The 54th annual New Administrators/New Movies pageant is nearly right here. IndieWire can unveil this yr’s lineup of the beloved program from theMuseum of Fashionable Artwork and Movie at Lincoln Middle. The 2025 New Administrators/New Movies (ND/NF) will happen April 2 – April 13.
Sarah Friedland’s debut characteristic “Acquainted Contact” will open the pageant with its New York premiere. The drama facilities on octogenarian Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant) who has a surreal expertise after relocating to an assisted-living facility. The characteristic earned three awards within the 2024 Venice Movie Pageant Orizzonti Competitors, together with the Lion of the Future, Finest Director, and Finest Actress for Chalfant.
ND/NF will shut with the New York premiere of buzzy Sundance 2025 movie “Lurker,” directed by “Beef” and “The Bear” author and supervising producer Alex Russell. Théodore Pellerin stars as a retail employee who turns into obsessive about an up-and-coming musician (Archie Madekwe). “Lurker” is Russell’s characteristic directorial debut.
ND/NF showcases new and rising filmmakers who helm “risk-taking works,” in accordance with the press assertion. This yr’s ND/NF will current 24 options and 9 quick movies, together with 20 North American or U.S. premieres. The entire program has works by rising filmmakers from 22 international locations.
“The lineup for this yr’s version of New Administrators/New Movies inevitably displays the uncertainties and tragedies of our world state of affairs in 2025, but it additionally evinces the sheer resilience of cinema and the continued emergence of essential new skills working inside it,” Dan Sullivan, the 2025 ND/NF Co-Chair and FLC Programmer, mentioned in an official assertion. “Quite a lot of movies on this yr’s lineup take up the problem of recovering and reconceptualizing human connection as a cherished worth, maybe none extra movingly than Sarah Friedland’s ‘Acquainted Contact,’ a classy and boundlessly delicate subversion of the coming-of-age movie that challenges our preconceptions in regards to the subjectivity of the aged. Likewise, Alex Russell’s fashionable and gripping Lurker trains its gaze on Gen Z, posing onerous questions in regards to the nature of ambition, fame, and friendship amid a tradition that prizes egocentric striving to the detriment of the basic bonds that unite us and make life price dwelling.”
La Frances Hui, the 2025 ND/NF Co-chair and Curator, Division of Movie, MoMA, added, “Cinema dazzles within the arms of this outstanding class of latest administrators, who deliver astonishing creativity to exploring and deciphering the huge spectrum of human expertise. Their movies abound with shocking, magical touches, weaving tales of affection, household, and anguish, whereas additionally delving into themes of id, historical past, and battle. These filmmakers reaffirm the boundless potential of the transferring picture to regenerate, create which means, and broaden our horizons. Put together to be captivated by this distinctive assortment of latest movies.”
Previous ND/NF administrators embrace Luca Guadagnino, Spike Lee, Denis Villeneuve, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Jia Zhangke, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar-wai, Agnieszka Holland, and lots of others.
New Administrators/New Movies is organized by La Frances Hui (Co-Chair, MoMA), Dan Sullivan (Co-Chair, Movie at Lincoln Middle), Sophie Cavoulacos (MoMA), Rajendra Roy (MoMA), Francisco Valente (MoMA), Madeline Whittle (Movie at Lincoln Middle), Tyler Wilson (Movie at Lincoln Middle), and Katie Zwick (Movie at Lincoln Middle).
Tickets will go on sale to most of the people on Thursday, March 13 at midday ET, with early-access alternatives for MoMA and FLC Members on Tuesday, March 11 at midday ET. Tickets are $18 for most of the people; $15 for college students, seniors (62+), and individuals with disabilities; and $13 for MoMA and FLC Members. Opening Evening tickets are $25 for most of the people; $22 for college students, seniors (62+), and individuals with disabilities; and $20 for MoMA and FLC Members.
