The Contenders, an end-of-the-year program of screenings that offers filmgoers the opportunity to see a wide spectrum of films made in the last 12 months that are contenders for the upcoming awards season, “cult classic” status, and/or lasting historical significance, as determined by curators in the Museum’s Department of Film.
Launching on November 14, this year’s eight-week run brings together more than 25 major studio releases and selections from the world’s top film festivals, including last summer’s Wall-E and The Dark Knight, and popular independent releases such as Frozen River. The Contenders continues through January 12, 2009, and is organized by Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator, and Sean Egan, Manager, The Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.
Although the significance of the films that are selected for The Contenders can be attributed to a variety of factors, from structure to subject matter, they share a resonance beyond their limited theatrical release or festival appearance.
“This series is a survey of the year’s most influential and innovative films, as opposed to a definitive list,” said Mr. Roy. “It’s for our visitors who want to see great cinema, including those movies they may have missed the first time around or can’t wait to see again.”
Among the works featured throughout the eight-week run of The Contenders are such popular releases as Jon Favreau’s Iron Man; Mike Leigh’s highly praised Happy-Go-Lucky; and Andrew Stanton’s animated summer hit Wall-E. Films that were released this year and drew devoted audiences, but may be less well-known to the general public, include James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire, a look at tightrope-walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, 1974 high-wire walk between the World Trade Center's twin towers; Milk, Gus Van Sant’s re-telling of the assassination of Harvey Milk, an openly gay activist and elected official in San Francisco who was assassinated in 1977; and Claude Chabrol’s A Girl Cut in Two, a black comedy centered around a TV weather girl and the two very different men who pursue her.
Several of the selections received their premieres at MoMA: Pere Portabella’s The Silence Before Bach had its world premiere at MoMA as part of a weeklong retrospective of the veteran Spanish filmmaker’s work; Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s Trouble the Water and Courtney Hunt’s debut feature Frozen River premiered during the 2008 New Directors New Film festival, copresented by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center; and Chris Smith’s The Pool, shot on location in Goa with a mostly nonprofessional cast, was presented during a weekend-long, mid-career retrospective of Smith’s work.
Several screenings will feature special appearances by filmmakers and directors, including the November 14 screening of Intimidad with filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, and the December 6 and 7 screenings of The Pool, which will be introduced by Chris Smith. The Contenders will also present the North American premiere of Je Veux Voir (I Want to See) (2008), directed and written by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, and starring Catherine Deneuve, on December 13. -- www.moma.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
