The New Directors/New Films festival returns as a laboratory for first and second features, presenting films that generally arrive carrying the energy of discovery and risk. Over its long history the program has introduced audiences to a constellation of influential voices: names such as Chantal Akerman, Bong Joon Ho, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar Wai, Christopher Nolan and many others. This edition continues that tradition by gathering international debuts and singular mid-career turns that reflect global festival circuits and the restless curiosity of programmers.
Curators have pulled titles from major competitions and sidebars—from Cannes and Venice to Sundance, Locarno, Berlinale, Rotterdam, Toronto and San Sebastián—and assembled a program of 24 features and 10 shorts. Expect work that ranges from formally adventurous to quietly human, with departures into documentary montage, supernatural allegory, intimate domestic studies and lyrical road narratives. Below are curated pointers to films that reward attention and discussion.
Festival lineup and scope
The selection balance at this edition leans into both craft and voice: you will find films that interrogate embodiment, memory, community and faith, often through unconventional forms. Several pieces rely on archival montage or low-fi celluloid textures; others use minimalist structures like a triptych or extended single-location observation to create emotional intensity. The program’s breadth—24 features and 10 shorts—means there’s room for restless experimentation next to narrative cohesion, and many of these works debuted on international stages before arriving in New York. If you follow festival circuits, the program reads like a cross-section of cinema that prizes risk and serious questions over commercial polish.
Selected films to see
Bodies, discipline and obsession
Agon (Giulio Bertelli) examines physical extremes and training regimens with a cool formal eye that recalls contemporary films about athletic obsession; it feels clinical yet mesmerizes with carefully composed movement. In a different register of obsession, Maddie’s Secret (John Early) exploits the comedian’s knack for uncomfortable narcissism, centering an agoraphobic tenant whose unraveling is played for dark, often grotesque comedy—this is performance-driven work that leans into character excess. Meanwhile, Chronovisor (Jack Auen and Kevin Walker) treats a rumored device as a spectral object of inquiry: a scholar’s hunt becomes a ghost story shot on warm, grainy Super 16mm, where lighting and texture suggest a liminal zone between evidence and myth.
Community, memory and intimate archives
Aro Berria (Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe) stages a commune-like experiment among metalworkers, capturing a sense of communal ecstasy and social estrangement through long, immersive scenes that dramatize life beyond monogamy and routine. Do You Love Me (Lana Daher) compresses seven decades of Lebanese life into a playful, precise archival montage, transforming thousands of sources into 76 minutes that balance sorrow and everyday joy. Brand New Landscape (Yuiga Danzuka) follows estranged siblings into a charged reunion around a floral delivery and a public exhibition, exploring family distance through small, quietly explosive gestures. Memory (Vladlena Sandu) assembles childhood recollection—divorce, migration from Crimea to Grozny, and the shadow of regional conflict—into evocative tableaux that braid the personal and political.
Spiritual searches and quiet humanism
Forest High (Manon Coubia) uses a triptych rhythm to chart three women caretakers of a mountain hut, offering contemplative encounters and low-key drama in a remote alpine setting. If On a Winter’s Night (Sanju Surendran), supported by producer Payal Kapadia, centers a young married couple in Delhi whose affectionate silences and economic strain form the film’s emotional core. In The Prophet (Ique Langa), a Mozambican pastor’s crisis of faith and an encounter with a witch are rendered with a transcendental austerity that prioritizes interior states over plot movement. Trial of Hein (Kai Stänicke) returns to the theme of homecoming and altered identities, shaping its ensemble into a study of reconciliation under formal constraints. Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers continues the director’s delicate blending of meticulous craft and human compassion, while Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River turns a family road trip through Germany into a drifting, sometimes surreal exploration where minimalism tips into dream logic.
How to approach the festival
Plan screenings around the films that most align with your interests—whether you favor formal experimentation, political memory pieces, or character-driven dark comedy—and leave space for surprises. Many of these works play best in the communal theater setting, where New Directors/New Films encourages post-screening conversation and discovery. Practical note: New Directors/New Films at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art will run from April 8 through 19. Buy tickets to popular titles early, and consider pairing a heavier, archival program with a lighter, formally playful feature to balance your schedule.