Golden Lion winner “Happening” will open the 2022 New Directors/New Films Festival, Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art announced Tuesday.
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 ND/NF co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present to reflect on our collective humanity. Together, these films reaffirm the creative power of cinema to see, critique, and inspire the way we live.”
The festival will open with “Happening,” directed by Audrey Diwan. The film, which focuses on a young french college student in the 1960s who attempts to secure an illegal abortion, originally premiered at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, the highest honor of the Venice festival. New Directors/New Films will close with the world premiere of “The African Desperate,” the debut feature from Martine Syms, which follows 24 hours in the life of an art school student after she graduates from her MFA program.
“This year’s edition opens and closes with two memorable features, directed by Audrey Diwan and by Martine Syms, proving how essential cinema can still be, both as an art form and as a means to shake convictions on political, social, racial, and gender issues,” FLC senior programmer at large and ND/NF co-chair Florence Almozini said in a statement. “The committee is thrilled to showcase these intense and brilliant portraits, conveying distinct and singular female experiences and keeping open dialogues between artist and audience,”
Other notable films to screen at the festival includes Sundance debut “Nanny” from Nikyatu Jusu, Venice films “Pilgrims,” “Full Time,” “White Building” and Berlin Film Festival prizewinner “Robe of Gems.”
This year’s New Directors/New Films Festival will take place from April 20 to May 1. The festival will take place in New York City, with screenings at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center or the MOMA’s Titus 1 and Titus 2 theaters. View the complete lineup that will play at the festival below.
Features
“The African Desperate” dir. Martine Syms
“Album for the Youth” dir. Malena Solarz
“The Apartment with Two Women” dir. Kim Se-in
“Blue Island” dir. Chan Tze Woon
“The Cathedral” dir. Ricky D’Ambrose
“Children of the Mist” dir. Diễm Hà Lệ
“The City and the City” dir. Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas
“Dos Estaciones” dir. Juan Pablo González
“Father’s Day” dir. Kivu Ruhorahoza
“Fire of Love” dir. Sara Dosa
“Full Time” dir. Éric Gravel
“Happening” dir. Audrey Diwan
“Hot in Day, Cold at Night” dir. Park Song-yeol
“The Innocents” dir. Eskil Vogt
“Nanny” dir. Nikyatu Jusu
“Once upon a Time in Calcutta” dir. Aditya Vikram Sengupta
“Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle” dir. Arthur Harari
“Pilgrims” dir. Laurynas Bareiša
“Rehana” dir. Abdullah Mohammad Saad
“Riotsville, USA” dir. Sierra Pettengill
“Robe of Gems” dir. Natalia López Gallardo
“Shankar’s Fairies” dir. Irfana Majumdar
“Singing in the Wilderness” dir. Dongnan Chen
“Small, Slow but Steady” dir. Shô Miyake
“Talking about the Weather” dir. Annika Pinske
“White Building” dir. Kavich Neang
Shorts
“Astel” dir. Ramata-Toulaye Sy
“August Sky” dir. Jasmin Tenucci
“Crystalized Memory” dir. Chonchanok Thanatteepwong
“The Eternal Melody” dir. Niranjan Raj Bhetwal
“Five Minutes Older dir. Sara Szymanska
“Further and Further Away” dir. Polen Ly
“It’s Raining Frogs Outside” dir. Maria Estela Paiso
“Lili Alone” dir. Zou Jing
“Madhu” dir. Tanmay Chowdhary and Tanvi Chowdhary
“North Pole” dir. Marija Apcevska
“Suncatcher” dir. Kim Torres