The MoMA & Film at Lincoln Center Announce the Complete Lineup for New Directors/New Films

The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center announce the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), available April 28 - May 8 via virtual cinema, with in-person screenings extending through May 13 at FLC. Throughout its rich, half-century history, the festival has celebrated filmmakers who represent the present and anticipate the future of cinema, and whose daring work pushes the envelope in unexpected ways. This year's festival will introduce 27 features and 11 shorts to audiences nationwide in the MoMA and FLC virtual cinemas, and to New Yorkers at Film at Lincoln Center.

"From intimate, personal tales to political, metaphysical, and spiritual inquiries, the films in the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films embody an inexhaustible curiosity and a fearless desire for adventure," said La Frances Hui, Curator of Film at The Museum of Modern Art and 2021 New Directors/New Films Co-Chair. "They prove that cinema will continue to illuminate and inspire the way we live, and make art."

Opening the festival is writer-director-star Amalia Ulman's breakthrough El Planeta, a captivating portrait in miniature of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain's northwestern seaside town of Gijón. ND/NF will close with All Light, Everywhere, winner of a Sundance Jury Prize for Experimentation in Nonfiction. Director Theo Anthony's follow-up to the acclaimed Rat Film, All Light, Everywhere uses U.S. law enforcement body-cam footage to anchor an ever-expanding treatise on perception, power, and policing. The rest of THE LINEUP showcases work from a broad geographic range, with films from Iran, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, Greece, and Georgia; prizewinners from Rotterdam (Pebbles), Sundance (Luzzu), and Berlin (We); and many feature debuts.

The complete 2021 New Directors/New Films lineup:

Features

Aleph dir. Iva Radivojević

All Light, Everywhere dir. Theo Anthony

All the Light We Can See dir. Pablo Escoto Luna

Apples dir. Christos Nikou

Azor dir. Andreas Fontana

Bebia, à mon seul désir dir. Juja Dobrachkous

Bipolar dir. Queena Li

Dark Red Forest dir. Jin Huaqing

Destello Bravío dir. Ainhoa Rodríguez

Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) dir. Arie & Chuko Esiri

Faya Dayi dir. Jessica Beshir

Friends and Strangers dir. James Vaughan

Gull dir. Kim Mi-jo

Liborio dir. Nino Martinez Sosa

Luzzu dir. Alex Camilleri

Madalena dir. Madiano Marcheti

Moon, 66 Questions dir. Jacqueline Lentzou

Pebbles dir. P.S. Vinothraj

El Planeta dir. Amalia Ulman

Radiograph of a Family dir. Firouzeh Khosrovani

Rock Bottom Riser dir. Fern Silva

Short Vacation dir. Kwon Min-pyo & Seo Han-sol

Stop-Zemlia dir. Kateryna Gornostai

Taming the Garden dir. Salomé Jashi

We (Nous) dir. Alice Diop

We're All Going to the World's Fair dir. Jane Schoenbrun

Wood and Water dir. Jonas Bak

Shorts

Beyond Is the Day dir. Damian Kocur

Binh dir. Ostin Fam

Heaven Reaches Down to Earth dir. Tebogo Malebogo

Hola, abuelo dir. Manuela Eguía

I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face dir. Sameh Alaa

Limousine dir. Saulė Bliuvaitė

A Love Song in Spanish dir. Ana Elena Tejera

More Happiness dir. Livia Huang

Nha Mila dir. Denise Fernandes

Summits and Ashes dir. Fernando Criollo

Surviving You, Always dir. Morgan Quaintance

"We're delighted to finally return to our cinemas with this landmark edition of New Directors/New Films," said Florence Almozini, FLC Senior Programmer at Large and 2021 New Directors/New Films Co-Chair. "There's something so special about walking into a theater, not knowing what to expect, and discovering your new favorite filmmaker on the big screen. For 50 years, ND/NF has not only launched careers; it's also, time and again, given audiences that singular, cinematic experience of unearthing something new."

