Film At Lincoln Center Sets Virtual Cinema Lineup In COVID-19 Fundraising Effort

Film at Lincoln Center has revealed a slate of April and May “openings” in its upcoming FLC Virtual Cinema.

The streaming rentals, a mix of festival titles, commercial releases and catalog fare, range from $10 to $12, some with member discounts. Half of all proceeds will benefit the storied New York film organization.

During the lockdown of COVID-19, with the disease disproportionately affecting New York City, film and the rest of Lincoln Center’s artistic and cultural offerings have taken a significant hit. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, is now reported to be tens of millions of dollars in the hole after canceling its season. FLC presents a year-round repertory program, new specialty film releases and events like the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.

New releases slated to arrive over the next four Friday’s include Albert Serra’s Liberté, a New York Fest selection from last fall; a new 2K restoration of Nanni Moretti’s Caro Diario and Hlynur Pálmason’s psychological thriller A White, White Day. Also on the schedule are three standouts from this year’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival, usually a major spring event at FLC: Quentin Dupieux’s  Deerskin, Christophe Honoré’s Cannes prize-winner On a Magical Night and Cédric Klapisch’s Someone, Somewhere.

Holdovers titles currently playing in Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema include Béla Tarr’s seven-hour Sátántangó; D.W. Young’s The Booksellers; Moretti’s documentary Santiago, Italia; Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s Bacurau; Pedro Costa’s  Vitalina Varela; and Corneliu Porumboiu’s thriller The Whistlers.

While some parts of the country are actively talking about being just days or weeks away from a return to moviegoing, Lincoln Center and other New York film venues face a much more uncertain road ahead.

“While the cinema experience and physical screenings remain our long-term priority at Film at Lincoln Center, it is incredibly important for us to continue engaging with our audience during this closure,” said Film at Lincoln Center Director of Programming Dennis Lim. “In the coming weeks and months, we will be making available in our Virtual Cinema a wide-ranging mix of new releases, recent festival favorites, and repertory titles that movie lovers in New York and elsewhere will be able to enjoy from the safety and comfort of their own homes. Our programming exists to bring people and films together, and we hope to continue doing so with our Virtual Cinema initiatives.”