New Administrators/New Movies is introduced by The Museum of Fashionable Artwork and Movie at Lincoln Middle. Movie at MoMA is made potential by CHANEL. Further help is supplied by the Annual Movie Fund. Management help for the Annual Movie Fund is supplied by Debra and Leon D. Black, with main funding from The Modern Arts Council of The Museum of Fashionable Artwork, The Worldwide Council of The Museum of Fashionable Artwork, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Affiliation of Unbiased Industrial Producers (AICP), and The Younger Patrons Council of The Museum of Fashionable Artwork. Rolex is the Official Associate and Unique Timepiece of Movie at Lincoln Middle.
Try the complete lineup, with language supplied by Movie at Lincoln Middle, under.
Opening Evening
“Acquainted Contact”
Sarah Friedland, 2024, U.S., 91m
New York Premiere
Octogenarian Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant) has been dwelling independently, however cracks have began to emerge: toast is positioned to dry within the dish rack, confusion rests on her face, the lifeless are spoken of in current tense whereas the dwelling (resembling a son proper earlier than her) go fully unrecognized. Her entrance into an assisted-living facility begins the unusual, transcendent journey that’s Acquainted Contact, Sarah Friedland’s characteristic debut, which earned three awards within the 2024 Venice Movie Pageant Orizzonti Competitors, together with the Lion of the Future, Finest Director, and Finest Actress for Chalfant’s astonishing flip. Friedland builds her drama via sharp honesty, and hard as its materials could also be, few movies are so tonally versatile, so in a position to activate a dime: stray moments of tenderness, humility, even absurdity poke via, with a love and look after Ruth proven by characters and creators alike. Acquainted Contact portends the arrival of main directorial expertise. A Music Field Movies launch.
Wednesday, April 2
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Sarah Friedland, Kathleen Chalfant
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Sarah Friedland, Kathleen Chalfant
Friday, April 4
6:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Sarah Friedland, Kathleen Chalfant
Closing Evening
“Lurker”
Alex Russell, 2025, U.S./Italy, 100m
New York Premiere
In Alex Russell’s irresistible, screw-turning thriller for the influencer age, Los Angeles clothes retailer clerk Matthew (Théodore Pellerin, Genesis) contrives his manner into the entourage of up-and-coming musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe, Saltburn)—and as soon as insinuated into the interior circle, refuses to surrender his place with out a battle. Lurker thrives on Pellerin’s outstanding flip—one hardly ever sees actors write such wealthy psychology within the flick of their eyes or curl of a smile—and Madekwe’s deft oscillations between affability and stone-faced detachment. A author/producer on award-winning sequence The Bear and Beef, Russell helms his characteristic debut with a gradual hand that captures the whirlwind rush of stardom and the unsettling chill of obsession as the road between friendship and fandom begins to blur past recognition. A MUBI launch.
Saturday, April 12
7:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 1 – Q&A with Alex Russell
Sunday, April 13
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Alex Russell
“The Assistant / Człowiek do wszystkiego”
Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal, 2025, Poland/U.Ok., 124m
Polish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
“I used to be only a button hanging by a thread that nobody was keen to stitch again on once more.” So we’re launched to Joseph, freshly fired from a menial job and stepping right into a world that doesn’t need him. His fortunes seemingly reverse when he’s introduced into the make use of of Mr. Tobler, an inventor whose no-nonsense protocol units in movement this riveting character drama from Wilhelm and Anka Sasnal, tailored from a 1908 Robert Walser novel. Buoyed by a star-making flip from Piotr Trojan, beautiful pastoral places, lush cinematography, a transfixing digital rating (to say nothing of its expertly deployed Smiths cue), and supreme trend sense, The Assistant is a visually and sonically opulent movie in regards to the bonds that constrain us all.
