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Curators’ Choice 2023

Dec 26, 2023 — Jan 28, 2024

The Museum’s annual survey of some of our favorite films of the year returns with a surfeit and diversity of great cinema—and television. Curators’ Choice focuses on work that premiered theatrically (or was initially broadcast) during the calendar year 2023. Unlike in other year-end surveys and annual awards programs, our impulse is expansive in terms of the kinds of films we’re choosing to elevate, and inclusive of the full year of offerings. Alongside justly praised fall releases like Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Zone of Interest are earlier, unjustly overlooked titles such as Nothing Lasts Forever, Beau Is Afraid, Godland, R.M.N., and Unrest. We’re celebrating both the glory of big screen cinema with 70mm presentations of Oppenheimer and May December in 35mm, and the best of smaller screen storytelling with a special screening of Succession Season 4, Episode 3: “Conor’s Wedding,” with director Mark Mylod in attendance. We’re also enjoying thematic rhymes among films of varied genres and styles. On Sunday, January 14 we’ll present two extraordinary films set in the kitchens of master chefs: Frederick Wiseman’s epic documentary, Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros and Tran Anh Hung’s immersive period drama The Taste of Things. And from January 27–28 we’ll present two masterful works of nonfiction set in Parisian hospitals: Claire Simon’s Our Body and Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica. Throughout, we’ll be welcoming filmmakers to discuss their work, with more to be added closer to the screening dates.

Organized by Curator of Film Eric Hynes and Associate Curator of Film Edo Choi, with contributions by Michael Koresky and Sonia Epstein

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Past Films in Series

A man holds from behind a woman wearing a frilly costume

Poor Things
A mother lies with her new baby on her chest, as the woman looks down at her baby and smiles

Our Body
Two women sit near an oil derrick outside, looking up and smoking, at night

Dry Ground Burning
A doctor in silhouette points at a chart of purple organisms

De Humani Corporis Fabrica

Director in Person
Two women stand on a city street in the afternoon sun and look up to the sky in different directions

Showing Up–With Kelly Reichardt

Director in Person
A woman wearing a flannel shirt holds her young son in her arms sitting on a couch

A Thousand and One
A woman in sunglasses stands on the street, surrounded by photographers

Ferrari
A brunette woman with short hair looks out a window

Asteroid City
A young man sits over a sewing machine in a drab clothing factory

Youth (Spring)
Two women look in a mirror, one holding makeup, one holding a pad of paper

May December—with Production Designer Sam Lisenco in Person
A woman looks out the window from the back seat of a car, with neon city lights reflected in the window

Return to Seoul
A woman and man in 19th century clothes talk to each other outside amidst a green forest setting

Unrest
An animated image of a young boy and an older man in a big nose sitting at a table looking at each other with annoyed expressions; the older man clutches a coffee mug, the biy sits with a tea cup.

The Boy and the Heron
A woman dressed all in red sits on the top of a biplane

Scarlet
Four men sit around a table in tropical-colored clothes with dense green jungle leaves outside the window

Pacifiction
In an old-fashioned candlelit dining room, a man bows over a seated woman, both holding delicate cocktail glasses.

The Taste of Things
A group of people in chef uniforms smile as they pick herbs from trees

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
A closeup of a man inspecting a diamond with tweezers in front of a magnifying glass

Nothing Lasts Forever

Director in Person
A group of native American women sit on a blanket on the ground, the second from the left holding a hand fan, looking off with a sly interested expression

Killers of the Flower Moon
A man and woman stand outside in a park looking up at the sky, wearing coats

The Eternal Memory

Director in Person
A man in sunglasses and a fedora sits in the back of a car looking straight ahead with a serious expression

The Killer
A man wearing a coat sits on a bed turning his head towards a naked man on the other side of the bed, turned away

Passages

Director in Person
A man and a boy in the woods, surrounded by bare trees and leaves on the ground; the man aims a rifle off screen

R.M.N.
A group of people in chef uniforms smile as they pick herbs from trees

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
Three people sit around a dinner table talking to each other and eating with a Christmas tree behind the man who sits at the head of the table

The Holdovers

Director in Person
Three people hug each other with eyes closed in dark clothes, a woman in between two men

Succession, Season 4, Episode 3: “Connor’s Wedding”

Director in Person
A large family dressed in 19th century clothes stands in front of a house being built amidst a rocky, green landscape, as though posing for a photo

Godland
A group of people, children and adults, in bathing suits by a beautiful idyllic lake, sitting in the grass

The Zone of Interest
A man and woman sit at a table with flowers on it having dinner and facing each other

Fallen Leaves
A man and woman stand with a snowy mountain backdrop, she faces forward hm backward

Anatomy of a Fall

Director in Person
A man in a suit and fedora stands next to a man in military uniform against a vast desert background

Oppenheimer in 70mm
An elderly man with a long white beard and wearing a floppy hat looks off-screen

Beau Is Afraid

Director in Person
A man in a suit and fedora stands next to a man in military uniform against a vast desert background

Oppenheimer in 70mm
A man in a suit and fedora stands next to a man in military uniform against a vast desert background

Oppenheimer in 70mm
A man covers his face with his fedora as he walks down a hallway of reporters taking photographs in a black and white image

Oppenheimer
A man covers his face with his fedora as he walks down a hallway of reporters taking photographs in a black and white image

Oppenheimer