Film at Lincoln Center has announced its lineup of festival, repertory, and new release programming for the 2024 fall/winter season, from October to December, and the 2025 partner festival schedule. 

This fall at FLC brings several Cannes award-winning new releases from the 62nd New York Film Festival, including: Palme d’Or winner Anora, Sean Baker’s screwball comedy about sex, love, and money starring Mikey Madison; and All We Imagine as Light, Payal Kapadia’s revelatory, Grand Prize–winning fiction feature debut about three working-class women dealing with professional and romantic disruptions.

FLC will also present the 2024 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner Dahomey, Mati Diop’s portrayal of the return of 26 treasures of the African kingdom of Dahomey after they were plundered by French colonial troops.

Additional new releases from the 62nd New York Film Festival include: Closing Night selection Blitz, Steve McQueen’s recreation of London during its blitzkrieg by the Germans during World War II, about a working-class single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) separated from her 9-year-old son; Hard Truths, Mike Leigh’s raw, uncompromising domestic drama starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, in a gutsy performance as a middle-aged, working-class woman whose emotional and physical health problems have metastasized into a profound and relentless anger; Centerpiece selection The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, a finely sculpted drama starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as writers who rekindle their friendship after years apart, until their bond is tested by one’s unusual request; No Other Land, an eye-opening, vérité-style documentary by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four directors—Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor—telling the harrowing account of the destruction of Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military; and A Traveler’s Needs, Hong Sangsoo’s gentle exploration of human motivation and the surprising connections between people despite—or because of—language barriers, starring Isabelle Huppert in her third outing with the director.

A special treat for FLC audiences is a 4K restoration of one of the most beloved Soviet-era films, Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a stirring tale of star-crossed lovers battling both natural and supernatural forces.

In addition, FLC is pleased to present Robert Siodmak: Dark Visionary, a retrospective dedicated to one of Hollywood’s most enduringly influential yet too-little-celebrated helmers, featuring an assortment of new 4K digital restorations of his signature films.

FLC also announces its 2025 schedule of partner festivals, which offer audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events, including: New York Jewish Film Festival, Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, New Directors/New Films, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, New York African Film Festival, the FLC Outdoor Film Series (presented as part of Lincoln Center’s annual “Summer for the City”), and more to be announced.

FLC will cap off 2024 with Film Comment Live: Best of 2024, the annual overview of the high points of contemporary film culture with Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute and a panel of special guests leading a real-time countdown of the results of Film Comment’s year-end critics’ poll.

Film descriptions and additional details are listed below and on filmlinc.org. New releases and revival runs are organized by Florence Almozini and Tyler Wilson. Partner festivals are organized by Florence Almozini, Dan Sullivan, Madeline Whittle and Regina Riccitelli.

FILM & SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W 65th Street) or
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 W 65th Street).

Opens October 18 (Sneak Preview on October 16 with Sean Baker!)
Screening on 35mm Oct 16–20
Anora
Sean Baker, 2024, U.S., 138m
English and Russian with English subtitles

Anora. Courtesy of NEON.

This year’s rambunctious Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival is a pure shot of frenetic pleasure, a New York odyssey that is the most immersive and accomplished comic adventure yet from American original Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Red Rocket). In a thrilling, star-making performance, Mikey Madison plays Annie, a tough-as-nails exotic dancer from Brighton Beach suddenly thrust into the lap of luxury when she’s whisked away on a whirlwind romance with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), an obscenely wealthy young customer at her strip club. However, Ivan turns out to be the spoiled scion of Russian oligarchs, and Annie’s wild ride is anything but your average rags-to-riches story. Baker always takes a good-natured, sociological approach to his subject matter and milieu, and here he has created an authentic 21st-century screwball comedy that tackles sex, love, class, and money with matter-of-fact directness. An NYFF62 Main Slate selection. A NEON release.

Opens October 25
Dahomey
Mati Diop, 2024, France/Senegal/Benin, 67m
French with English subtitles

Dahomey. Courtesy of MUBI.