Saturday, April 5
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, April 6
6:15pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Blue Solar Palace”
Constance Tsang, 2024, U.S., 116m
Mandarin, English, and Min Nan with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
For greater than 30 years the Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng has solid an indelible, inimitable inventive partnership with Tsai Ming-liang. Lee makes as large an impression in Constance Tsang’s Blue Solar Palace, which relocates him to working-class Queens. When wayward Taiwanese immigrant Cheung (Lee) finds his lifetime of part-time work and light-weight extramarital affairs shattered by violence, he connects with staff at a small Queens salon, victims themselves to the indignities compelled upon strangers in a wierd land. However Blue Solar Palace isn’t any distress showcase. Intimacy and heat co-exist with financial anxieties and deep grief which can be articulated with unusual intelligence and understanding of how adults endure any given day. On this debut characteristic, awarded the French Contact Prize by the jury on the 2024 Cannes Critics’ Week, Tsang shapes an immigrant’s story, a relationship drama, a office comedy, and an incredible New York story in a single. A Dekanalog launch.
Saturday, April 5
5:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 1 – Q&A with Constance Tsang
Sunday, April 6
5:45pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Constance Tsang
“Cactus Pears / Sabar Bonda”
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, 2025, India/U.Ok./Canada, 112m
Marathi with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Western India’s beautiful, cascading landscapes background Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s debut characteristic of familial bereavement and queer longing that earned Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. A household consecrates the lack of its patriarch with a 10-day mourning interval that strands Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) within the countryside he way back abandoned for Mumbai. Grief’s widespread phases (poring over previous images, sharing beloved reminiscences) coexist with native rituals, all whereas Anand’s hidden wishes materialize in a rekindled friendship with childhood companion Balya. By these experiences, sensual discoveries, and Bhushaan Manoj’s ever-measured efficiency, Cactus Pears emerges as an beautiful character piece perfected by its heartrending finale.
Tuesday, April 8
6:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Wednesday, April 9
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“CycleMahesh”
Suhel Banerjee, 2024, India/U.Ok./Canada, 61m
Odia, Marathi, and Hindi with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Simply how far would you go to achieve residence? When the COVID-19 lockdowns left him stranded on the opposite facet of India, supply boy Mahesh grew to become a nationwide sensation by peddling 1,700 kilometers in seven days. It’s a narrative ok for a film, one which director Suhel Banerjee has damaged aside and rendered a trancelike travelogue that mixes fiction and nonfiction. CycleMahesh (winner of IDFA’s Finest First Function) guides us via breathtaking terrain—wheat fields, river valleys, and raging fires complemented by beautiful sunrises and sunsets—on an alternately hyperactive and contemplative journey that, in simply 60 minutes, compresses sufficient formal distinction and compelling concepts for a movie 3 times its size.
Wednesday, April 9
6:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Thursday, April 10
9:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“Drowning Dry / Sesės”
Laurynas Bareiša, 2024, Lithuania/Latvia, 88m
Lithuanian with English subtitles
New York Premiere
It begins with a kick to the top. Blended martial arts competitor Lukas has simply handily defeated his opponent and celebrates together with his spouse, youngster, and pals backstage, setting the scene for a nimble mixture of communal bonding and looming horrors. Author-director Laurynas Bareiša, an ND/NF veteran for his debut characteristic Pilgrims, takes us on a non-linear journey via the experiences and recollections of those that survived tragedy (and those that didn’t), shot with unceasing endurance and formal rigor. Drowning Dry was the second of Bareiša’s movies chosen as Lithuania’s entry for the Finest Worldwide Function Academy Award. Winner of Locarno’s Finest Director and, in recognition of its indispensable ensemble of 4, Finest Efficiency awards. A Dekanalog launch.
Thursday, April 3
8:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Sunday, April 6
12:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“Fiume o morte!”
Igor Bezinović, 2025, Croatia/Italy/Slovenia, 112m
Croatian, Italian, Fiuman with English subtitles
North American Premiere
The previous is current and truth made fiction in Igor Bezinović’s Fiume o morte!, a high-energy hybrid documentary about early-Twentieth-century Italian warrior-poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. A mannequin for Mussolini who dominated Rijeka, Croatia, with an iron fist, D’Annunzio’s 16-month reign left such a legacy that present denizens (street-cast in an excellent montage) are greater than somewhat keen to play-act as his troopers. Bezinović elaborately restages Rijeka’s unusual, bloody period in a duet between filmmaking and historical past that melds Wes Anderson, Straub-Huillet, and Abbas Kiarostami’s Shut-Up whereas holding an uneasy mirror to modern fears of fascism. Winner of the highest prize on the 2024 Worldwide Movie Pageant Rotterdam.
