New Directors/New Films Sets 2026 Lineup

The New York premiere of Leviticus, Adrian Chiarella’s chilling directorial debut about a small Australian town haunted by religious fanatics set on “curing” local boys of their queer urges, will open the 55^th edition of New Directors/New Films next month.

The festival will close with the U.S. premiere of Rosanne Pel’s Donkey Days, a darkly comic portrait of two adult women relentlessly competing for their mother’s withheld affection.

The lineup of work from more than 25 countries showcases premieres and prizewinners from leading fests. It includes TIFF-premiering Erupcja, starring Charli XCX as a party girl facing the commitments of her 30s, and John Early’s feature debut Maddie’s Secret, which balances the trauma of a reemerging eating disorder with a scathing roast of social media.

ND/NF is a venture of Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art that aims to champion filmmakers “with distinctive visions and bold ideas.” It runs April 8-19 in NYC. Leviticus premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Donkey Days debuted at Locarno.

“We are thrilled to spotlight two distinctive new directors,” said La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and 2026 ND/NF Co-chair, calling the opening and closing works “startlingly different in tone yet united in emotional candor and fearlessness.”

They will be flanked by 24 features and 10 shorts, including one world premiere, 17 North American premieres, four U.S. premieres, and 12 New York premieres including Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers, which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Berlin selections include Forest High, winner of a Special Mention by the Perspectives section jury, Xinyang Zhang’s Panda, Viv Li’s Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest, and Kai Stänicke’s Trial of Hein, which won the Teddy Jury Award in the Perspectives section.

Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Variations on a Theme took the Tiger Award at Rotterdam. From Venice, Giulio Bertelli’s Agon is the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Critics’ Week. Vladlena Sandu’s Memory opened Venice Days, Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River premiered in the Orizzonti section, and Lana Daher’s Do You Love Me was a Venice Days special event.

Alexe Poukine’s Kika and Yuiga Danzuka’s Brand New Landscape premiered, respectively, at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week and the Directors’ Fortnight.

ND/NF Co-chair Dan Sullivan, Programmer, Film at Lincoln Center, said the lineup is replete with artists who, “to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard—aren’t afraid to make political films nor to make films politically. Their curiosity and courage offer us something like a guiding light in our present darkness. Cinema has borne witness to most of recent history’s worst moments, and there’s something—maybe not comfort, but something like it—in knowing that the filmmakers of today and tomorrow won’t shy away from this immense responsibility.”

Directors showcased in past festivals include Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Luca Guadagnino, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Agnieszka Holland, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Yorgos Lanthimos, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Julia Loktev, Kelly Reichardt, Steven Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve and Wong Kar Wai.

Films screen at either Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater or The Museum of Modern Art Titus theaters.

New Directors/New Films lineup

Opening Night: Leviticus

Adrian Chiarella, 2026, Australia, 88m

New York Premiere

Closing Night: Donkey Days

Rosanne Pel, 2025, Netherlands/Germany, 107m

German and English with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Agon

Giulio Bertelli, 2025, Italy/U.S./France, 100m

Italian and English with English subtitles

North American Premiere

Aro Berria

Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe, 2025, Spain, 102m

Basque and Spanish with English subtitles

North American Premiere

Brand New Landscape / 見はらし世代