To celebrate this edition's 50-year milestone, MoMA and FLC will also present a free virtual retrospective looking back on the festival's history. In 1972, FLC (formerly the Film Society of Lincoln Center) and MoMA's Department of Film presented the inaugural New Directors/New Films festival: a modest but eclectic program of 11 films born from a simple desire to share the best new works by emerging international directors with New York moviegoers. Richard Roud, one of its founding programmers, reflected in THE VILLAGE Voice then that the festival allows one to "sit down and find out just where, in fact, the New Cinema is going."

The last 50 years of ND/NF prove that there is not simply one way forward, as young directors continue to blaze into the vanguard of filmmaking. Directors early in their careers who were presented to New York audiences, some for the very first time, include Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almódovar, Souleymane Cissé, Euzhan Palcy, Jia Zhangke, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Agnieszka Holland, Lino Brocka, Guillermo del Toro, Luca Guadagnino, and over a thousand others. Now in a vastly different film landscape and accessible to viewers nationwide through streaming, the program has grown in size and stature while maintaining its commitment to experimentation and sharing the gift of discovery with audiences. Presented here is a small selection of favorites from the first 30 years of the festival, showcasing early works from filmmakers such as Lee Chang-dong, Chantal Akerman, Charles Burnett, and Christopher Nolan.

New Directors/New Films at 50: A Retrospective lineup:

Duvidha dir. Mani Kaul

Following dir. Christopher Nolan

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick dir. Wim Wenders

The Living End dir. Gregg Araki

Lucía dir. Humberto Solás

My Brother's Wedding dir. Charles Burnett

Peppermint Candy dir. Lee Chang-dong

Playing Away dir. Horace Ové

Les Rendez-vous d'Anna dir. Chantal Akerman

Sleepwalk dir. Sara Driver

Twenty Years Later dir. Eduardo Coutinho

"At 50, New Directors/New Films is by definition, and in spirit, forever young," added Hui. "The statement-making titles in the retrospective, all made before 2000, remain fresh and trailblazing today. Together, they celebrate a vital festival that has helped launch some of cinema's most glorious careers."

The New Directors/New Films selection committee is made up of members from both presenting organizations. The 2021 feature committee comprises Florence Almozini (Co-Chair, FLC), La Frances Hui (Co-Chair, MoMA), Rajendra Roy (MoMA), Josh Siegel (MoMA), Dan Sullivan (FLC), and Tyler Wilson (FLC), and the shorts were programmed by Brittany Shaw (MoMA) and Madeline Whittle (FLC).

New Directors/New Films also salutes programmers past and present (in alphabetical order): Florence Almozini, Mary Lea Bandy, Sally Berger, Sophie Cavoulacos, Stephen Harvey, La Frances Hui, Jytte Jensen, Laurence Kardish, Wendy Keys, Joanne Koch, Robert Koehler, Izzy Lee, Dennis Lim, Adrienne Mancia, Marian Masone, Joanna Ney, Richard Peña, Richard Roud, Rajendra Roy, Brittany Shaw, Josh Siegel, Gavin Smith, Dan Sullivan, Madeline Whittle, and Tyler Wilson.

Tickets for the 50th anniversary edition go on sale to the general public on Friday, April 16 at noon. Virtual rentals are $12 and in-theater tickets are $17. Discover more and save with the discounted Virtual All-Access Pass for $275 ($348 value). Film at Lincoln Center members receive a pre-sale period starting on Tuesday, April 13 at noon and additional 20% discounts on virtual rentals and $5 savings on in-theater tickets. MoMA members will be able to view New Directors/New Films titles and the virtual retrospective for free on MoMA's Virtual Cinema starting on April 16 for the virtual retrospective and April 28 for the ND/NF festival. All rentals for the virtual retrospective are free and open to the public. To access membership benefits for ND/NF, become a member of Film at Lincoln Center or MoMA today. In celebration of ND/NF's 50th anniversary, FLC is offering $50 off all New Wave memberships for a limited time. All ticketing, scheduling, and film information will be available on newdirectors.org.

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