Friday, April 4
8:45pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Saturday, April 5
3:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Grand Me”
Atiye Zare Arandi, 2024, Iran/Belgium, 80m
Farsi with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Persons are difficult and households are onerous—two truisms that collide with large pressure in Atiye Zare Arandi’s characteristic documentary debut, Grand Me. At 9 years previous, Melina is of age to deliver forth a authorized case for her guardianship. The issue: neither of her divorced mother and father is particularly fascinated about taking their daughter residence. Melina could be cinema’s most independently minded youth this facet of Antoine Doinel, however in wanting carefully on the circumstances, Zare Arandi—Melina’s aunt—discovers the damage solely kids are able to experiencing. Bracing however by no means overbearing, and with a Kiarostami-esque automobile journey brilliantly anchoring its narrative in modern Iran, Grand Me is a shining imaginative and prescient of each selfishness and resilience. Winner of the Subsequent:Wave Award at CPH:DOX.
Saturday, April 12
2:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Sunday, April 13
1:15pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“The Top of the Coconut Timber / 椰子の高さ”
Du Jie, 2024, Japan, 100m
Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Chinese language cinematographer-turned-director Du Jie makes a seamless transition with The Top of the Coconut Timber, a Japan-set debut that’s equal components luxurious and piercing. Whereas Sugamoto’s relationship is coming undone, Rin mourns the suicide of his girlfriend. When calamity strikes, Sugamoto visits the countryside resort Rin has taken over to fight his grief, uniting two folks for whom life has been an insufferable procession of craving and loss. From these plots Du turns Coconut Timber right into a miniature travelogue and existential highway image—come for the gorgeous locales, keep for a dialog about destiny, religion, and remorse worthy of Rohmer—with faint wisps of a ghost story.
Tuesday, April 8
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Du Jie
Thursday, April 10
6:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Du Jie
“Holy Electrical energy / Tsminda Electroenergia”
Tato Kotetishvili, 2024, Georgia/Netherlands, 95m
Georgian with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Winner of the Golden Leopard in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente part, Tato Kotetishvili’s debut characteristic is suffused with tenderness and hazard alike. When younger Gonga and his bookie-pressured cousin Bart discover a bag of rusty crosses, they determine to trend them into neon crucifixes and, one thing like Paper Moon transposed to Tbilisi, promote them door-to-door. Holy Electrical energy accommodates nary a clichéd or predictable picture, nor one situation Kotetishvili doesn’t exploit for all its comedic, dramatic, and emotional potential. It’s uncommon to see a movie of such formal confidence assume so many new styles and sizes (with a hilarious documentary parody for good measure), shocking us all the best way to its last, ecstatic shot.
Saturday, April 12
5:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, April 13
3:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Invention”
Courtney Stephens, 2024, U.S., 72m
New York Premiere
Private anguish and noirish thriller are inextricably certain in Invention, whereby Callie Hernandez (who co-conceptualized the movie, and performs a cross between herself and another imaginative and prescient) seeks the reality about her father—an inventor of gadgets boasting untapped energy—whose loss of life isn’t what it appears. Traversing a backwoods America of oddballs, cretins, property vultures, and even the occasional sweetheart, Hernandez’s journey is a continuing reminder of how a lot our family members cover from us in life and loss of life alike. Courtney Stephens’s years in experimental documentary cinema assist flip this Tremendous 16mm–shot investigation narrative on its head, whereas a commanding efficiency confirms Hernandez (winner of a Finest Efficiency Prize in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente) as a fascinating display performer and artist.
