MoMA Announces TO SAVE AND PROJECT: The 21st MoMA International Festival Of Film Preservation

The Museum of Modern Art has announced To Save and Project: The 21st MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, the latest edition of the annual festival dedicated to celebrating newly preserved and restored films from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers from around the world.

Running from January 9 to January 30, 2025, this year’s festival showcases over 25 feature films and shorts programs in newly preserved or restored versions. To Save and Project is organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and Cindi Rowell, independent curator, with special thanks to Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, and Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, Department of Film. 

This year’s program will open and close with the restoration premieres of two major silent films preserved in MoMA’s archives: Frank Borzage’s transcendent romance 7th Heaven (1927), in a new upgrade from MoMA’s previous restoration, and Charles Chaplin’s World War I comedy Shoulder Arms, in a reconstruction of the seldom-seen original 1918 version, presented here as a work-in-progress. 

The 2025 program also includes several major rediscoveries, including Yevgeny Chervyakov’s long-lost Soviet film My Son (Moy Syn) (1928), recently discovered in Argentina, and Robert Wiene’s expressionist classic Raskolnikow (1923), which returns in a meticulous new restoration from Filmmuseum München. Silent films will be shown with live piano accompaniment. 

Other highlights include Anthony Mann’s epic western Bend of the River (1952), restored by Universal Pictures; James Bidgood’s homoerotic underground classic Pink Narcissus (1971), as restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive; and Anthony Harvey’s searing 1966 adaptation of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. Notable international restorations include Vichit Kounavudhi’s Dear Wife (Mia Luang) (1978), a sophisticated examination of marriage and class in Thai society, and Stars in Broad Daylight (Nujūm An-Nahar) (1988), a rarely seen masterwork restored by the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. The film powerfully depicts life in a Syrian village through a complex family drama. 

Other festival highlights include special related programming:

André Bonzel, one of the co-directors of the explosive faux documentary Man Bites Dog (1992), will be present on January 11 to introduce Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By (Et j’aime à la fureur), a 2021 film that draws on his family’s long (and not always safe-for work) history of amateur filmmaking to create a moving exploration of how we try to capture the most precious moments of our lives. 

Co-presented with MoMA’s long-running Modern Mondays series, a highlight of this year’s festival is An Evening with Heather McAdams (January 27). Known for her work as a cartoonist, filmmaker, and country music preservationist, McAdams brought a distinctive DIY sensibility to Chicago’s experimental film scene in the 1980s. Her handmade animations and personal documentaries combine humor with a deep appreciation for American vernacular culture. The program features newly restored 16mm prints of her witty, irreverent short films, followed by a conversation with the artist, moderated by curator Sophie Cavoulacos. 

See the accompanying screening schedule for full program details and guest appearance dates. 

ABOUT TO SAVE AND PROJECT: 

As the first cultural institution to collect film as an art form, The Museum of Modern Art has long been at the forefront of the preservation and restoration of moving-image material. Founded in 2003, MoMA’s annual To Save and Project festival has become the Museum’s showcase for presenting new restorations from our archive, as well as work from colleagues around the world—archives, foundations, studios, and others—engaged in maintaining and presenting precious audiovisual heritage.