demme joined Program Director Richard Peña as well as actor and frequent collaborator Paul Le Mat, for an insightful and personal discussion of his early career.

Kent Jones interviews Richard Peña in Film Comment‘s September-October 2012 issue:

Last year, when for the first time we had five cinemas going at once—Tully, the Walter Reade, and the three screens in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center—I remember a moment when I was just running around checking on how everything was doing, and I thought, “We’ve got Aki Kaurismäki here, we’ve got Nelson Pereira dos Santos there, we have a Nikkatsu film over here,” and it felt like that was the way things were supposed to be, where they had been leading all along. We had found the right direction, followed it, and arrived.

Listen to Michael Cimino and Kris Kristofferson discuss Heaven’s Gate after a screening of the restored director’s cut at the 50th New York Film Festival.

Life of Pi (Ang Lee) (Opening Night)
Not Fade Away (David Chase) (Centerpiece)
Flight (Robert Zemeckis) (Closing Night)
Amour (Michael Haneke)
Araf—Somewhere in Between (Yeşim Ustaoğlu)
Barbara (Christian Petzold)
Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
Bwakaw (Jun Robles Lana)
Camille Rewinds (Noémie Lvovsky)
Caesar Must Die (Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani)
The Dead Man and Being Happy (Javier Rebollo)
Fill the Void (Rama Burshtein)
First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh)
Ginger and Rosa (Sally Potter)
Here and There (Antonio Méndez Esparza)
Holy Motors (Léos Carax)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell)
Kinshasa Kids (Marc-Henri Wajnberg)
The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
Lines of Wellington (Valeria Sarmiento)
Memories Look at Me (Song Fang)
Night Across the Street (Raúl Ruiz)
No (Pablo Larraín)
Our Children (Joachim Lafosse)
The Paperboy (Lee Daniels)
Passion (Brian De Palma)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Alain Resnais)

Christian Petzold on meeting Abbas Kiarostami at the 50th New York Film Festival:

Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass) (Opening Night)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) (Centerpiece)
Her (Spike Jonze) (Closing Night)
About Time (Richard Curtis)
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat)
Alan Partridge (Declan Lowney)
All Is Lost (J. C. Chandor)
American Promise (Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson)
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman)
Bastards (Claire Denis)
Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche)
Burning Bush (Agnieszka Holland)
Child of God (James Franco)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio)
The Immigrant (James Gray)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes)
Jealousy (Philippe Garrel)
Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Arnaud Desplechin)
The Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzmann)
Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh)
My Name Is Hmmm… (Agnès B)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (Hong Sangsoo)
Norte, The End of History (Lav Diaz)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
Real (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The Square (Jehane Noujaim)
Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)
Le Week-End (Roger Michell)
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)

The usual movie categories don’t apply here. The Art of the Real festival offers a survey of the most vital and innovative voices in nonfiction and hybrid filmmaking. Past editions have featured titles from Mati Diop, Agnès Varda, Derek Jarman, Corneliu Porumboiu, Robert Greene, Thom Andersen, Harun Farocki, Jem Cohen, Robinson Devor, Michael Glawogger, Theo Anthony, and Nicolás Pereda. Art of the Real is documentary redefined. Presented with support from MUBI.

Gone Girl (David Fincher) (Opening Night)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson) (Centerpiece)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro González Iñárritu) (Closing Night)
Beloved Sisters (Dominik Graf)
’71 (Yann Demange)
The Blue Room (Mathieu Amalric)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller)
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie)
Hill of Freedom (Hong Sangsoo)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
Life of Riley (Alain Resnais)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
Misunderstood (Asia Argento)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara)
The Princess of France (Matías Piñeiro)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green)
Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Time Out of Mind (Oren Moverman)
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
Two Shots Fired (Martin Rejtman)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher)

Listen to Paul Thomas Anderson discuss Inherent Vice, his influences, and the art of filmmaking at an HBO On Cinema talk during the 52nd New York Film Festival.

The Walk (Robert Zemeckis) (Opening Night)
Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle) (Centerpiece)
Miles Ahead (Don Cheadle) (Closing Night)
Arabian Nights: Volume 1: The Restless One (Miguel Gomes)
Arabian Nights: Volume 2: The Desolate One (Miguel Gomes)
Arabian Nights: Volume 3: The Enchanted One (Miguel Gomes)
The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Brooklyn (John Crowley)
Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg)
Carol (Todd Haynes)
Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Experimenter (Michael Almereyda)
Les Cowboys (Thomas Bidegain)
Don’t Blink – Robert Frank (Laura Israel)
The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson)
In the Shadow of Women (Philippe Garrel)
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Journey to the Shore (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller)
The Measure of a Man (Stéphane Brizé)
Mia Madre (Nanni Moretti)
Microbe & Gasoline (Michel Gondry)
Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin)
No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)
Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sangsoo)
The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore)

Neighboring Scenes is Film at Lincoln Center’s showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema. Highlighting impressive recent productions from across the region, this selective slate of premieres exhibits the breadth of styles, techniques, and approaches employed by Latin American filmmakers today. Neighboring Scenes spans a wide geographic range​, featuring established auteurs as well as fresh talent from the international festival scene. Presented with Cinema Tropical.

Read Tyler Wilson on Andrzej Żuławski’s Cosmos, a 2016 Film Comment Selects selection, for Film Comment:

Andrzej Zulawski passed away two days before he was scheduled to appear at the Film Society accompanying the U.S. premiere of Cosmos, part of a sidebar tribute to the Polish director. A faithful modernization of Witold Gombrowicz’s final novel, Zulawski’s last film is told with one of the strangest light touches of his career.

