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Film at Lincoln Center, the nonprofit organization that programs the New York Film Festival, has named the British movie executive Daniel Battsek its next president.<\/p>\n
From 2016 until early 2024, Battsek, 66, was chairman of the British production company Film4, overseeing the financing of \u201cThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri\u201d (2017) and \u201cThe Banshees of Inisherin\u201d (2022), among other releases.<\/p>\n
Battsek will succeed Lesli Klainberg, who had led Film at Lincoln Center since 2014 before stepping down last year.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Battsek, who will take over in May, said the centrality of film in the New York City cultural landscape had always appealed to him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIn many other cities, including London, film is much further down the culture ladder than it is here,\u201d said Battsek, who was based in New York as president of Miramax Films before joining Film4. \u201cI love that cinema is seen as being on a level with opera and ballet and theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battsek\u2019s appointment comes amid an industrywide downturn as movie theaters struggle to attract an audience that has yet to return to prepandemic numbers<\/a> and are increasingly contending with competition from streaming services.<\/p>\n While he acknowledged those pressures, he also sounded a note of optimism: There\u2019s been rising interest in independent films, Battsek said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the independent releases like \u2018Anora’ that have really, really done well both theatrically and on streaming, all of that builds toward the potential to capture a growing audience, as opposed to trying desperately to hold onto a shrinking audience,\u201d he said, referring to this year\u2019s best picture winner at the Oscars.<\/p>\n Founded in 1969, Film at Lincoln Center operates on an annual budget of $15.5 million with 85 employees, and has more than 5,300 members<\/a>. Formerly known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center, it dropped the \u201csociety\u201d part of its name in 2019 in an effort to broaden its appeal and reach a wider audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It is perhaps best known for the New York Film Festival, where \u201cAnora,\u201d the Sean Baker sex worker dramedy, played last fall along with \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d and \u201cNickel Boys.\u201d And the organization jointly programs the New Directors\/New Films<\/a> series with the Museum of Modern Art. But Film at Lincoln Center is also a year-round home for first-run indie releases; smaller events like Rendez-Vous With French Cinema; and the magazine Film Comment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year, Film at Lincoln Center recorded the highest ticket sales in its history for the New York Film Festival and its highest grosses in a decade at its year-round screens.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s in a really good place,\u201d Battsek said. \u201cThe pandemic, like with many other forms of entertainment that involve people going out, was really, really hard, and it\u2019s taken time to recover from that. But the New York Film Festival has gone from strength to strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Battsek has a track record of championing new work. At Film4, which he joined as director in 2016 before being promoted to chairman in 2022, he oversaw the production of the Holocaust drama \u201cThe Zone of Interest,\u201d the Emma Stone-led black comedy \u201cPoor Things\u201d and the metaphysical melodrama \u201cAll of Us Strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n Before joining Film4, he served as the president of National Geographic films, where he acquired and developed projects that included the Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary \u201cRestrepo,\u201d which followed a company of American soldiers in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n He also led Miramax for five years after Harvey Weinstein left in 2005<\/a>, signing off on or acquiring Oscar-winning films like the docudrama \u201cThe Queen\u201d (2006), the neo-western crime thriller \u201cNo Country for Old Men\u201d (2007) and the Paul Thomas Anderson epic \u201cThere Will Be Blood\u201d (2007).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What does he hope to accomplish at Film at Lincoln Center?<\/p>\n \u201cSean Baker captured it very well when he accepted his Oscar<\/a> and made such a point of talking about why seeing movies in a theater is a communal experience that you don\u2019t get at home,\u201d Battsek said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s something that we can be the vanguard for.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a growing appreciation, understanding and connection of younger audiences with cinema,\u201d he continued, \u201cand not just the \u2018Minecraft\u2019 movie<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n