New York Film Festival Marks 60th Anniversary
variety.comAndrew Barker Senior Features Writer In September 1963, the first ever New York Film Festival was held in Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, and it counted as something of an experiment, an early test case as to whether the sort of serious, artistically inclined fests that were quickly becoming established in Europe could find real purchase stateside.
The inaugural lineup included Luis Buñuel’s “Exterminating Angel,” Roman Polanski’s debut, “Knife in the Water,” and Yasujirō Ozu’s swan song “An Autumn Afternoon.” According to a Film Comment report at the time, the inaugural fest sold more than 20,000 tickets before a single film had unspooled.
Not bad for a first time out. As the New York Film Festival approaches its 60th annual iteration, taking place from Sept. 30-Oct.
16, plenty has changed, but core elements of the institution remain in place six decades later. The festival still calls Lincoln Center its home base, although it has recently expanded into pop-up screenings in the remaining four boroughs of the city.
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