Film Society Free Talks & Events
Tickets
Upcoming free discussions and events at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, including our free Amphitheater talks with directors and actors discussing their new work and reflecting on their career, influences, and approach to filmmaking.
Sunday, September 30
Bruno Walter Auditorium
Thursday, October 4
Amphitheater
Amphitheater
Friday, October 5
Saturday, October 6
Amphitheater
Amphitheater
Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, October 7
Amphitheater
Friday, October 12
Francesca Beale Theater
Saturday, October 13
Furman Gallery
Sunday, October 14
Amphitheater
Coming Soon
Film Comment Live: The Cinema of Experience
Free and open to the public!
At this year’s NYFF, filmmakers are rising to the challenge of representing diverse experiences at a pivotal time in our nation’s history. For our 2018 Cinema of Experience talk, we will discuss Asian and Asian American experience on and off screen, and in film criticism.
Directors Dialogues: Jia Zhangke
Free and Open to the Public! · Presented by HBO® · Supported by illy
Jia has gradually moved to the forefront of Chinese cinema, and his films constitute a constant reckoning with his country's transformations. His latest, the epic gangster drama Ash Is Purest White, is no exception.
Directors Dialogues: Errol Morris
Free and Open to the Public! · Presented by HBO® · Supported by illy
The legendary documentarian (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) has no problem with confronting and interrogating people in positions of power. Sit down with him as he talks about his experience sitting down the subject of his latest film, American Dharma: Steve Bannon.
What Goes Up/Must Come Down
World Premiere · Free and Open to the Public!
Ingeniously weaving virtual reality and conventional 2D filmmaking, Jongsma and O'Neill fuse two discrete documentaries about the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival into a singular whole, and suggest that our dreams may have staggering, real-world consequences.
From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances
U.S. Premiere · Free & Open to the Public!
Hundreds of feet in the air, a drone approaches a row of skyscrapers along Hong Kong’s affluent southern coast. The target: giant holes in the buildings’ facades kept clear for the passage of mythological dragons.
Gropius Memory Palace
North American Premiere · Free & Open to the Public!
Part architectural film, part ASMR exercise, this observational study of Walter Gropius's famed shoe warehouse, The Fagus Factory, is a meditation in every sense.
Directors Dialogues: Alfonso Cuarón
Free and Open to the Public! · Presented by HBO® · Supported by illy
The Oscar-winning director of Y tu mamá también, Children of Men, and Gravity will discuss his latest and most personal work, ROMA, an intimate yet monumental vision, and one of his very best films.
Directors Dialogues: Alice Rohrwacher
Free and Open to the Public! · Presented by HBO® · Supported by illy
Rohrwacher was Film Society of Lincoln Center's Artist in Residence in 2016, during which time she worked on the script that became the Cannes-awarded drama Happy as Lazzaro, showing in this year's Main Slate. Join Rohrwacher as she talks about her process bringing this unique vision to the screen.
Film Comment Live: Filmmakers Chat
Free and open to the public!
For the third year, Film Comment gives you the rare chance to see some of today’s most important filmmakers in dialogue with each other.
Film Comment Live: Festival Wrap
Free and open to the public!
In what is becoming an annual tradition, Film Comment contributing critics and editors gather for the festival’s final week and have a spirited discussion about the movies they’ve seen in the lineup, from the Main Slate and beyond.
Directors Dialogues: Mariano Llinás
Free and Open to the Public! · Presented by HBO® · Supported by illy
Mariano Llinás discusses the vision and process behind his singular, wildly inventive epic La Flor, which skips across a multitude of genres over the course of its fourteen hours.
Frankenstein AI: A Monster Made by Many
Free and open to the public!
It was an innocuous challenge, issued by Lord Byron 200 years ago, that sparked Mary Shelley’s imagination to bring Frankenstein to life. Join Columbia University School of the Arts' Digital Storytelling Lab as they bring this spark to NYFF Convergence with a special lab session mixing story, play, design, and AI.Recent Talks & Events
The Last Dragon
Introduction by Taimak · Free Outdoor Screening at Governors Island!
Inspired by a similarly named martial artist, Bruce Leroy (Taimak) searches throughout New York City for a master who will help him achieve the highest form of martial-arts enlightenment known only as “The Glow.” Set to an amazing soundtrack produced by Berry Gordy, this delightful cult classic was filmed all over the city and has cameos by William H. Macy, Ernie Reyes Jr., Chazz Palminteri, Jim Moody, Mike Starr, and Queen Esther Marrow. Screening with Jason Giampietro's Hernia.
Film Comment Free Talk: Ethan Hawke
Free and open to the public! · Presented by IFC Films
Join us for a very special conversation with the incomparable actor, filmmaker, and all-around cinephile Ethan Hawke, whose latest directorial effort, Blaze, opens in New York on September 7 from IFC Films.
Free Talk: Germaine Dulac and Women in Film History
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Join us for an extended conversation as we discuss Dulac’s pioneering artistry, her films’ political context, and her pivotal place in the history of cinema.
A Night at the Opera
Saturday, August 27 at 10:30am Movies for Kids screening: All tickets just $6!
