The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art have announced the complete lineup today for the 43rd edition of New Directors/New Films, which runs March 19-30. This year’s festival will screen 27 international feature films and 13 short films.
“A festival like New Directors/New Films strives to be at once diverse and cohesive,” says Dennis Lim, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Director of Programming and co-chair of the 2014 ND/NF selection committee. “This year’s lineup represents a wide range of styles, voices, interests, and points of view, but it also amounts to a statement on what truly matters in world cinema today. These are filmmakers who are breaking new ground or reviving old forms, reinventing genres or inventing them from scratch — all vital and exciting in their own way.”
The opening night feature is Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” a Persian, black-and-white, noirish thriller that recently bowed at the Sundance Film Festival and is based on a graphic novel written by Amirpour about a young female vampire who stalks the streets of a fictional lonely Iranian ghost town. The closing night feature, “20,000 Days on Earth,” by visual artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, also had its premiere at Sundance, where it won directing and editing awards in the World Cinema Documentary category. The film follows a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musical and cultural icon Nick Cave as he is writing his 2013 album “Push the Sky Away.”
Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child” is the centerpiece selection and stars Jenny Slate in an uproarious yet serious-minded riff on reproductive rights. The film will be shown at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, New York, as well as at FSLC.
“ND/NF has always been proudly committed to international cinema at its most inventive and progressive,” says Jytte Jensen, Curator of Film, The Museum of Modern Art and co-chair of the 2014 ND/NF selection committee. “This year’s representation of 29 countries in our selection is a testament to that dedication. Whether looking from the ‘outside-in’ on a culture or event or creating their own immersive world for their stories, each film has a personal style and vision that marks its director as an important cinematic storyteller: talented, intrepid, resourceful, and committed.”
The 43rd New Directors/New Films lineup, with descriptions provided by the festival:
CENTERPIECE FILM
Obvious Child
Gillian Robespierre, USA, 2014, DCP, 83 min.
A girl walks into a bar…and starts telling jokes about her vagina and her boyfriend. But it turns out the joke’s on her: the boyfriend’s been sleeping with her friend, and he takes advantage of her public, extremely off-color verbal antics to dump her. Basting in misery (she’s also about to lose her job) and alcohol (with a gay wing-man on hand to enable her), she attempts to find solace in family, friends, more stand-up, and ultimately a casual hookup. What comes next (no spoilers here) represents a brave new frontier in comedy, and director Gillian Robespierre tackles it head-on, with side splitting results. Truly a “choice” comedy, the film features a star-making lead performance by Jenny Slate, who allows herself to laugh along with the joke called life. An A24 release.
Thursday, March 27, 9:00pm – MoMA PS1
Saturday, March 29, 3:00pm – FSLC
FULL ARTICLE
