The Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look Festival returns for its 13th edition. Showcasing some of this year’s exciting new voices in American and international cinema, this year’s edition will introduce New York audiences to eclectic, innovative works from around the world. Taking place April 23 – May 3, it will feature numerous narratives and shorts; performances and experiments; and nonfiction. Over the years, First Look has showcased the works of renowned filmmakers such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Frederick Wiseman, Pedro Costa, Bi Gan, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, The Dardenne Brothers, Payal Kapadia, and many more. As most of these films have yet to be acquired for distribution, this may be a rare window of opportunity for local cinephiles to witness them on the big screen. Take a look below at 7 films to put on your watchlist!
With Frances McDormand and Joel Coen as executive producers, documentarian Robb Moss’ The Bend in the River is a time capsule that chronicles decades in the lives and adventures of his friends. Going back as far as 50 years, when they were hippie guides on the Colorado River, it follows these baby boomers as they transition into adulthood across time and the divergent paths they have forged. Moss also followed the same group of friends in his 2003 documentary The Same River Twice. Almost like a documentary counterpart to Boyhood and The Apu Trilogy, the changes these friends undergo over the years may stir memories of your own and leave you wondering how much you’ve changed.
Premiering at this year’s Sundance, Carousel has Chris Pine as you’ve never seen him before. Writer-director Rachel Lambert (Sometimes I Think About Dying) directs Pine in this slice-of-life drama as a newly-divorced dad living a simple, carefully constructed life as a doctor in Cleveland trying to care for his anxious teenage daughter (Abby Ryder Forston). Things begin to take a different direction when he reunites with his high school ex-girlfriend (Jenny Slate) as they bond over the past, common heartbreaks, and uncertainties over the future. The chemistry between Pine and Slate is quietly electric in Lambert’s portrait of connection and loneliness.
One of the funniest and most moving films that came out of Sundance this year is writer-director Ramzi Bashour’s Hot Water. This winning feature debut stars the always phenomenal Lubna Azabal (Incendies; The Blue Caftan) as a high-strung, fed-up Lebanese immigrant and single mother who still has a strong connection to where she came from and her family, who remain there. When her more carefree American-born son (Daniel Zolghadri, Funny Pages) gets expelled from high school, the two embark on a last-minute road trip across the American Midwest to California, where they butt heads, meet new faces, break cultural barriers, and begin to understand one another. This unconventional road trip dramedy will no doubt warm your heart and hopefully make you want to call your parents right after.
The name Humboldt has been etched into many places surrounding nature in the United States. In his documentary Humboldt USA, director G. Anthony Svatek examines the legacy of German scientist Alexander von Humboldt through stunning visuals and examines the ecological issues in a trio of locations named after him. From California’s Humboldt Redwoods to Nevada’s Humboldt County to Buffalo’s Humboldt Parkway, Svatek excels in capturing the uniqueness of both these locations and his subjects as they all try to find ways to care for their own changing environments. One question this film asks: When our surrounding ecosystems are changing for the worse, what can we as everyday people do to nurture them?
After breaking out with her moving trans immigrant drama Lingua Franca and directing a string of TV episodes, Isabel Sandoval returns to her native Philippines for her newest feature. Moonglow, closing out this year’s festival, is a romantic noir that stars Sandoval as a police officer in 1970s Manila, during Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, who is covertly stealing from the corrupt police chief to redistribute to the city’s underclass. When she is assigned to investigate her own crimes, she’s unexpectedly partnered up with said chief’s nephew (Arjo Atayde), with whom she shares a romantic past. This vision of a country’s troubled past may recall similar works such as The Secret Agent or The Lives of Others, to name a few. But Sandoval, who gave her previous feature the right touch of high stakes and sensuality, will hopefully give this intriguing noir her own signature touch. The director and actor will also give a lecture on Sunday, May 3, about the making of the film alongside cinematographer Isaac Banks, co-editor Daniel Garber, composer Keegan DeWitt, and producer Alemberg Ang. You can RSVP here.
We’ve all heard stories about refugees on the news, but never witnessed the experience up close and personal, such as the life shown in One In A Million. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Audience and Directing Awards at this year’s Sundance, directors Itab Azzam and Jack McInnes sensitively capture a decade in the life of a young Syrian refugee named Issra who fled the war-torn country with her family. As they settle in Germany, Issra evolves over the years from a girl to a woman as she tries to assimilate into European life, negotiate religion and traditions, and grapple with the pains of living in exile. Even as war and conflict continue to break out in this world, One In A Million is a necessary, intimate, and resilient document of growing up in a different world, the search for belonging, and how one builds a new life.
Visionary Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi brings her epic and intimate new drama to this year’s First Look, which examines the bonds humans have with nature across time. Silent Friend spans over a century across three different eras, shot in three different formats (16mm, 35mm, and digital). For this, she assembles a beautiful international cast that includes Tony Leung and Léa Seydoux as individuals whose lives are observed by a single large ginkgo tree in the old German university town of Marburg. For those who experienced the magic of Enyedi’s Oscar-nominated On Body and Soul, her newest feature here is a worthy companion piece that explores the meanings of connection and how it can also apply to the beautiful things that spring from nature.
See the trailer and poster for the 2026 edition of the festival below.