The Marx Brothers (now down to three) sail to New York with a group of Metropolitan Opera hopefuls. Featuring the famous stateroom scene.
Soundscape of Fear Free Talk
Free and open to the public! Sponsored by HBO®
Saturday, August 18 at 3:00pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater.
Brittany Allen (What Keeps You Alive), Emily Milling (Impossible Horror), and Andréa Winter (Blood Paradise) weren’t just musical composers for their films screening in Scary Movies XI—they…
Free Talk: On Pixelvision
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Join Michael Almereyda, Ben Coonley, and Cecilia Dougherty for a wide-ranging discussion about Pixelvision, moderated by Film Society Programmer at Large Thomas Beard.
Ghostbusters
Free Outdoor Screening at Governors Island!
Who ya gonna call? In Ivan Reitman’s comedy-horror masterpiece, disgraced Columbia parapsychologists (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) set up shop as spectral exterminators, creating one of today's most beloved cult favorites. Also starring Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Rick Moranis. Screening with Dustin Guy Defa's Review.
Film Comment Talk: Crystal Moselle
Free and open to the public!
The Skate Kitchen director—a New York native who also made the fascinating documentary The Wolfpack—joins us for our next Film Comment Talk to discuss being faithful to her irrepressible young characters’ point of view and shooting in a dynamic urban setting.
Free Talk: The Female Gaze
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Join us for an hour-long conversation with cinematographers Natasha Braier, Ashley Connor, Agnès Godard, and Joan Churchill as they discuss the series and reflect on their careers and influences, and how they approach their craft.
#mydancefilm
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Responding to an opportunity for filmmakers to get their work seen—and screened—hundreds of films were posted using the hashtags #mydancefilm. A few of the exceptional entries will screen at this event.
Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters
Q&A with Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz
Can You Bring It traces the remarkable history and legacy of one of the most important works of art to come out of the AIDS era: Bill T. Jones’s tour de force ballet D-Man in the Waters.
Film Comment Talk: Boots Riley
Free and open to the public!
Extraordinary times demand extraordinary stories, and with Sorry to Bother You, director Boots Riley delivers a funny, scathing, weird, and audacious satire. Join the director for a free talk moderated by Questlove!
Desperately Seeking Susan
Free Outdoor Screening at Governors Island!
Rosanna Arquette and Madonna star in Seidelman's screwball romp, which introduced mainstream America’s to New York City’s ’80s underground Bohemian scene and to the Material Girl herself. With appearances by Ann Magnuson, John Turturro, Richard Hell, John Lurie, and more. Screening with Zia Anger's My Last Film.
Southeast Asian Genre Cinema
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Thailand’s Kongkiat Komesiri (Sad Beauty), the Philippines’ Erik Matti (BuyBust), and Indonesia’s Mike Wiluan (Buffalo Boys) are leading figures in Southeast Asian genre cinema. Here, they will discuss the challenges of making films for both domestic and international consumption in the age of online platforms.
Free Screening: Flying Down to Rio
Free Screening!
Celluloid history is made as fourth- and fifth-billed Rogers and Astaire steal the show in their first pairing, a zingy Pre-Code fun machine bursting with slangy innuendo, jazzy musical numbers, and outré optical effects.
Chinese Cinema Now
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
In this panel, three directors with new films screening at NYAFF—including two making their directorial debuts, Dong Yue (The Looming Storm) and Jiang Jiachen (Looking for Lucky); and Xin Yukun (Wrath of Silence)—are joined by veteran producer Guan Yadi to discuss the state of Mainland Chinese cinema and the rise of a new genre cinema.
Artist Talk on Asian Representation in Art and Cinema
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
This Free Talk is in conjunction with Safe Imagination Is Boring, a group exhibition of eleven New York–based visual artists with different connections to Asia and Asian culture on view in the Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater.
Masato Harada Master Class
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
In this master class, the master storyteller will discuss his career, the state of contemporary Japanese cinema, and the role of cinema in public discourse.
Film Comment Talk: Ari Aster
Free and open to the public!
For our latest Film Comment Free Talk, we head into the belly of the beast: Ari Aster's terrific upcoming twist on the horror genre, Hereditary.
Film Comment Talk: Paul Schrader
Free and open to the public!
Rare is the filmmaker who also writes vastly influential film criticism, but writer-director Paul Schrader has done just that. To celebrate his new film, his seminal book‘s updated edition, and his work for Film Comment, we are honored and delighted to welcome Paul Schrader for a discussion that brings filmmaking and criticism together on one stage.
Escape from New York
Free Outdoor Screening at Governors Island!
In John Carpenter’s genre-bending favorite, the year is the not-so-distant future of 1997, crime levels have exploded and Manhattan has been transformed into a maximum-security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked, the wisecracking special-forces soldier turned criminal Snake Plissken (an iconically eye-patched, leather-clad Kurt Russell) is called in for the rescue. Screening with John Wilson's The Road to Magnasanti.Free tickets will be distributed at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to each talk. The line may form in advance of this time. Limit one ticket per person, subject to availability.
