Last month, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art announced the first wave of films selected to play the 44th Annual New Directors/New Films festival, including acclaimed festival titles like “The Fits” and “Neon Bull.” With a little under a month to go before the event, the duo have now unveiled the official lineup, and it includes a handful of the hottest breakouts from Sundance last month.
Opening the festival will be Babak Anvari’s debut feature “Under the Shadow,” the Iranian horror film about a mother and daughter haunted by a sinister presence during the Iran-Iraq War. Indiewire’s Eric Kohn hailed the film as the “first great horror movie of the year” after its Sundance premiere. Closing the festival will be Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson,” while other festival hits hits like “Weiner” and “Evolution” will also screen.
“So much of the conversation about the state of cinema skews negative these days. Think of New Directors/New Films as an antidote to that pessimism,” said Film Society of Lincoln Center Director of Programming Dennis Lim in an official statement. “This year’s lineup is full of new and emerging voices who are taking big risks and pushing boundaries, often against considerable odds, and rethinking the possibilities of the art form, in ways big and small. If this is even a small glimpse into the future of cinema, there are many reasons to be hopeful.”