The African kingdom of Dahomey, which ruled over its region at the west of the continent until the turn of the 20th century, saw hundreds of its splendid royal artifacts plundered by French colonial troops in its waning days. Now, as 26 of these treasures are set to return to their homeland—now within the Republic of Benin—filmmaker Mati Diop documents their voyage back. As with her layered, supernaturally tinged Atlantics, Diop takes a singular approach to contemporary questions around belonging in our postcolonial world, transforming this rich subject matter into a multifaceted examination of ownership and exhibition, and employing multiple points of view, including—most strikingly—those of the artifacts themselves as they sail in darkness over the ocean to their rightful home. Alternating images of nocturnal melancholy and debates among students at Benin’s University of Abomey-Calavi about what should be done with the objects, Dahomey brilliantly negotiates a lost past and an unsure present. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival. An NYFF62 Main Slate selection. A MUBI release.

Opens October 25 – Exclusive Opening Week
New 4K restoration
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors / Tini zabutykh predkiv
Sergei Parajanov, 1965, USSR, 97m
Ukrainian with English subtitles

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors/Tini zabutykh predkiv. Courtesy of Janus Films.

One of the most beloved Soviet-era films, winner of multiple international awards, Sergei Parajanov’s visionary feature from 1965 summons a world of psychedelic folklore and ritual with bracing originality. Set in a remote village in the Carpathian Mountains, the story follows Ivan (Ivan Mykolaichuk) and Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova), star-crossed lovers whose families are embroiled in a blood feud. When Ivan marries another woman but continues to pine for Marichka, his wife solicits the aid of a sorcerer to win him back, setting off a flurry of both natural and seemingly supernatural forces. Parajanov, aided by his brilliant cinematographers Yuri Illienko and Viktor Bestayev, creates a delirious, magically charged atmosphere that fully captures the sense of a folk legend brought to shimmering life; its multilayered imagery, free spirited camerawork, set design, and soundtrack straddles the line between ethnography and surrealism, and the result is simply a sensuous tour de force. Despite its international acclaim, the film ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, who mistrusted what they saw as its celebration of a unique Ukrainian culture. A Janus Films release.

Restored in 4K by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre and in association with the Dovzhenko Film Studio. Special thanks to Daniel Bird and Łukasz Ceranka. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Opens November 1
Blitz
Steve McQueen, 2024, U.K., 120m

Blitz. Courtesy of Apple TV+.

Blitz, an authentic and astonishing recreation of London during its blitzkrieg by the Germans during World War II, pushes the artistry of Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) to ever more impressive levels. Working on a vast scale, McQueen sets things at human eye level, telling his original tale from the parallel perspectives of working-class single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her 9-year-old son, George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan), as they become separated within the labyrinth of a city under siege. Alternately overwhelming and tender, McQueen’s dazzling film offers a multicultural portrait of 1940s London too infrequently seen on screens. While Ronan and Heffernan emotionally match one another beat for beat, the supporting cast, including Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, Hayley Squires, and Paul Weller, is uniformly superb, fleshing out a film that feels positively Dickensian in its scope and storytelling. NYFF62 Closing Night selection. An Apple Original Films release.

Opens November 1 – Exclusive one-week run
No Other Land
Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, 2024, Palestine/Norway, 95m
Arabic, English, and Hebrew with English subtitles

No Other Land. Courtesy of Rachel Szor.

This eye-opening, vérité-style documentary, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four directors over the course of five years, provides a harrowing account of the systematic onslaught of destruction experienced by Masafer Yatta, a group of Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank, at the hands of the Israeli military. Headed by Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham (also two of the film’s directors), the collective commits itself to filming and protesting the demolitions of homes and schools and the resulting displacement of their inhabitants, which were carried out to make way for Israeli military training ground. In addition to the indelible footage of destruction and expulsion captured by its undaunted witnesses, No Other Land serves as a moving portrait of friendship between Adra and Abraham, who form a philosophical and political alliance despite the drastic differences in their abilities to exist freely in this world. Winner of multiple awards including the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2024 Berlinale. An NYFF62 Main Slate selection.

Opens November 15
All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia, 2024, France/India/Netherlands/Luxembourg, 118m
Malayalam and Hindi with English subtitles

All We Imagine as Light. Courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films.

The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated with a vivid, humane richness by Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her revelatory fiction feature debut. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital—head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha)—and a newly retired coworker Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), Kapadia’s film alights on prosaic moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is pursued by a courtly doctor; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man, which she must keep a secret from her Hindu family; Parvaty finds herself dealing with a sudden eviction from her apartment. Kapadia captures the bustle of the metropolis and the open-air tranquility of a seaside resort with equal radiance, articulated by her superb actors with an unforced expressivity and by the camera with a lyrical naturalism that occasionally drifts into dreamlike incandescence. An NYFF62 Main Slate Selection. A Sideshow/Janus Films release.

