Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art announce the 53rd edition of New Directors/New Films (ND/NF), taking place from April 3 through April 14, 2024. For more than half a century, the festival has celebrated filmmakers who speak to the present and anticipate the future of cinema, and whose bold work pushes the envelope in unexpected, striking ways. This year’s selection will introduce 25 features and 10 shorts, including one world premiere, 13 North American premieres, five U.S. premieres, and 16 New York premieres.
Opening the festival on April 3 is the New York premiere of Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, a piercing drama starring Sebastian Stan, winner of this year’s Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival, in an ingeniously embodied performance as Edward, an aspiring actor with severe facial disfigurement. ND/NF will close with Theda Hammel’s Stress Positions, a propulsive, brilliantly discombobulating queer comedy set in Brooklyn in the summer of 2020. The lineup showcases films from more than 30 countries; and prize winners from the Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals.
A celebration of new filmmakers from around the world, ND/NF is a place to discover the next generation of essential storytellers. Directors who were introduced to New York audiences in earlier ND/NF festivals include Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Euzhan Palcy, Jia Zhangke, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar-wai, Agnieszka Holland, Denis Villeneuve, Lino Brocka, Guillermo del Toro, Luca Guadagnino, and many others. Since its first edition in 1970, ND/NF has maintained a commitment to its founding mission to showcase distinctive new voices and share the gift of discovery with audiences.
Dan Sullivan, Programmer, Film at Lincoln Center, and 2024 ND/NF Co-Chair says, “It just feels right for us to bookend this year’s edition of ND/NF with two exciting new features by local filmmakers, as a reminder of what ND/NF has always been about: early encounters between the most cutting-edge emerging artists in international cinema and the New York audience who will be engaging with their work for years to come. Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is a delirious, complex, and hilarious work that evokes the best black comedies produced on the streets and inside the apartments of New York City in the 1960s and ’70s (with a healthy dash of body horror and metanarrative). Likewise, Theda Hammel’s similarly funny and spellbindingly chaotic Stress Positions conjures the irreverence and messiness of that era’s cinematic underground but in an utterly contemporary and accessible vernacular, yielding a comic and incisive picture of trans and queer life in the city.”
La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and 2024 ND/NF Co-chair observes, “This year’s ND/NF lineup is a splendid exhibition of adventure, courage, and ambition. The latest class of new directors finds imaginative use of the film language to craft works that celebrate joy and love, while also reflecting on pain, conflict, and our shared humanity. Their creativity embodies profound insight and inspiration, reaffirming cinema’s relevance and essential place in contemporary expression.”
The New Directors/New Films selection committee is made up of members from both presenting organizations. The 2024 feature committee comprises Dan Sullivan (Co-chair, FLC), Tyler Wilson (FLC), Maddie Whittle (FLC), La Frances Hui (Co-Chair, MoMA), Rajendra Roy (MoMA), and Josh Siegel (MoMA), and the shorts were programmed by Katie Zwick (FLC) and Francisco Valente (MoMA).
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, March 7 at noon ET, with early-access opportunities for FLC and MoMA members on Tuesday, March 5 at noon. Tickets are $18 for the general public; $15 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $13 for MoMA and FLC members. Opening Night tickets are $25 for the general public; $22 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $20 for FLC and MoMA members.
See more and save with a 6-Film Package for $99; discount automatically applied when adding tickets to cart (excludes Opening and Closing films). Complete your ND/NF experience with a VIP Pass: $400 for the general public and $350 for FLC and MoMA Members (includes two tickets to every film and two tickets to Opening Night and the Opening Night Party). Learn more at newdirectors.org
New Directors/New Films is presented by Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art.
Film at Lincoln Center funding for New Directors/New Films is provided in part by FLC’s New Wave Membership Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. American Airlines is the official airline of FLC.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL. Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, with major contributions from the Triad Foundation, Inc., The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art, and by Karen and Gary Winnick.
Travel support provided by German Films; Unifrance; and Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Ministry of Culture, ROC (Taiwan).