Saturday, April 5
6:15pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Courtney Stephens
Sunday, April 6
4:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Courtney Stephens
“Kyuka Earlier than Summer season’s Finish / Κιούκα Πριν το τέλος του καλοκαιριού”
Kostis Charamountanis, 2024, Greece/North Macedonia, 105m
Greek with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Babis takes his twin kids Konstantinos and Elsa (among the many best-sketched, most-charming sibling duos in current reminiscence) crusing via the Greek isles, participating in all the love and jousting widespread to single mother and father and teenage offspring. It’s a seemingly customary journey laced with secret intent: Babis is en path to lastly introduce the mom who deserted Konstantinos and Elsa in infancy, a gathering that may dredge up troublesome pasts and untreated damage. Kostis Charamountanis’s characteristic debut is however a relentless pleasure, its complexity and element positioned towards piercingly blue seas, verdant flora, and glowing sunsets. Pageant favorites Aftersun or Murina might come to thoughts, but Kyuka strikes at a velocity all its personal—peppered by hypnotic documentary interludes and tense, dazzlingly edited exchanges—as much as Charamountanis’s completely orchestrated climax.
Sunday, April 6
8:45pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Monday, April 7
5:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Lesson Discovered / Fekete pont”
Bálint Szimler, 2024, Hungary, 119m
Hungarian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Palkó has been transferred to a brand new college, and discovering new pals and battling powerful lecturers are making his adolescent life all of the extra difficult. In the meantime, Juci (Anna Mészöly) is a younger instructor staring down the opposite finish of the barrel at myopic superiors, bullying mother and father who can’t fathom why their youngster is struggling, and fellow lecturers whose cruelty crosses boundaries. From these intersecting strands Bálint Szimler, in simply his second characteristic, captures all of the intricacy and pleasure of a campus novel—from the shame-tinged tedium of detention classes to a blinding school-play sequence. Photographed on deeply textured 16mm, Lesson Discovered is refreshingly frank about how youngsters act amongst themselves, the best way lecturers wield energy (emotional and bodily) to masks their insecurities, and what occurs when clueless mother and father are introduced into the fold. It’s onerous to think about a viewer who received’t acknowledge a lot of their very own education expertise second by second, or discover themselves moved by Szimler’s roundly empathetic worldview. Winner of a Finest Efficiency prize and Particular Point out in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente.
Thursday, April 10
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Friday, April 11
5:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Take heed to the Voices / Kouté vwa”
Maxime Jean-Baptiste, 2024, Belgium/France/French Guiana, 77m
French and Guianese Creole with English subtitles
New York Premiere
The connection Melrick has solid together with his grandmother is refreshingly candid and egalitarian: meals are cooked collectively, relationships mentioned, emotions vented. The younger boy has little selection in gentle of a tragedy that took his father, an occasion we witness solely via a brilliantly summary lens rendered by Maxime Jean-Baptiste’s characteristic debut, winner of a Particular Jury Prize and Particular Point out from the First Function Jury in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente. By ecstatic musical performances, close-quarter journeys via the gorgeous streets of French Guiana, and dreamlike visions of the jungle, Jean-Baptiste has crafted a imaginative and prescient of trauma and restoration that, like too few movies, understands life as distinct blocks of expertise strung throughout one barely linear path.
Saturday, April 5
4:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, April 6
1:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Misplaced Chapters / Los Capítulos Perdidos”
Lorena Alvarado, 2024, Venezuela, 67m
Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
When a letter nestled deep inside her father’s library particulars the writing of an unknown writer, the younger, formidable bibliophile Ena units off to seek out his work. Is the fabled ebook actual? Did the writer even exist? The place most films would possibly use this to kick off a treasure hunt, Misplaced Chaptersopens a door to Venezuela’s wealthy cultural historical past and troubled current. A grasp class in composition and sound design that leaves no element to probability, Lorena Alvarado’s characteristic debut remembers the mental obsessiveness of Roberto Bolaño whereas reaching a outstanding sense of equanimity and emotional heat from her real-life sister, father, and grandmother, whose on-screen naturalism by no means as soon as lapses into mannerism.