Participants from the Industry Academy’s inaugural edition listening to a panel discussion. Photo by Yuko Torihara.

The inaugural Industry Academy International U.S. takes place at New Directors/New Films, in partnership with Locarno. A result of a long-standing relationship between Film at Lincoln Center and Locarno Festival, the Industry Academy signifies the ongoing dedication these two organizations have to engaging a new generation of key players in the independent film industry, helping them attain a better understanding of the industry’s challenges while also extending their network of contacts and building bridges across different markets. The program continues to focus on increasing diversity within the film industry and film culture—one of the greatest challenges facing the film business today—and supporting and nurturing women and people of color who are looking to gain a foothold in the industry. The program is produced by the Film Society’s Brian Brooks with the Locarno Industry Academy international project manager Marion Klotz.

13th (Ava DuVernay) (Opening Night)
20th Century Women (Mike Mills) (Centerpiece)
The Lost City of Z (James Gray) (Closing Night)
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi)
Graduation (Cristian Mungiu)
Hermia & Helena (Matías Piñeiro)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (Dash Shaw)
Neruda (Pablo Larraín)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
The Rehearsal (Alison Maclean)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)
Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)
The Son of Joseph (Eugéne Green)
Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
The Unknown Girl (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo)

At the 54th New York Film Festival, director Barry Jenkins discusses the making of his Best Picture-winning Moonlight with playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, indie producer Adele Romanski, and Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner from Plan B, Brad Pitt’s production company.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 masterpiece Stalker made box-office history at Film at Lincoln Center, boasting the highest-grossing opening weekend for a re-release in our organization’s history.

Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater) (Opening Night)
Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes) (Centerpiece)
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) (Closing Night)
Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
The Day After (Hong Sangsoo)
Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)
Félicité (Alain Gomis)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
Ismael’s Ghosts (Arnaud Desplechin
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis)
Lover for a Day (Philippe Garrel)
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Noah Baumbach)
Mrs. Hyde (Serge Bozon)
Mudbound (Dee Rees)
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo)
The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao)
Spoor (Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik)
The Square (Ruben Östlund)
Thelma (Joachim Trier)
Western (Valeska Grisebach)
Zama (Lucrecia Martel)

The Leopard

Luchino Visconti sets record as most successful retrospective in Film at Lincoln Center’s history, featuring sold-out screenings and added encore showings.

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos) (Opening Night)
ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón) (Centerpiece)
At Eternity’s Gate (Julian Schnabel) (Closing Night)
3 Faces (Jafar Panahi)
Asako I & II (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski)
A Faithful Man (Louis Garrel)
A Family Tour (Ying Liang)
La Flor (Mariano Llinás)
Grass (Hong Sangsoo)
Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry)
High Life (Claire Denis)
Hotel by the River (Hong Sangsoo)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard)
In My Room (Ulrich Köhler)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan)
Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman)
Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)
Private Life (Tamara Jenkins)
RAY & LIZ (Richard Billingham)
Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Sorry Angel (Christophe Honoré)
Too Late to Die Young (Dominga Sotomayor)
Transit (Christian Petzold)
Wildlife (Paul Dano)

Tilda Swinton at Film at Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary Gala. Photo by Sean DiSerio.

No other organization in the United States has fostered and maintained such a sustained devotion to the art of film. Over five decades, the Film Society had exemplified a commitment to adventurous, stimulating programming and to the nurturing and celebrating of the diverse voices of global filmmakers. In April 2019, Film Society at Lincoln Center, currently overseen by Executive Director Lesli Klainberg and Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez, officially changed its name to Film at Lincoln Center. Its mission to support the art and elevate the craft of cinema and enrich film culture stays the same, as does its commitment to helping foster the next generation of film artists, writers, and industry minds.

Our thousands of devoted members are essential to the identity and success of an organization whose staff has expanded from less than 10 people initially to more than 50. As we celebrate our 50 years bringing the greatest of world cinema to New York audiences, and as we move into the next half-century of being at the forefront of an ever-changing cinematic landscape, we want to thank our members and patrons, whose value in helping us realize our vision is incalculable.

Listen to a special episode of the Film at Lincoln Center Podcast, in which Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy Michael Koresky joins Executive Director Lesli Klainberg and Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez to discuss the organization’s history. Then you’ll hear from some of the organization’s key figures like Dennis Lim, Richard Peña, and others. And finally, we’re proud to share highlights from our 50th anniversary gala featuring Tilda Swinton, John Waters, Dee Rees, and Martin Scorsese.

The Irishman (Martin Scorsese) (Opening Night)
Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach) (Centerpiece)
Motherless Brooklyn (Edward Norton) (Closing Night)
Atlantics (Mati Diop)
Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)
Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
Fire Will Come (Oliver Laxe)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
A Girl Missing (Koji Fukada)
I Was at Home, But… (Angela Schanelec)
Liberté (Albert Serra)
Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
The Moneychanger (Federico Veiroj)
Oh Mercy! (Arnaud Desplechin)
Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)
Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
Saturday Fiction (Lou Ye)
Sibyl (Justine Triet)
Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)
To the Ends of the Earth (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The Traitor (Marco Bellocchio)
Varda by Agnès (Agnès Varda)
Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
Wasp Network (Olivier Assayas)
The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yinan)
Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello)

Thank you for being part of our history the last 50 years! Check back for more timeline updates as we look towards the next 50 and follow us for the best in cinema: Weekly e-mail newsletter, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.