Film at Lincoln Center has today announced the official Talks lineup for the 64th New York Film Festival, and it’s a doozy. The NYFF64 Talks program seeks to complement the festival’s film slate “with a diverse lineup of wide-ranging conversations with renowned auteurs, emerging filmmakers, industry craftspeople, and special guests.”

This year’s festival runs September 25 – October 12, and you can catch up on its massive slate right here.

For the festival’s sixth annual Amos Vogel Lecture, the festival will welcome Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, director of Main Slate selection “All of a Sudden.” The Amos Vogel Lecture was, per the festival, “founded in 2021 to honor the pioneering film programmer, author, and NYFF co-founder, and is delivered by an artist or thinker who embodies the subversive spirit of Vogel’s cinephilia.”

The Deep Focus Talks, which feature in-depth dialogues with festival filmmakers, includes “Paper Tiger” director James Gray, in conversation with Martin Scorsese; Lee Chang-dong (“Possible Love”); Mike Leigh (“Tender Loving Care”); Valeska Grisebach (“The Dreamed Adventure”); and Ava DuVernay (“14th”).

This year’s selection of Crosscuts, pairing filmmakers across festival sections, genres, and styles, includes conversations between Andrew Haigh (“A Long Winter”) and Ira Sachs (“The Man I Love”); Pedro Almodóvar (“Bitter Christmas”) and Sofia Coppola (“Making Marie Antoinette”); and Alain Gomis (“Dao”), Arie Esiri, and Chuko Esiri (“Clarissa”).

There are also roundtable chats on offer, along with two Film Comment events, and a variety of free talks. Talks are organized by Devika Girish and Madeline Whittle, in collaboration with Dennis Lim.

Secure tickets to paid Talks with Passes, limited quantities on sale now. NYFF64 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 15 at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date. Become an FLC Member by August 28 to secure NYFF64 pre-sale access and discounted tickets year-round.

Tickets for all free Talks and events will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning one hour prior to each event at the box office. Tickets are limited to one per person, subject to availability. For those unable to attend, select recordings from these events will be available online on the Film at Lincoln Center Podcast and Film at Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel at a later date.

Check out the full lineup of this year’s Talks, with all language provided by the festival.

NYFF64 Talks

Talks take place at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.) or Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 W 65th Street)

THE 2026 AMOS VOGEL LECTURE: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

In 2021, to mark the centenary of Amos Vogel, the pioneering film programmer, author, and co-founder of the New York Film Festival, NYFF inaugurated the Amos Vogel Lecture, to be delivered annually by an artist or thinker who embodies the subversive spirit of Vogel’s cinephilia and brings it into conversation with the present and future of cinema.

For the sixth Vogel Lecture, NYFF is proud to welcome Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose latest feature, “All of a Sudden,” screens in the Main Slate. Set in France, and featuring dialogue in French, Japanese, and English, the film expands from a chance cross-cultural encounter between two women—the director of an elder care facility in Paris, played by Virginie Efira, and a theater director, played by Tao Okamoto—into a gentle yet profound meditation on the very nature of human connection. Synthesizing concerns Hamaguchi has pursued across his illustrious career, such as fate and agency, and performance and authenticity, the movie epitomizes Vogel’s description of cinema as “a place of magic where psychological and environmental factors combine to create an openness to wonder and suggestion.” Saturday, October 3 at 1:30pm – Walter Reade Theater

Deep Focus

In-depth dialogues with festival filmmakers and their creative collaborators

James Gray, in Conversation with Martin Scorsese

With NYFF64 Opening Night selection “Paper Tiger,” James Gray returns to the setting of much of his oeuvre—the outer boroughs of New York City—for a gripping drama about two brothers (Miles Teller and Adam Driver) who embark on a Gowanus Canal clean-up project that lands them in the snares of the Russian mob. A thriller about the shadowy economic and political forces that underpin the lives of ordinary people, the film is, for all its genre flourishes, defiantly human-scaled—attuned to the gritty texture of 1980s Brooklyn, to American dreams (and illusions) of upward mobility, and to the strength of familial bonds in the face of despair. NYFF is excited to welcome Gray and Martin Scorsese—himself a legendary chronicler of New York’s underworlds and underclasses, and a vocal admirer of Gray’s work—for a wide-ranging discussion of Gray’s career and filmography. Saturday, September 26 at 2:30pm – Walter Reade Theater