Thursday, April 3
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Saturday, April 5
1:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Mad Payments to Pay (or Future, dile que no soy malo)”
Joel Alfonso Vargas, 2025, U.S., 101m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Rico goes to be a father. The issue: he’s solely 19, barely has a job, is astonishingly immature, and is barely involved with Future, the lady he acquired pregnant. When Future strikes in with Rico, his no-nonsense mom, and a sister having fun with this upheaval manner an excessive amount of, the younger man finds these new tasks are excess of he bargained for. In his characteristic debut, Joel Alfonso Vargas seems to the facet of New York—and the New Yorkers—during which cinema has distressingly little curiosity to carve a thriller of quotidian stress. Prolonged, electrifying dialogue sequences permit Vargas to sketch harsh dynamics, each battle and passive-aggressive gesture tightening the screws on Rico and his dangerous selections. It’s onerous to take your eyes off the slow-motion wreckage of Mad Payments to Pay (or Future, dile que no soy malo), a piece that veers from pathos to agitation and again once more.
Friday, April 4
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Joel Alfonso Vargas
Saturday, April 5
8:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Joel Alfonso Vargas
“No Sleep Until”
Alexandra Simpson, 2024, U.S./Switzerland, 93m
New York Premiere
The slice-of-life indie is alive and properly in Alexandra Simpson’s characteristic debut, recipient of a Particular Point out from the jury on the 2024 Venice Movie Pageant Critics’ Week. Whereas a looming hurricane spells doom for a sleepy Florida city, residents stick with it: two pals pull pranks and ponder life; one other pair captures terrifying footage of the storm; a younger lady harbors a deep crush. By this fleet exploration Simpson retains audiences on their ft, no two tales instructed at the very same tempo and no composition simply anticipated. And backgrounding all of it is a sun-soaked, palm tree–lined Florida that has seldom regarded as lovely because it does in No Sleep Until.
Wednesday, April 9
8:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Alexandra Simpson
Friday, April 11
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Alexandra Simpson
“Unhappy Jokes”
Fabian Stumm, 2024, Germany, 96m
German, English, Italian, and Swedish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Joseph—a homosexual filmmaker and father to a younger youngster whose work-life stability evokes little confidence—is writing a comedy. “What type?” his therapist asks. In lieu of reply, Joseph stammers about his filmography’s transfer from “naturalistic” to “absurdist”—a confusion that completely captures the enlivening, unpredictable paths taken by Unhappy Jokes. As author, director, and star, Fabian Stumm blends intense strife with hilarious slapstick so effortlessly it’s onerous to inform the place one stops or one other begins, brilliantly paying off character relationships and conflicts in a good body. A refreshingly trustworthy movie in regards to the trials of administrators, the foibles of hookup tradition, and realizing your therapist is crazier than you, replete with the flights of fancy that solely artists are able to experiencing, Unhappy Jokes received the Munich Worldwide Movie Pageant’s German Cinema New Expertise Award for Finest Director.
Friday, April 11
8:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Fabian Stumm
Saturday, April 12
4:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Fabian Stumm
“Stranger”
Zhengfan Yang, 2024, U.S./China/Netherlands/Norway/France, 113m
Mandarin, Cantonese, and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
A lady confesses on her livestream. Two males get interrogated by more and more agitated police. Wedding ceremony images are taken whereas the groom indulges a significant secret. These and different situations unfold in Zhengfan Yang’s Stranger, which investigates China’s social, political, and financial id via lengthy takes that frequently evolve, shock, and dazzle. However Stranger is greater than a bravura show to recall Chantal Akerman or Béla Tarr—its command of area and motion set the stage for an actor’s showcase and grasp class in narrative delineation that confirms Yang as one in every of China’s most fun up-and-coming cinematic skills.
Sunday, April 6
2:45pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Zhengfan Yang
Tuesday, April 8
8:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Zhengfan Yang
“Timestamp / Strichka Chasu”
Kateryna Gornostai, 2025, Ukraine/Luxembourg/Netherlands/France, 125m
Ukrainian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
The three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have discovered humanity at its bravest and basest alike, conflicting energies given full show in Timestamp. A faculty day proceeds apace till air sirens ship younger kids into an underground shelter. Simply 18 kilometers from the entrance, others stroll amidst lecture rooms turned to rubble. Adolescents practice in a “patriotic navy recreation” handled with seriousness that belies any sense of play. A fight vet bluntly informs a packed classroom that the entrance strains introduced “nothing good.” Hazard hovers over each second of Timestamp—each expression of affection, anger, friendship, and freedom. On this patchwork method to a battle no single movie might sufficiently seize, director Kateryna Gornostai (whose earlier fiction characteristic, Cease-Zemlia, was in ND/NF 2021) has achieved one thing grand, slicing via the noise and partisanship to place us within the footwear of a courageous, battered populace. Winner of the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award at CPH:DOX.
