Twentysomething moviegoers, they realized, had become the lifeblood of the festival.
I mean thats the dream, right?
Every cultural organization is worried about that.
(Clockwise from top left) ‘Queer,’ ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Nickel Boys,’ ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Happyend’Yannis Drakoulidis/Brookstreet Pictures/L.Karina Harris/Amazon/Courtesy/Magnify
Bolish has been workking with outgoing President Leslie Klainberg during a transition as the board recruits her successor.
Eventually, he said, We realized it was because they engaged, they were back at school.
And weve since heard from them.
Weve talked to them.
Weve seen that audience continually show up.
Theyre showing up to our year-round events.
FLC currently has more than 5,300 members.
It helps that moviegoing in NYC has been relatively healthy, says NYFF Artistic DirectorDennis Lim.
Nationally, box office revenue remains below pre-pandemic levels, but New York has lately over-indexed.
Annual box office and NYFF combined make up 30% of FLCs total annual revenue.
He said 18 of 33 filmmakers in the Main Slate are first-timers.
Of course, there are plenty of legends in the mix, among themPedro AlmodovarandSteve McQueen.
A second strand is Spotlight with Luca GuadagninosQueeras the gala film.
There are no splashy debuts as in recent years like UniversalsShe Saidand United ArtistsTillin 2022.
Theyre great to have but not mission-critical, Lim said.
We didnt have any last year either.
All our galas were either U.S. or North American premieres.
NYFF remains fundamentally an audience festival, he added.
NYFF issued a record 82,488 tickets in 2023.
The number will be a bit lower this year with seven fewer screenings.
The number of showtimes vary from year to year depending on the number and length of films.
Lim said last years dual Hollywood strikes meant some films that we were hoping would be ready were not … That said, I dont know that the pipeline was massively affected.
We saw more films [this year] than last.
The slate is heavy on international fare and documentaries, which werent impacted by the strikes.
What may have shifted is the rhythm of distribution.
We knew that these films would eventually be acquired, and they were … Its a challenging time for nonprofits, Bolish said.
Media companies are rethinking release strategies Bolish said.
And are they going to be underwriting nonprofit organizations?
Are they going to kind of continue to invest this way?
And that means you have to be kind of light on your feet.
