Friday, May 08, 2020
58TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL (NYFF 2020) -- NEW STRUCTURE, NEW PROGRAMMING TEAM
FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (FLC)
58TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL (NYFF)
September 17 through October 11, 2020
NEW STRUCTURE
NEW PROGRAMMING TEAM
Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) announced today that the 58th New York Film Festival (NYFF), taking place from September 25th through October 11th, 2020, will feature changes to the festival's programming structure and new selection committee and advisory roles. The festival is also exploring a combination of both in-person and digital experiences, as circumstances allow.
The festival’s offerings will be streamlined into five banner sections:
- Main Slate,
- Currents,
- Spotlight,
- Revivals, and
- Talks.
The Main Slate selection committee has been expanded to five members.
The festival is also bringing new voices into its overall curatorial team, which will now, with the goal of expanding and diversifying our reach, consist of Film at Lincoln Center programming staff and an international roster of programmers and advisors.
“Our goal in revising the festival’s structure was to clarify and strengthen the identity of this venerable event while also making room for discovery and surprise. We began the work of rethinking the festival before this public health crisis, and we believe that our new template is one we can adapt for this uncertain year,” said Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, New York Film Festival.
The updated structure will be as follows:
- The MAIN SLATE, which is the heart and historic core of the festival, brings together the films that promise to define the year in cinema. The selection committee for this section will be Dennis Lim (Chair), Florence Almozini, K. Austin Collins, Eugene Hernandez (NYFF Director), and Rachel Rosen.
- A new section called CURRENTS will be added to the lineup and is designed to complement the Main Slate. The CURRENTS section traces a more complete picture of contemporary cinema, with an emphasis on new and innovative forms and voices. The section will present a diverse offering of short and feature-length work by filmmakers and artists working at the vanguard of the medium. The newly formed selection committee for this section will be Dennis Lim (Chair), Florence Almozini, Aily Nash, and Tyler Wilson.
- The new SPOTLIGHT section will be NYFF’s showcase of sneak previews, gala events, screenings with live or performance elements, guest-curated selections and other special evenings. This section will be programmed by Eugene Hernandez and Dennis Lim.
- The REVIVALS section connects cinema's rich past to its dynamic present through an eclectic assortment of new restorations, titles selected by the festival's filmmakers, rarities, and more. This section will be programmed by Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan.
- The TALKS section will supplement NYFF’s screenings with a series of free and ticketed panel discussions and in-depth conversations with a wide range of guests. This section will be programmed by Eugene Hernandez, Devika Girish, and Madeline Whittle.
The new NYFF structure consolidates many sections that previously existed in the festival. Documentaries, which have always been an important part of the program, will now be represented throughout the festival. Shorts programming will largely exist within the new Currents section, as will the experimental work and artists' films previously shown in the Projections section.
NYFF is also appointing a new team of five advisors: Violeta Bava, Michelle Carey, Leo Goldsmith, Rachael Rakes, and Gina Telaroli.
“Our city is enduring a devastating crisis right now and there is no question that the 58th New York Film Festival will be different as a result, but New Yorker's are resilient and constraints can inspire new ideas. In planning this year’s festival we’re taking an open-minded approach, and this fall we hope to share the best of cinema with audiences safely and securely, both in person and online. Our commitment to supporting the art and elevating the craft of cinema and enriching film culture is unwavering as we plan this year's NYFF,” stated Eugene Hernandez, Director of the New York Film Festival.
The 58th New York Film Festival Programming Team:
Florence Almozini is currently Senior Programmer at Large for Film at Lincoln Center, where she serves on the committees for the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, and oversees the programming of new releases
K. Austin Collins is the film critic for Vanity Fair.
Devika Girish is the Assistant Editor at Film Comment.
Eugene Hernandez is Director of the New York Film Festival and Publisher of Film Comment at Film at Lincoln Center, where he serves as Deputy Executive Director Convergence, and worked as a programming consultant for the Key West Film Festival.
Dennis Lim (Chair) has been the Director of Programming at Film at Lincoln Center since 2013.
Aily Nash is a curator based in New York. She is a programmer at the New York Film Festival, where she co-curated the Projections section from 2014–2019, and a program advisor to the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Short Film section.
Rachel Rosen is a San Francisco Bay Area programmer and awards consultant. Previously, she was Director of Programming for SFFILM, which presents the annual San Francisco International Film Festival.
Dan Sullivan is an Assistant Programmer for Film at Lincoln Center and the Co-Editor of the film section of The Brooklyn Rail.
Madeline Whittle has been a member of the year-round programming team at Film at Lincoln Center since 2016.
Tyler Wilson is an Assistant Programmer at Film at Lincoln Center.
The 58th New York Film Festival Advisory Team:
Violeta Bava worked at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI) for 20 years, both as a programmer and the Co-Director of BAL, a leading co-production market for Latin American films.
Michelle Carey is a Berlin-based film curator. She was the artistic director of the Melbourne International Film Festival from 2011–18.
Leo Goldsmith is a teacher, writer, and curator based in New York. He is a visiting assistant professor of culture and media at Eugene Lang College, The New School, and has lectured on media and film at CUNY Brooklyn College, New York University, and Harvard University
Rachael Rakes is a curator, writer, editor, film programmer, and educator. She is currently Curator of Public Practice at BAK basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht, Netherlands, an Editor at Large for Verso Books, and a Programmer at Large for Film at Lincoln Center, where she co-curates the annual festival Art of the Real.
Gina Telaroli is a filmmaker, writer, and video archivist. For the past 10 years she has managed the video archive for Martin Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions, as well as consulting on and creating the series trailer for “Martin Scorsese Presents: Republic Rediscovered,” a 30-film series celebrating the Poverty Row studio in conjunction with The Film Foundation, MoMA, and Paramount Pictures.
Details about festival passes and tickets will follow. Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) members at the Contributor level and above receive early access opportunities and ticket discounts to NYFF and FLC screenings year-round. Support of the New York Film Festival benefits Film at Lincoln Center in its nonprofit mission to support the art and craft of cinema.
For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org and follow @TheNYFF on Twitter and Instagram.
Labels: documentaries, film, Film at Lincoln Center, FLC, New York Film Festival, NYFF, short films