Saturday, April 12
7:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, April 13
12:15pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
“Two Instances João Liberada / Duas Vezes João Liberada”
Paula Tomás Marques, 2025, Portugal, 70m
Portuguese with English subtitles
North American Premiere
There are such a lot of films about films that one would possibly marvel what’s left to say. But self-reflecting cinema finds new type in Two Instances João Liberada, which charts the manufacturing of a biopic about Liberada (a gender-nonconforming nun who confronted persecution in the course of the Portuguese Inquisition) and its star, João, who’s conflicted in regards to the job when not outright haunted by Liberada’s ghost. That is one in every of many daring, sensible gestures Paula Tomás Marques makes with this characteristic debut that, in 70 minutes, tackles a flabbergasting variety of issues: the psychology of performing and directing, an summary trans historical past, a rivalry with who tells what story, failed inventive ambition, and artwork because the means to make sense of ourselves. Two Instances João Liberada kinds a tapestry that’s as grand as it’s intricate, with a lead efficiency from June João that makes emotional sense of mental complexity.
Monday, April 7
8:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Tuesday, April 8
6:15pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“The Village Subsequent to Paradise”
Mo Harawe, 2024, Austria/France/Germany/Somalia, 133m
Somali with English subtitles
New York Premiere
A information broadcast publicizes the U.S. drone strike that’s killed an Al Qaeda affiliate in a “distant space” of Somalia. When that story ends, The Village Subsequent to Paradise begins: Mamargade is the hardworking civilian for whom burying this terrorist chief is however a method to offer for his household in a world of strivers and cheats. This deeply transferring, brutally trustworthy imaginative and prescient of Somali life probes financial and familial anxieties with a brilliance that remembers nice works of Italian neorealism. In his characteristic debut, the primary Somali movie to be an Official Choice at Cannes, Mo Harawe has created a movie of stirring music, wealthy colours, and fantastic textures, one which grants a greater understanding of our planet and a deeper love for these on it.
Thursday, April 3
6:00pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2
Saturday, April 5
1:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater
“The Virgin of the Quarry Lake / La Virgen De La Tosquera”
Laura Casabé, 2024, Argentina/Mexico/Spain, 90m
Spanish with English subtitles
New York Premiere
It’s 2001 and the solar is hitting Argentina onerous sufficient to chop energy on the web café from which Natalia (Dolores Oliverio) messages Diego, an area boy to whose seems and allure she’s fully vulnerable. The issue: her good friend can be into him, Diego’s into an older lady, and his emotions towards Natalia by no means prolong previous friendship. From this no-win situation director Laura Casabé extracts all of the pleasures, anxieties, and frenzy of teenage life. Based mostly on quick tales from Mariana Enríquez’s acclaimed The Risks of Smoking in Mattress, The Virgin of the Quarry Lake ought to please coming-of-age fans with its nostalgia-inducing particulars, however most outstanding is Casabé’s ability for pivoting to horror—and among the most startling violence in current reminiscence—just like the flip of a change. None of this may be potential with out Oliverio, whose lead efficiency brings Natalia to life in full scary capability.
Thursday, April 3
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Laura Casabé
Friday, April 4
8:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Laura Casabé
ND/NF 2025 Shorts Program I (89m)
Movies are listed within the order that they may display
“Landscapes of Longing”
Alisha Tejpal, Mireya Martinez, Anoushka Mirchandani, 2024, India, 14m
Hindi and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Three generations of ladies discover their connections and variations via a household archive of images, music, and storytelling in an intimate seek for their id and roots, bringing reminiscences to life by way of the ever-evolving, dissociative experiences of longing and migration.
