David Schwartz News

Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Julie Taymor will be the FIRST TIME FEST'S 2014 John Huston Award For Achievement In Cinema recipient, announced FTF Co-Founders Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward. Ms. Taymor will also be represented in the Fest's 'First Exposure' Retrospective Program where she will attend to present and discuss with the audience her first feature film, Titus.

Museum of the Moving Image will present a special evening with David Chase in conversation with Chief Curator David Schwartz about the groundbreaking HBO television series, following a screening of these two episodes.

Following last year's acclaimed first edition, FIRST TIME FEST is back, and it shows that the secondtime is even better. The Second Time Around for FIRST TIME FEST is set for April 3 - 7, 2014, and it will be based at their new home. NeueHouse (110 East 25th St.). NeueHouse will be the location for panels, workshops, selected film presentations, parties and the filmmaker lounge. Most screenings, including all the competition films, will take place at the AMC Loews Village 7 (11th St. & Third Ave.)

Museum of the Moving Image and The European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) will present Panorama Europe, from Friday, April 4 through Sunday, April 13, a showcase of 17 contemporary European feature films and one program of short films. Known as Disappearing Act for its first five years, the newly re-named festival continues the mission of showcasing vital European filmmaking as distribution remains challenging for foreign language films in the United States. Panorama Europe gives New York audiences access to what may be their only chance to see these acclaimed films from the festival circuit on the big screen or at all. This year's festival will take place at Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria and at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan. It was programmed by David Schwartz, Chief Curator at Museum of the Moving Image.

Joe Swanberg is the writer-director and occasional actor whose micro-budget feature films helped spark a movement of DIY filmmaking known as mumblecore. On March 1 and 2, 2014, Museum of the Moving Image will presents a weekend retrospective with this prolific American filmmaker, who will appear at screenings of six of his films in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater.

The Museum of the Moving Image's popular series See It Big! will turn its focus to the movie musical with a fourteen-film celebration of the genre, from today, January 24 through February 28, 2014. Musicals are, by their very nature, filled with spectacle. They are heightened forms of storytelling, in which the narrative is amplified by song and dance, where characters express their innermost feelings in the most extravagant ways imaginable. It is a genre that celebrates excess and stylization, and the best examples of the form can only be truly enjoyed... big!

First Look, Museum of the Moving Image's annual showcase for inventive new international cinema, returns for its third year with a program of 16 films from 10 countries, to be presented on weekends from today, January 10 through 19, 2014.

The Museum of the Moving Image's popular series See It Big! will turn its focus to the movie musical with a fourteen-film celebration of the genre, from January 24 through February 28, 2014. Musicals are, by their very nature, filled with spectacle. They are heightened forms of storytelling, in which the narrative is amplified by song and dance, where characters express their innermost feelings in the most extravagant ways imaginable. It is a genre that celebrates excess and stylization, and the best examples of the form can only be truly enjoyed… big!

First Look, Museum of the Moving Image's annual showcase for inventive new international cinema, returns for its third year with a program of 16 films from 10 countries, to be presented on weekends from January 10 through 19, 2014. First Look opens on Friday, January 10, with the U.S. premiere of Alexandre Rockwell's Little Feet, a charming and bittersweet tale of two young siblings on their own, starring Rockwell's own children Nico and Lana; all three will appear in person with the screening. Closing Night on Sunday, January 19, will be the U.S. premiere of Antonin Peretjatko's The Rendez Vous of Deja Vu (La fille du 14 Juillet), a colorful and freewheeling romantic burlesque, with shades of French New Wave and Monty Python, set amidst a beach vacation in France; Peretjatko will appear in person. Featured countries for other First Look films are Canada, Chile, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Peru, Spain, and the United Kingdom. All of the films have played to acclaim at international film festivals, and all are New York premieres and many are U.S. premieres. Many of the filmmakers will be present for post-screening discussions.

Museum of the Moving Image, working with a longtime Museum member, will present a rare big-screen showing of the 2007 Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, and Sam Shepard, with director Andrew Dominik in person. Arguably a cult favorite since its release, this masterful and magisterial film was described by Star-Ledger critic Stephen Whitty as an 'epic film that's part literary treatise, part mournful ballad, and completely a portrait of our world, as seen in a distant mirror.' The screening tonight, December 7, at 6:00 p.m. will take place in the Museum's Sumner Redstone Theater, with the post-film conversation moderated by Chief Curator David Schwartz.

