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.
Complimentary tickets will be distributed at the box office one hour prior to each event on a first come, first served basis. One ticket per person. For popular events, the line may form earlier.
Coming Soon
Prancer
Winter's Eve Holiday Screening · Free and Open to the Public!
Join us for this 1989 holiday classic back on the big screen, complete with free popcorn! Featuring indelible performances by Sam Elliott, Cloris Leachman, and Abe Vigoda, Prancer is a warm and richly acted fable about a town brought together by the power of friendship, kindness, and the holiday spirit.Recent Talks & Events
Film Comment Free Talk: Sandi Tan (Shirkers)
Free and open to the public!
With Shirkers, filmmaker Sandi Tan recounts the bizarre and bittersweet story of the greatest indie film that never was—a movie she made with friends in her native Singapore as a teenager, only to lose it to a mysterious collaborator. Tan joins us to discuss the thrill of creation and the complicated agony of seeing dreams drift away.
Film Comment Free Talk: Paul Dano and Richard Ford
Free and open to the public! · Presented by IFC Films
Join us for a very special conversation with filmmaker Paul Dano and novelist Richard Ford about Wildlife, opening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on October 19 from IFC Films.
A Conversation with Willem Dafoe
Free and open to the public! · Presented by HBO®
Dafoe will sit with NYFF Director Kent Jones to discuss his role in Schnabel’s vividly beautiful film At Eternity's Gate, this year’s closing night selection, as well as his illustrious career and the craft of acting in general.
The Artistic Process with Jean-Claude Carrière & Julian Schnabel
Free and open to the public! · Presented by Warby Parker
We are thrilled to present a conversation with Schnabel and the 87-year-old Carrière about the creation of this extraordinary take on the last days of Vincent Van Gogh.
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.
Out of Many, One
Free and open to the public! · Q&A with John Hoffman, Louise Mirrer, Allen Wernick, and Liz Robbins
The new documentary Out of Many, One is a loving profile of the Citizenship Project, the New-York Historical Society’s free program that assists green card holders in preparing for the USCIS Naturalization Exam, which tests knowledge of United States history and civics.
Film Comment Live: Festival Wrap
Free and open to the public!
In 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. Participants include K. Austin Collins, Michael Koresky, Molly Haskell, Eric Hynes, and Aliza Ma.
NYFF Live: New York Women in Film & Television—Early Women Film Pioneers: Alice Guy-Blaché
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
In honor of Pamela B. Green’s Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, NYFF and New York Women in Film & Television present a conversation with film preservation experts about the trailblazer’s contributions to cinema. Guests include Jane Gaines, Susan Lazarus, and Joan Simon.
NYFF Live: Making Private Life
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
In this discussion, co-presented with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, director Tamara Jenkins, producer Anthony Bregman, and actor Kayli Carter will detail the process of working together on their new film Private Life, a Netflix production.
Film Comment Live: Filmmakers Talk
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. Guests include Louis Garrel (A Faithful Man), Jodie Mack (The Grand Bizarre), Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell), and Albert Serra (Roi Soleil).
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.
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.
NYFF Live: NYFF Docs Talk
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
The directors of some of the documentaries showing at NYFF—Alexis Bloom (Divide and Conquer), Manfred Kirchheimer (Dream of a City), James Longley (Angels Are Made of Light), Mark Bozek (The Times of Bill Cunningham), and Tom Surgal (Fire Music)—will sit with Lesli Klainberg, Film Society Executive Director and documentary filmmaker, for a discussion on the art of docs.
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.
NYFF Live: Producers on Producing: Hosted by PGA’s Women’s Impact Network
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Join independent producers Donna Gigliotti (Hidden Figures, Silver Linings Playbook) and Mimi Valdés (Roxanne Roxanne, Hidden Figures, Dope) for a conversation about encouraging a greater diversity of voices behind and in front of the camera.
NYFF Live: Costume Design and the Creative Process: From Film to Television
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Presented in conjunction with the School of Visual Arts, this conversation focuses on the art of costuming in film and television, featuring Deirdra Govan (Sorry to Bother You), Amanda Ford (Her Smell, Wildlife, both screening at NYFF), and Ingrid Price (Nurse Jackie).
NYFF Live: In Conversation with Ed Lachman
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Artist JR and cinematographer Ed Lachman (Carol, The Virgin Suicides) have come together to create the official NYFF poster for this year. Lachman will talk about their collaboration and discuss his own work during this conversation.
NYFF Live: Writing Partners
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
The Writers Guild of America, East and the New York Film Festival present Writing Partners, a panel about the dynamics of collaboration, featuring Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan (Wildlife), and Mary Harron and John Walsh (Dali Land).
NYFF Live: In Conversation with Frederick Wiseman
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Frederick Wiseman, now 87, is considered by many the greatest documentarian working today. The man who helped define a genre will talk about his latest film, Monrovia, Indiana, set in the American heartland. Moderated by Kent Jones.
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.
NYFF Live: In Conversation with Morgan Neville
Free and open to the public! · Sponsored by HBO®
Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) is at NYFF with his latest documentary, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, about Orson Welles’s long-lost The Other Side of the Wind. Neville will talk about his work and what drives him as a filmmaker.
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. Join the director for an in-depth conversation.
Film Comment Live: The Cinema of Experience
Free and open to the public!
For Film Comment’s 2018 Cinema of Experience talk, we will discuss Asian and Asian American experience on and off screen, and in film criticism.
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.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.
