The 25th annual NewFest, New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival will run from Friday, September 6th through Wednesday, September 11th, with a lineup of 15 narrative features, 4 documentaries, 31 shorts and other special events. For the third time in NewFest’s history, the festival is in partnership with the Film Society of Lincoln Center and screenings and panels will take place at Manhattan’s film mecca, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater and the JCC in Manhattan.
Dennis Lim, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Director of Cinematheque Programming, said, “The Film Society is delighted to welcome back NewFest and to continue our collaboration with Outfest. LGBT cinema has come a long way since this storied festival’s first edition, but as this year’s program suggests, it is no less vital today, and perhaps more diverse than ever.”
“There’s a lot to celebrate this year,” says Steve Mendelsohn, Co-Chair of NewFest’s Board of Directors. “It’s our 25th anniversary, and the recent Supreme Court victory over DOMA has everybody excited. The world has changed since 1987 and we are proud that NewFest has played a role in bringing so many important stories to audiences for a quarter of a century.”
LA-based LGBT media arts organization Outfest programmed and will help run this year’s event. Outfest and NewFest will form an official national organization next year.
Kicking off the festival is the New York premiere of Stacie Passon’s debut feature Concussion, produced by Rose Troche and starring Robin Weigert, Maggie Siff and Johnathan Tchaikovsky. A Sundance Film Festival favorite, Concussion explores a suburban lesbian’s erotic reawakening from happy housewife to high-class call girl. Closing the event will be the New York Premiere of Chris Mason Johnson’s acclaimed Test, winner of the Grand Jury Prize For Outstanding U.S. Narrative and Outstanding Screenwriting at 2013 Outfest Los Angeles. Set in the gay Mecca of San Francisco in the 80’s, Test portrays this uniquely exciting and harrowing era as young Frankie (real-life dancer Scott Marlowe) navigates his role in a modern dance company and his evolving relationship with fellow dancer Todd (the hunky Matthew Risch).
“This year’s line-up represents the maturity of LGBT storytelling with films like Concussion and Pit Stop that depict sophisticated relationships in unique settings,” said Kirsten Schaffer, Executive Director of Outfest. “As well as a strong International slate and a handful of films that push boundaries in form and content.”
James Franco is involved in two productions. He co-directed Interior. Leather Bar. with Travis Mathews, in which the two reimagine the 40 minutes of censored footage from the controversial 1980 S&M thriller Cruising, directed by William Friedkin. Franco also produced Kink, a documentary directed by Christina Voros about five San Francisco-based BDSM workers who are employed at the kink.com studios.
A handpicked selection of some of the best international LGBT films will also be shown, including the 2013 Teddy Award winner for Best Feature In the Name Of…, directed by Malgoska Szumowska and the US premiere of You and the Night, the libidinous 2013 Cannes debut from M83 bandmate Yann Gonzalez, who Variety proclaimed “may be the next Almodovar or Ozon”.
NewFest is sponsored by HBO.
Tickets on sale now to members of NewFest and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Tickets will go on sale to the General Public on Wednesday, August 21 at Noon. Tickets are $13; $8 for members of NewFest and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Special prices apply to the Opening and Closing Night screenings. Visit www.FilmLinc.com for complete information.
Complete Lineup (in alphabetical order)
Screenings will take place at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. 165 W.65th St, New York, NY 10023 (between Broadway and Amsterdam) and the JCC in Ma