Opens November 22 (Sneak Preview with Isabelle Huppert on November 21!)
A Traveler’s Needs
Hong Sangsoo, 2024, South Korea, 90m
English, French, and Korean with English subtitles

A Traveler’s Needs. Courtesy of Cinema Guild.

Isabelle Huppert reunites with Hong Sangsoo for their third delightful outing, this time starring as a nomadic Frenchwoman named Iris who drifts into the lives of a disconnected group of people in a Seoul suburb. In need of money, she has taken up giving French lessons, although she has no teaching experience to speak of. Cutting an ethereal figure in a straw hat, flowered sundress, and green cardigan, Iris puzzles the locals with her unorthodox methods and unyielding love for the Korean rice wine makgeolli. Iris’s effect on those around her is at once familial, romantic, and pedagogical, leading to a succession of gently amusing moments of cultural confusion and curiosity. Hong’s endearing, enigmatic observational comedy is a gentle exploration of human motivation and the surprising connections between people despite—or because of—language barriers. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Berlinale. An NYFF62 Main Slate selection. A Cinema Guild release.

Opens November 27
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024, Germany/Iran/France, 166m
Farsi with English subtitles

The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Courtesy of Neon.

A target of Iran’s hardline conservative government for his films’ criticism of the state, director Mohammad Rasoulof fled his home country to avoid an eight-year prison sentence, though he hadn’t finished editing his latest film yet. His searing drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig won a Special Prize from the jury and three other awards on its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is every bit as urgent and gripping as its real-life backstory would portend: longtime government worker Iman (Missagh Zareh) has just received a major promotion to the role of judge’s investigator, to the hopeful delight of his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani); at the same moment, a series of student protests against the government have exploded in the streets, stoking the sympathies of their independent-minded daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The growing wedge between progressive children and traditional parents intensifies through a series of unsettling events that put Iman’s future in jeopardy. Both paranoia thriller and domestic drama, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is above all an epic of anti-patriarchal political conviction. A NEON release.

December 6 – Exclusive one-week run; returning to FLC January 10
Hard Truths
Mike Leigh, 2024, U.K./Spain, 97m

Hard Truths. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.

Mike Leigh returns to a contemporary milieu for the first time since Another Year for this raw, uncompromising domestic drama that continues the great British filmmaker’s inquiries into the possibility for happiness and the limits of human connection. In a gutsy, excoriating performance, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Oscar nominee for Leigh’s Secrets & Lies) absorbs herself completely into the role of Pansy, a middle-aged, working-class woman whose emotional and physical health problems have metastasized into a profound and relentless anger that’s become toxic for everyone around her, including her husband, grown son, doctors, and even strangers on the street. Raging against every aspect of her domestic life and fearful of the world beyond, Pansy only finds potential solace in the unwavering love of her sister, Chantelle (a magnificent, gracious Michele Austin). Bringing his customary, thrilling eye for the details of human behavior and the complexities of social interaction, Leigh has created in close collaboration with his extraordinary cast a rigorous and unflinching look at a life in freefall. An NYFF62 Main Slate selection. A Bleecker Street release.

December 11–19
Robert Siodmak: Dark Visionary

Robert Siodmak

Of all the great filmmakers who fled Europe amid the ascent of the Nazis in Germany and turned up in Hollywood, few did more to shape our sense of film genre than Robert Siodmak. Born to German Jewish parents at the dawn of the 20th century, Siodmak spent decades honing his chameleonic sensibility and influential style across a variety of studios and national cinemas. Perhaps his most vital contributions came within the domain of film noir—such richly atmospheric and sophisticatedly hard-edged works as The Killers (1946), Criss Cross (1949), Phantom Lady (1944), and The Suspect (1942)—but each film that Siodmak directed, no matter the genre, or whether in Germany, France, or Hollywood, powerfully bears his imprint. Join Film at Lincoln Center for a retrospective dedicated to one of Hollywood’s most enduringly influential yet too-little-celebrated helmers, featuring an assortment of new 4K digital restorations of his signature films.

Organized by Dan Sullivan and Madeline Whittle.