Lee Chang-dong

Eight years after his widely acclaimed thriller “Burning” (NYFF56), the great Lee Chang-dong makes his long-awaited return with “Possible Love,” an intricately layered drama about two women: documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, who is married to a wealthy businessman, and the working-class Mi-ok, whose husband was laid off from his last job and brutally beaten by the police during a labor strike. When Ye-ji decides to turn her camera on Mi-ok’s family, the chasms of class—and the inevitable power imbalances of nonfiction filmmaking—emerge in a brilliant narrative of simmering resentments, shifting allegiances, and sexual tensions. NYFF is thrilled to welcome Lee for an in-depth conversation about the new film and his long career of making movies that pierce the heart of contemporary South Korea, laying bare the scars of personal trauma and socioeconomic grievance. Monday, September 28 at 4:45pm – Francesca Beale Theater

Mike Leigh (Supported by Deadline)

British auteur Mike Leigh’s follow-up to the astounding “Hard Truths” (NYFF62) continues his career-long preoccupations with the lives of England’s working class and the relationships that endure—or break—in the face of precarity. True to its title, “Tender Loving Care” is a drama composed of gestures of compassion, extended by two social workers toward their clients amid the gutting of the welfare state; two friends toward each other as they confront the trials of being single, middle-aged working women; and a wife and daughter toward the family’s patriarch, as old age gets the better of him. Leigh has said that “Tender Loving Care” might be his final film, which would make it a tremendous capstone to a remarkable oeuvre. NYFF is honored to host him for an extended conversation reflecting on his rigorously collaborative directorial practice, the creative partnerships that have shaped his work, and his steadfast commitment to the project of building an emphatically humanist cinema. Tuesday, September 29 at 4:00pm – Walter Reade Theater

Free Talk: Valeska Grisebach

With her fourth feature, “The Dreamed Adventure,” German director Valeska Grisebach reasserts her status as one of the most slyly skilled and original filmmakers of our times. In the nine years since the release of “Western” (NYFF55), Grisebach has employed her rigorous research, vérité methods, and collaboration with nonprofessionals to craft yet another textured narrative set at the borders between nations, genres, and modes. Here she follows an archaeologist who returns to her Bulgarian hometown of Svilengrad, near Turkey, for a dig, and finds herself embroiled in a lawless and patriarchal world of mob bosses, old flames, and murky capital. Grisebach will join us for an extended conversation delving into her exhaustive and improvisatory process, her recalibrations of genre cinema, and how she finds and works with her extraordinary actors. Wednesday, October 7 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Free Talk: Ava DuVernay

Ten years ago, at NYFF54, Ava DuVernay premiered her epochal documentary “13th,” which argued that loopholes in the U.S. Constitution’s abolition of slavery led to today’s mass incarceration of Black Americans. In response to our distressing new reality, DuVernay has created a thrillingly expansive sequel of sorts, which passionately and persuasively details how the tenets of the 14th Amendment, ratified post–Civil War, are now under systematic attack. With a body of work spanning film and television, narrative and documentary cinema, real-life subjects and fictional worlds—and her independent distribution company ARRAY, dedicated to championing artists from underrepresented backgrounds—DuVernay has accrued an impressive track record of leveraging artistry as a means of speaking truth to power. NYFF is pleased to welcome DuVernay for an in-depth discussion looking back on this career-long mission to harness art’s capacity to effect change, and probing cinema’s role in an era of selective and distorted realities. Thursday, October 8 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Crosscuts

Conversations between filmmakers across festival sections, genres, and styles

Free Talk: Andrew Haigh & Ira Sachs

Over the last three decades, filmmakers Ira Sachs and Andrew Haigh have continuously refined and reinvented the contours of 21st century queer cinema, attending to the lived experiences of their gay protagonists with equal parts transcendent lyricism and emotional precision. For their respective NYFF64 Main Slate selections “The Man I Love” and “A Long Winter,” each director mounts a remarkably tender, searching inquiry into the complications of performing masculinity in the face of grief and death, capturing the private rhythms and quiet raptures of queer love as it unfolds against the backdrop of a richly imagined period setting. Join Sachs and Haigh as they reflect on the multifaceted legacy of the 1990s New Queer Cinema, the expressive functions of naturalism and melodrama, and the rhetorical challenges of dramatizing untold histories of queer life for a contemporary audience. Tuesday, September 29 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Pedro Almodóvar & Sofia Coppola (Sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter)

Two films in the NYFF64 lineup examine the process of artistic creation up close, if from different vantage points. With Main Slate selection “Bitter Christmas,” his 24th feature film, Pedro Almodóvar reflects on the methods and relationships that have underpinned his filmography with ruthless candor and sparkling humor; the metacinematic movie involves two nested stories, each featuring a filmmaker who mines personal lives for art to dazzling and prickly ends. Meanwhile, Spotlight selection “Making Marie Antoinette,” shot by Eleanor Coppola and finished after her death by her daughter, Sofia Coppola, looks back at the making of the 2006 film that cemented the latter’s status as a bona fide auteur. Join Almodóvar and Coppola—both singular creators who have successfully elevated style to the level of substance—for a conversation exploring their kindred thematic preoccupations around gender, memory, intimate relationships, and the slippery interplay of fact and fiction. Monday, October 5 at 3:00pm – Walter Reade Theater