Just as critics and cinephiles are unveiling their "Best of 2013" lists, Museum of the Moving Image is announcing the six titles selected for its now annual Curators' Choice series, screening during the weekend of January 3 through 5, 2014. The films, programmed by Chief Curator David Schwartz and Assistant Curator of Film Aliza Ma, are Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess, Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Pavel's Leviathan, Jem Cohen's Museum Hours, Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin, and Matias Piñeiro's Viola.

FIDMarseille, which takes place in early July in Southern France, is one of the world's most adventurous film festivals. Under the artistic direction of Jean-Pierre Rehm, it is a showcase for a myriad of groundbreaking documentaries and fiction films that showcase new approaches to reality. Museum of the Moving Image presents FIDMarseille Carte Blanche: A Weekend with Programmer Jean-Pierre Rehm, today and tomorrow, November 23 and 24, 2013. The program features more than a dozen films from established stars of world cinema such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming-liang, as well an emerging talents Mati Diop, Miguel Gomes, Marie Voignier, Salome Lamas, and others.

On Thanksgiving weekend, Museum of the Moving Image gives thanks to Julianne Moore, one of the most accomplished and compelling screen actresses of our time, with a six-film retrospective.

FIDMarseille, which takes place in early July in Southern France, is one of the world's most adventurous film festivals. Under the artistic direction of Jean-Pierre Rehm, it is a showcase for a myriad of groundbreaking documentaries and fiction films that showcase new approaches to reality. Museum of the Moving Image presents FIDMarseille Carte Blanche: A Weekend with Programmer Jean-Pierre Rehm, on November 23 and 24, 2013. The program features more than a dozen films from established stars of world cinema such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming-liang, as well an emerging talents Mati Diop, Miguel Gomes, Marie Voignier, Salomé Lamas, and others.

Museum of the Moving Image will present a trio of films by director James Toback, on the occasion of his latest film Seduced and Abandoned (2013), a quasi-documentary made with Alec Baldwin and shot at the Cannes Film Festival in the hopes of raising money for a film project. The Museum will screen Seduced and Abandoned, with personal appearances by Toback and Alec Baldwin, on November 13. Toback will also appear in person to present screenings of Black and White (1999) and his rarely shown documentary The Big Bang (1989) on November 10.

Museum of the Moving Image's ongoing series See It Big! presents classic and contemporary films on the big screen in the beautiful Sumner M. Redstone Theater. In November and December, the Museum will showcase 22 films photographed by some of the world's greatest cinematographers, including Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storaro, Vilmos Zsigmond, Nestor Almendros, Raoul Coutard, James Wong Howe, and more. The series, See It Big!: Great Cinematographers, runs from November 8 through December 29, 2013.

Museum of the Moving Image will present a trio of films by director James Toback, on the occasion of his latest film Seduced and Abandoned (2013), a quasi-documentary made with Alec Baldwin and shot at the Cannes Film Festival in the hopes of raising money for a film project. The Museum will screen Seduced and Abandoned, with personal appearances by Toback and Alec Baldwin, on November 13. Toback will also appear in person to present screenings of Black and White (1999) and his rarely shown documentary The Big Bang (1989) on November 10.

Celebrated in her home country and throughout Europe, but little-known in America, the Norwegian filmmaker Anja Breien makes feminist, politically aware fiction and documentary films. From tonight, November 1 through 9, 2013, Museum of the Moving Image will present Anja Breien: Games of Love and Loneliness, the first U.S. retrospective of Breien's work, featuring six features and a program of shorts, with the director in person for select screenings and for an opening reception.

As a tribute to Lou Reed (1942-2013), the iconic New York musician who died earlier this week, Museum of the Moving Image will present a screening of Lou Reed's Berlin, the 2007 documentary that captured Reed's live shows of his rediscovered concept album Berlin at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. The screening takes place on Saturday, November 2, 7:30 p.m., in the Museum's Redstone Theater. Program and ticket information is below.