New York Film Festival Reveals Currents Section For Its 60th Edition

Alongside the heavy hitting Spotlight section and its always exciting Main Slate, The New York Film Festival has officially announced their selections for their Currents section, a dazzling array of contemporary and experimental feature and short films screening as part of their 60th edition.

An often forgotten layer of the festival, Currents gives film lovers the opportunity to expand their typical moviegoing diet and experience singular, exciting works. “Each Currents lineup is an attempt to distill the spirit of innovation and playfulness in contemporary cinema,” says NYFF60 Artistic Director Dennis Lim. 

“There are familiar names here—including multiple filmmakers who will be known to NYFF and FLC [Film at Lincoln Center] audiences—as well as some electrifying new talents, all testing and stretching the possibilities of the medium.”

Several NYFF alumni will be presenting films this year, including João Pedro Rodrigues, whose “musical fantasia” Will-o’-the-Wisp will be the section’s Opening Night film. The film tells the story of a young prince who, to the shock of his royal family, decides to become a volunteer firefighter. 

Another notable alumni addition is Radu Jude, who blew audiences away with his brazen Golden Bear winner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn just last year. He returns to the festival with, The Potemkinists, a new short film revisiting the history of the Russian battleship that will screen with their soon-to-be-announced Revivals section. Is Battleship Potemkin on the menu for that section as well?

Other featured alumni include Bertrand Bonello (Coma), Alain Gomis (Rewind & Play), and Abbas Fahdel (Tales of the Purple House). 

The lineup also features several award-winning films from around the globe, including Daniel Eisenberg’s workplace triptych The Unstable Object II (Main Prize at FIDMarseille), Ruth Beckermann’s curiously unerotic Mutzenbacher (Berlinale Encounters Award for Best Film), and duo Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós’ hybrid film Dry Ground Burning (Cinéma du Réel Grand Prize).

The Currents section also sports nine short film programs this year, each one curating multiple short films into one abstract theme. Some of these themes include “Fault Lines,” “Field Trips,” and the admittedly not-abstract “New York Shorts,” highlighting stories from the festival’s home turf.

The New York Film Festival, hosted by Manhattan-based non-profit film society Film at Lincoln Center, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this fall. Along with a special “60th Anniversary” screening of James Gray’s Armageddon Time, NYFF will also be screening films at satellite venues across all five boroughs, making the festival accessible to several different communities. The festival runs between September 30th and October 16th, with more information to be found at filmlinc.org/nyff.

Full Currents Section:

Features

Opening Night
Will-o’-the-Wisp, dir. João Pedro Rodrigues
U.S. Premiere

The Adventures of Gigi the Law, dir. Alessandro Comodin
North American Premiere

Coma, dir. Bertrand Bonello
North American Premiere

The Dam, dir. Ali Cherri
U.S. Premiere

Dry Ground Burning, dir. Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
U.S. Premiere

Human Flowers of Flesh, dir. Helena Wittmann
North American Premiere

Mutzenbacher, dir. Ruth Beckermann
U.S. Premiere

Queens of the Qing Dynasty, dir. Ashley McKenzie
U.S. Premiere

Remote, dir. Mika Rottenberg and Mahyad Tousi
Preceded by A Short Story / Po Sui Tai Yang Zhi Xin, dir. Bi Gan
North American Premiere

Rewind & Play, dir. Alain Gomis
Preceded by Maria Schneider, 1983, dir. Elisabeth Subrin

Slaughterhouses of Modernity, dir. Heinz Emigholz
World Premiere

Tales of the Purple House, dir. Abbas Fahdel
North American Premiere

Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter, dir. Gustavo Vinagre

The Unstable Object II, dir. Daniel Eisenberg
U.S. Premiere

You Have to Come and See It, dir. Jonás Trueba
North American Premiere
Preceded by Becoming Male in the Middle Ages / Tornar-se um Homem na Idade Média, dir. Pedro Neves Marques
U.S. Premiere

Shorts

Program 1: Field Trips

Flora, dir. Nicolás Pereda
World Premiere

Underground Rivers / Los mayores ríos se deslizan bajo tierra, dir. Simón Velez
North American Premiere

Watch the Fire or Burn Inside It / Il faut regarder le feu ou brûler dedans, dir. Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel
U.S. Premiere

Aribada, dir. Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau and Natalia Escobar

Program 2: Fault Lines

Quarries, dir. Ellie Ga
North American Premiere

45th Parallel, dir. Lawrence Abu Hamdan
World Premiere

Tiger Strike Red, dir. Sophia Al-Maria
U.S. Premiere

Program 3: Action Figures

Fingerpicking / Diteggiatura, dir. Riccardo Giacconi
North American Premiere

Glass Life, dir. Sara Cwynar
U.S. Premiere

F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now, dir. Fox Maxy
U.S. Premiere

IF REVOLUTION IS A SICKNESS, dir. Diane Severin Nguyen

Program 4: Vital Signs

Exhibition, dir. Mary Helena Clark
World Premiere

Remembrance: A Portrait Study, dir. Edward Owens
Restored by Chicago Film Society, The New American Cinema Group, Inc./The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and the John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with the support of the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant Program and the Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER, dir. Jordan Strafer
World Premiere

NE Corridor, dir. Joshua Gen Solondz
World Premiere

Qualities Of Life: Living in the Radiant Cold, dir. James Richards
U.S. Premiere

Program 5: After Utopia

Adaptation, dir. Josh Kline
World Premiere

urban solutions, dir. Arne Hector, Luciana Mazeto, Minze Tummescheit, and Vinícius Lopes
North American Premiere

Life on the CAPS, dir. Meriem Bennani

Program 6: Inside Voices

Bigger on the Inside, dir. Angelo Madsen Minax
U.S. Premiere

The Sky’s In There, dir. Dani and Sheilah ReStack
World Premiere

Lesser Choices, dir. Courtney Stephens
World Premiere

Diana, Diana, dir. Kim Salac
World Premiere

It Smells Like Springtime, dir. Mackie Mallison
World Premiere

Into The Violet Belly, dir. Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi
World Premiere

Program 7: Ordinary Devotion

The Demands of Ordinary Devotion, dir. Eva Giolo
U.S. Premiere 

Renate, dir. Ute Aurand
North American Premiere 

Lungta, dir. Alexandra Cuesta

The Newest Olds, dir. Pablo Mazzolo
U.S. Premiere

Devil’s Peak, dir. Simon Liu
North American Premiere

Program 8: Time Out of Mind

Against Time, dir. Ben Russell

In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun, dir. Sylvia Schedelbauer
North American Premiere

What Rules The Invisible, dir. Tiffany Sia
U.S. Premiere

The Sower of Stars / El sembrador de estrellas, dir. Lois Patiño

Program 9: New York Shorts

Same Old, dir. Lloyd Lee Choi

Trust Exercises, dir. Sarah Friedland
World Premiere

29 Hour Long Birthday, dir. Mark Jenkin
World Premiere

Magic Ring, dir. Alex Ashe
World Premiere

Little Jerry, dir. Charlotte Ercoli

as time passes, dir. Jamil McGinnis
North American Premiere

Screening with a to-be-announced Revivals program
The Potemkinists / Potemkiniștii, dir. Radu Jude
North American Premiere