Each year, Museum of the Moving Image presents First Look, its festival of new and innovative international cinema, with a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. The 14th edition runs March 12–16 with a lineup of 38 films from 21 countries, of which twenty are features, including four world premieres and 23 U.S. or North American premieres.
The festival will open and close with two scintillating debut features, Durga Chew-Bose’s lush, heart-wrenching Bonjour Tristesse and Giovanni Tortorici’s deft, dashing Diciannove.
These screenings bracket the festival’s showcase centerpieces:
- Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958–1989, the latest, must-see epic from archival composer Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape)
- When the Phone Rang, an incantatory autofiction from Serbian filmmaker Iva Radivojević
- The provocative Zodiac Killer Project, First Look alumnus Charlie Shackleton’s recent winner of the NEXT Innovator Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Filmmakers for all the showcase presentations noted above will appear in person. As filmmaker participation is central to the ethos of First Look, the festival recently announced nearly 40 guests who will appear to debut new films, or participate in work-in-progress presentations as part of Working on It, which runs concurrent with the festival, March 12–14.
Other international award-winners at the festival include:
- Miguel Coyula’s Chronicles of the Absurd (IDFA 2024 Envision Competition, Best Picture)
- Omar Mismar’s A Frown Gone Mad (IDFA 2024, Outstanding Artistic Contribution)
- Yoko Yamanaka’s Desert of Namibia (Cannes 2024, FIPRESCI Prize)
- So Yo-hen’s Park (Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Grand Prize)
- Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc’s Tata (2024 Astra Film Festival, Best Director)
- Dominique Cabrera’s The Fifth Shot of La Jetée (Dok Leipzig 2024, Golden Dove).
In addition to Shackleton, the Museum also welcomes back First Look veterans:
- Elementary, the latest from documentary master Claire Simon
- Measures for a Funeral, Sofia Bohdanowicz’s engrossing gothic fever dream
- New works by Ben Balcom, James Edmonds, Kevin Jerome Everson, Eva Giolo, Ewelina Rosinska, and more—many of which are presented in the Illuminations avant-garde film program
As part of the Museum’s Science on Screen initiative, Brigid McCaffrey’s Sanctuary Station and Gerard Ortín Castellví’s Bliss Point will make their New York debuts.
For schedule, descriptions, and tickets, visit movingimage.org/firstlook2025.
First Look presenting sponsors are Lismore Road and MUBI.