December 12
Film Comment Live: Best of 2024

From left: Devika Girish, Amy Taubin, Bilge Ebiri, Clinton Krute (Photo by Zhen Qin)

Join Film Comment magazine for its annual overview of the high points of contemporary film culture as editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute and a panel of special guests lead a real-time countdown of the results of Film Comment’s year-end critics’ poll. The evening will feature a lively discussion (and some hearty debate!) about the films as they’re unveiled. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter to receive more information about this event!

Opens December 20
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar, 2024, Spain, 106m

The Room Next Door. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a best-selling writer, rekindles her relationship with her friend Martha (Tilda Swinton), a war journalist with whom she has lost touch for a number of years. The two women immerse themselves in their pasts, sharing memories, anecdotes, art, movies—yet Martha has a request that will test their newly strengthened bond. Pedro Almodóvar’s finely sculpted drama, his first English-language feature, is the unmistakable work of a master filmmaker, a hushed and humane portrayal of the beauty of life and the inevitability of death, graced with incandescent performances by Moore and Swinton that tap the very essence of being. Adapting Sigrid Nunez’s treasure of a novel, What Are You Going Through, Almodóvar has exquisitely reframed his career-long fascination with the lives of women for an American vernacular, capturing Manhattan and upstate New York with enraptured affection. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. NYFF62 Centerpiece selection. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

2025 Partner Festival Schedule

January 15–29, 2025
New York Jewish Film Festival
Presented in partnership with The Jewish Museum

The Shadow of the Day.

The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center are delighted to continue their partnership for the 34th annual New York Jewish Film Festival, presenting films from around the world that explore the Jewish experience. This year’s festival presents a dynamic lineup of films including narratives, documentaries, and shorts with screenings at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.

March 6–16, 2025
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
Presented in partnership with Unifrance

Thomas Cailley. Photography by Colleen Sturtevant.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in 2025 with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. The films on display, by emerging talents and established masters, raise ideas both topical and eternal, and many take audiences to entirely unexpected places. Co-presented with UniFrance, the 30th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema will demonstrate that the landscape of French cinema is as fertile, inspiring, and distinct as ever.

Spring dates to be announced
New Directors/New Films
Presented in partnership with MoMA

Sebastian Stan and Aaron Schimberg. Photo by Arin Sang-urai.

Founded in 1972, the New Directors/New Films festival is jointly presented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center, showcasing a wide-ranging group of films by emerging directors working at the vanguard of cinema. Throughout its history, the festival has presented works by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Euzhan Palcy, Jia Zhangke, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Agnieszka Holland, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Guillermo del Toro, Luca Guadagnino, and more than a thousand other filmmakers. Organized by Dan Sullivan (Co-Chair, Film at Lincoln Center), La Frances Hui (Co-Chair, MoMA), Madeline Whittle (Film at Lincoln Center), Tyler Wilson (Film at Lincoln Center), Katie Zwick (Film at Lincoln Center), Sophie Cavoulacos (MoMA), Rajendra Roy (MoMA), and Francisco Valente (MoMA).

May 7–13, 2025
New York African Film Festival
Presented in partnership with the African Film Festival

Tolu Ajayi. Photography by Arin Sang-urai.

Film at Lincoln Center and African Film Festival, Inc. are excited to announce the 32nd edition of the New York African Film Festival, taking place from May 7 to 13. Since its inception in 1993, the festival has been at the forefront of showcasing African and diaspora filmmakers’ unique storytelling through the moving image. 

May 29–June 5, 2025
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema
Presented in partnership with Cinecittà

A Brighter Tomorrow. Courtesy of Cinecittà.

Open Roads: New Italian Cinema is the leading screening series to offer North American audiences a diverse and extensive lineup of contemporary Italian films. The series strikes a balance between emerging talents and esteemed veterans; commercial and independent fare; and outrageous comedies, gripping dramas, and captivating documentaries.  

Summer dates to be announced
Summer for the City Outdoor Film Series
Presented in partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Photo by Colleen Sturtevant.

Summer for the City Outdoor Film Series, curated by Film at Lincoln Center, is part of Lincoln Center’s  three-month-long summer festival featuring thousands of artists from New York City and beyond, performing across multiple outdoor and indoor stages. From June to August, Summer for the City will animate every corner of Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus with hundreds of free and Choose-What-You-Pay concerts, film screenings, dance nights, theater, comedy, silent discos, civic events, family-friendly days, and more, a reflection of the multifaceted communities of New York. For more information, visit SummerfortheCity.org.