Free Talk: Alain Gomis & Arie and Chuko Esiri

NYFF64 Main Slate selection “Dao,” directed by French-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis, captures the intricate rites and rituals of an extended family spread across two continents—at a memorial in Guinea-Bissau and a wedding in Paris. Also in the Main Slate, Arie and Chuko Esiri’s “Clarissa,” a contemporary Nigeria-set adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” follows a family’s preparations for a celebration across two different time periods, simultaneously tracing the uneasy coexistence of two different social worlds in Lagos, separated by class and colonialism. Rendering the texture of lived experience with deeply felt performances and breathtaking attention to detail, both films surface the political within the personal, revealing how the pressures of aspiration and assimilation catalyze profound private reckonings for those left to grapple with the legacies of colonialism. Monday, October 5 at 7:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Roundtables

Panel discussions that connect the festival to the themes of the moment

Free Talk: Seeing Stars

In 2026, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the first Oscar for Achievement in Casting, an overdue gesture of recognition for a historically overlooked craft that is integral to the collaborative process of realizing a director’s holistic vision, requiring a keen eye for actorly talent, chemistry, and complementary sensibilities. In celebration of this milestone, NYFF is pleased to convene a panel of casting directors whose ingenuity and instincts are on virtuosic display across the sterling ensemble casts featured in NYFF64, including Markus Schleinzer (“Rose”), Allison Estrin (“A Statement”), and more. Sunday, September 27 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Free Talk: Making the Cut

Across genres, styles, and modes of production, the work of the film editor remains one of the least visible but most essential elements of cinematic storytelling, producing a vast range of expressive effects through the careful manipulation of rhythm, emphasis, and pacing. This panel of practitioners from across the NYFF64 lineup, including Ted Fendt (“Foreign Travel”), Anne de Mare and Lynn True (“Once Upon a Time in Harlem”), and more will explore the craft of film editing and the complex ways in which the editor’s creative contributions come into contact with the labor of directors, cinematographers, and others. Moderated by Jeffrey Wolf, ACE. Organized in collaboration with American Cinema Editors. Thursday, October 1 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Free Talk: NYFF Currents and The Edges of Cinema

To mark the September 2026 publication of her provocative new collection “The Edges of Cinema: Essays on Twenty-First Century Film Culture” (Columbia University Press)—the introduction to which features an extended account tracing the evolution of NYFF’s avant-garde and experimental film programs—scholar and critic Erika Balsom will lead a panel discussion featuring filmmakers from the NYFF64 Currents lineup considering the recent histories and possible futures of alternative filmmaking practices, and reflecting on the state of cinema at the margins. Sunday, October 4 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Film Comment Live is sponsored by Criterion, home to the best in classic and contemporary cinema from around the world—streaming on the Criterion Channel and available in definitive physical editions from the Criterion Collection.

Free Talk: Film Comment Live: Sex in the Cinema

Several films—both old and new—across this year’s NYFF lineup push the boundaries of depictions of sensuality and desire on screen, posing provocative questions for the current cinema landscape, where sex has become a divisive subject. This panel, led by Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, will explore films like “The Devils,” “The Drift,” “At Night,” “The Unknown,” and others to discuss what thrills and terrifies us about sexuality on screen. Tuesday, October 6 at 6:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Free Talk: Film Comment Live: Festival Report

As the festival draws to a close, a group of critics gathers together for a spirited wrap-up discussion with Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute about their highlights from the NYFF64 selection. Thursday, October 8 at 4:00pm – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Special Events

NYFF Trivia Night (Sponsored by MUBI)

Do you want a chance to win tickets to sold-out screenings? The New York Film Festival is proud to welcome back Cinephile for our fifth year of NYFF Trivia Night events during the festival at the EBM Amphitheater! Featuring a mix of movie trivia and other popular Cinephile games like Six Degrees, Filmography, and Inglorious Basterd, the evening is a trivia night like no other.

Hosted by Cinephile: A Card Game creator Cory Everett and co-hosts Jordan Raup (associate director of marketing at Film at Lincoln Center and co-founder/editor-in-chief of The Film Stage), Dan Mecca (co-founder of The Film Stage and co-host of The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast), and Conor O’Donnell (co-host of The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast), the events will feature multiple trivia rounds including NYFF history and beyond, with chances to win tickets to this year’s festival and more prizes. Come meet and mingle with your fellow movie buffs for an evening of festival fun. There’s no need to bring Cinephile to participate—only your movie-loving brain is required.

Sunday, September 27 at 8:00pm
Tuesday, September 29 at 8:00pm
Sunday, October 4 at 3:00pm
Tuesday, October 6 at 8:00pm