‘Spencer’ to Open MOMA’s 14th Annual Contenders Film Series
The Museum of Modern Art announced the lineup for the 14th annual edition of The Contenders on Friday. The film series will run from Nov. 4 through Jan. 22, 2022, primarily in person with a select number of virtual screenings.
The Contenders will open with Pablo Larraîn’s “Spencer,” the Princess Diana biopic starring Kristin Stewart. Larraîn and Stewart will appear for a conversation after the screening. The closing night film will be Sebastian Meise’s “Grosse Freiheit” which, translating to “Great Freedom,” is set in postwar Germany and follows the relationship between Hans, a man imprisoned for being homosexual, and his cellmate Viktor, a convicted murderer.
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“This year’s Contenders lineup includes highly anticipated genre pics, new works by the most followed auteurs such as Jane Campion (‘The Power of the Dog’) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (‘Memoria’) and independent films that introduce emerging cinematic voices like Amalia Ulman (‘El Planeta’) and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson (‘Summer of Soul’),” said La Frances Hui, curator in the MOMA’s department of film. “These selections are exhilarating and we believe the audience will enjoy the opportunity to watch them on our big screen and interact with the many artists who will attend in-person.”
The lineup also includes Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” Radu Jude’s “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Wife of a Spy,” Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter,” Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness,” Bill Morrison’s “The Village Detective: A Song Cycle,” Rebecca Hall’s “Passing,” Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle,” Bruce LaBruce’s “Saint Narcisse,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds,” Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground,” Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe’s “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Eléonore Yameogo, An van Dienderen and Rosine Mbakam’s “Prism,” E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “The Rescue,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick, Tick… Boom!,” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Celine Sciamma’s “Petite Maman.”
More titles will be announced in the future. The Contenders November schedule is currently available at moma.org/film.
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