“You Can’t See It From Right here / No se ve desde acá”
Enrique Pedráza-Botero, 2024, Colombia/U.S., 19m
Spanish and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
The state of the American Dream is assessed via a sequence of vignettes that observe the alternatives accessible to Latin American immigrants of disparate social and financial standing arriving in modern-day Miami. Questions of id, financial alternative, and cultural assimilation play out towards the paperwork of immigration, as archival footage underscores the nation’s obsession with American individualism.
“In Retrospect / Rückblickend betrachtet”
Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhlutenko, 2025, Germany, 14m
German with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Inaugurated in 1972, Munich’s Olympia mall was constructed by Gastarbeiter (“momentary staff”). In 2016, a mass taking pictures motivated by xenophobic, far-right extremism occurred in its neighborhood. In Retrospect expertly makes use of archival footage, present photos, and Sohrab Shahid Saless’s Addressee Unknown (1983)—about an affair between a white German lady and a Turkish architect—to supply a chilling reflection on our political current.
“The Inhabitants“
Maureen Fazendeiro, 2024, France/Portugal, 41m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
The co-director of The Tsugua Diaries (2021) attracts inspiration from Chantal Akerman’s Information from Residence (1977) to mix photos of the tranquil Parisian suburb of her upbringing with letters from her mom, one of many few girls who defiantly assists the commune’s latest inhabitants: a Roma group.
Wednesday, April 9
6:00pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Enrique Pedráza-Botero
Thursday, April 10
8:30pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Enrique Pedráza-Botero
ND/NF 2025 Shorts Program II (86m)
Movies are listed within the order that they may display
“Life Story”
Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, 2024, U.S., 10m, 35mm
U.S. Premiere
Thinker and theorist McKenzie Wark (Hacker Manifesto, Raving) reads excerpts from an unique textual content that intertwines the historical past of the Left along with her personal corporeality. The digicam delicately traces her nude physique, laying naked the marks of her gender transition, as she muses on love, the making of 1’s self, and misplaced futures whereas the specter of loss of life looms massive.
“Crushed”
Camille Vigny, 2024, Belgium, 12m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
The haunting story of a poisonous relationship resonates with photos of wrecked vehicles racing in a demolition derby. In Crushed, Camille Vigny captures inventory vehicles as if they have been our bodies bearing trauma, making a transferring, cathartic expertise from reminiscences of a younger, abusive love driving round in circles.
“Maidenhair”
Julia Sipowicz, 2025, U.S., 7m
World Premiere
Winnie, a preacher’s daughter in Newbury, Ohio, spends her days tending to her horses and aiding along with her father’s congregation. When a younger Bible salesman pays a go to to her father’s church, a nascent sense of want is woke up in Winnie that leads her to the sides of her repression.
“Issues Hidden For the reason that Basis of the World”
Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis, 2025, Greece/U.S., 26m
Greek with English subtitles
North American Premiere
On this intimate, observational work of docu-fiction, the 9 remaining inhabitants within the village of Archia on the Greek island of Nisyros should relocate the stays of their ancestors to make room for these of the lately deceased. Steeled away from the confines of loss of life in a timeless city, the spirits of the lifeless co-mingle with the dwelling as an area priest leads the group’s procession to the highest of a mountain to carry out the ceremonial re-burial.
“What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Transfer”
Daphné Hérétakis, 2024, Greece/France, 31m
Greek with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Impressed by Greek poet Yorgos Makris’s 1944 proclamation that the Parthenon must be blown up, Daphné Hérétakis creatively blends and experiments with varied kinds—documentary, avenue interviews, and musical skits—to query the importance of historical past, cultural heritage, gentrification, and the disruption of native routines in a European capital because it accommodates mass tourism.
Friday, April 11
8:45pm at MoMA, Titus Theater 2 – Q&A with Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, Julia Sipowicz, Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis
Sunday, April 13
3:30pm at FLC, Walter Reade Theater – Q&A with Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, Julia Sipowicz, Kevin Walker, Irene Zahariadis