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Over its 35 years in New York City, NewFest has evolved, expanding to Brooklyn—screenings now take place at Nitehawk Prospect Park, BAM, SVA Theatre and The LGBT Center—adding a virtual streaming option as of 2020, and increasing the types of diversity in programming throughout the curated lineup.
The beloved fest returns to the city on Thursday, October 12 through Tuesday, October 24, for film debuts and screenings of celebrity-led projects, indie films, documentaries, international projects, shorts and more.
“The program, as always, has a really diverse slate in terms of genre and identities that are featured in over 130 screenings,” says David Hatkoff, NewFest’s Executive Director. “We’ve also doubled the amount of parties.”
A new festival lounge will be open daily at Moxy Chelsea that will host happy hours for filmmakers and community partners. The slew of events includes the annual opening and closing parties, plus a Queer Media Mixer (October 17) and Women’s Night Out Party (October 20).
And even with the option of sitting at home on the couch, NewFest audiences and screenings have grown in recent years. “We’re in community together, sharing these stories, we’ll really never go out of style,” says Hatkoff.
The festival launched in 1988 at the height of the AIDS crisis, when the LGBTQ+ community “was literally fighting for their lives and there was very little representation of LGBTQ+ stories,” says Hatkoff. ”Though the battlefronts for the community have shifted over the 35 years, the need and the importance of a space that was intentionally created for queer audiences, that puts queer stories at the center of the narrative has remained consistent.”
NewFest focuses on offering a platform and space for audiences to unite in the joy of community and queer storytelling, a mission as relevant in the post-COVID streaming era as the late 1980s.
Cinefile? Infrequent moviegoer? Anyone can enjoy NewFest’s plethora of options. Hatkoff recommends browsing the site to see what piques your interest. Every film has details and a trailer to help inform ticket purchases. “It's really a matter of sort of like what speaks to you,” Hatkoff says. “The exciting thing about film festivals is that there's so much room for discovery. We encourage people to take a chance.”
If you’re looking for familiar faces, Nyad, the biopic about swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), training to swim from Cuba to Florida with coach Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), all without a shark cage, is a featured film. Megan Stalter stars in Cora Bora, Rhianon Jones’ film about a struggling Millenial musician. Anne Hathaway performs in the screen adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen, and Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore co-star in May December.
Tickets to NewFest 2023
General admission tickets go for $19.50 per screening. Festival passes start at $350 for a Silver Pass, which includes 10 general admission tickets, plus access to the festival lounge and 30% off additional tickets.
A $95 virtual pass will allow access to screen a selection of films at home.
Day of rush tickets are available at the theater and will be sold once all ticketed guests and pass holders are seated. Volunteers are also still welcome to apply to help out and gain access to festival events.