Film at Lincoln Center has unveiled the Currents program for the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF63), running September 26 through October 13 across Lincoln Center and venues throughout the city. The section features 16 feature films and 24 shorts spanning 28 countries, showcasing filmmakers who are redefining cinematic language with inventive, boundary-pushing work.
Currents complements the Main Slate with a focus on formal experimentation and emerging voices. Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director, described the lineup as “a showcase of the boundless possibilities of cinematic language,” noting that the program employs everything from resurrected analog technologies to cutting-edge AI, 3D rigs, and deconstructed image-making.
The Currents Centerpiece is the U.S. premiere of Mare’s Nest by Ben Rivers, a post-apocalyptic road movie exploring a world ruled by children. Other highlights include Alexandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf, filmed entirely on a vintage Sony Ericsson phone, and Victor Van Rossem’s toward a fundamental theory of physics, constructed with a multi-lens Time Slice–inspired rig. Animation is also prominently featured, from Jodie Mack’s stroboscopic Lover, Lovers, Loving, Love to Whammy Alcazaren’s CG experimentation in Water Sports and Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki’s debut feature Bouchra.
Sociopolitical themes resonate throughout the program. Films interrogate exile, displacement, and national histories, including Tsai Ming-liang’s Back Home, Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza, and James Benning’s Little Boy, which critiques U.S. militarism. Queer perspectives appear in Bouchra, Lucio Castro’s Drunken Noodles, and shorts such as Yace Sula’s As Told by a Corpse and Maryam Tafakory’s Daria’s Night Flowers. Several selections offer radical approaches to adaptation, including Radu Jude’s Dracula, Rivers’ interpolation of a Don DeLillo play, and Alejo Moguillansky’s playful Pin de Fartie, riffing on Beckett.
Currents will be screened at Lincoln Center and across New York at Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island, AMC Bay Plaza in the Bronx, BAM in Brooklyn, and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. The program is curated by Dennis Lim, with committee members Aily Nash, Rachael Rakes, and Tyler Wilson.
NYFF63 is presented in partnership with Rolex and supported by a roster of festival chairs and supporters. Currents selections are included with Festival Passes, which are on sale now, while single tickets become available September 18. The festival continues its mission to celebrate the most significant global cinema, providing a platform for visionary artists reshaping the future of film.