The New York premiere of Leviticus, Adrian Chiarella’s chilling directorial debut about a small Australian town haunted by religious fanatics set on “curing” local boys of their queer urges, will open the 55th edition of New Directors/New Films next month.
The festival will close with the U.S. premiere of Rosanne Pel’s Donkey Days, a darkly comic portrait of two adult women relentlessly competing for their mother’s withheld affection.
The lineup of work from more than 25 countries showcases premieres and prizewinners from leading fests. It includes TIFF-premiering Erupcja, starring Charli XCX as a party girl facing the commitments of her 30s, and John Early’s feature debut Maddie’s Secret, which balances the trauma of a reemerging eating disorder with a scathing roast of social media.
ND/NF is a venture of Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art that aims to champion filmmakers “with distinctive visions and bold ideas.” It runs April 8-19 in NYC. Leviticus premiered in the Midnight section of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Donkey Days debuted at Locarno.
“We are thrilled to spotlight two distinctive new directors,” said La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA, and 2026 ND/NF Co-chair, calling the opening and closing works “startlingly different in tone yet united in emotional candor and fearlessness.”
They will be flanked by 24 features and 10 shorts, including one world premiere, 17 North American premieres, four U.S. premieres, and 12 New York premieres including Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers, which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Berlin selections include Forest High, winner of a Special Mention by the Perspectives section jury, Xinyang Zhang’s Panda, Viv Li’s Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest, and Kai Stänicke’s Trial of Hein, which won the Teddy Jury Award in the Perspectives section.
Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Variations on a Theme took the Tiger Award at Rotterdam. From Venice, Giulio Bertelli’s Agon is the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Critics’ Week. Vladlena Sandu’s Memory opened Venice Days, Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River premiered in the Orizzonti section, and Lana Daher’s Do You Love Me was a Venice Days special event.
Alexe Poukine’s Kika and Yuiga Danzuka’s Brand New Landscape premiered, respectively, at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week and the Directors’ Fortnight.
ND/NF Co-chair Dan Sullivan, Programmer, Film at Lincoln Center, said the lineup is replete with artists who, “to paraphrase Jean-Luc Godard—aren’t afraid to make political films nor to make films politically. Their curiosity and courage offer us something like a guiding light in our present darkness. Cinema has borne witness to most of recent history’s worst moments, and there’s something—maybe not comfort, but something like it—in knowing that the filmmakers of today and tomorrow won’t shy away from this immense responsibility.”
Directors showcased in past festivals include Pedro Almodóvar, Souleymane Cissé, Luca Guadagnino, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Agnieszka Holland, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Yorgos Lanthimos, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Julia Loktev, Kelly Reichardt, Steven Spielberg, Denis Villeneuve and Wong Kar Wai.
Films screen at either Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater or The Museum of Modern Art Titus theaters.
New Directors/New Films lineup
Opening Night: Leviticus
Adrian Chiarella, 2026, Australia, 88m
New York Premiere
Closing Night: Donkey Days
Rosanne Pel, 2025, Netherlands/Germany, 107m
German and English with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Agon
Giulio Bertelli, 2025, Italy/U.S./France, 100m
Italian and English with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Aro Berria
Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe, 2025, Spain, 102m
Basque and Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Brand New Landscape / 見はらし世代
Yuiga Danzuka, 2025, Japan, 115m
Japanese with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Chronovisor
Kevin Walker, Jack Auen, 2026, U.S., 100m
French, English, German, and Italian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Cold Metal / Frío metal
Clemente Castor, 2025, Mexico, 102m
Spanish with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Do You Love Me
Lana Daher, 2025, France/Lebanon/Germany/Qatar, 76m
French, Arabic, and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Erupcja
Pete Ohs, 2025, Poland/U.S., 71m
Polish and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Fantasy
Isabel Pagliai, 2025, France, 79m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Forest High / Forêt Ivre
Manon Coubia, 2026, Belgium/France, 102m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
If on a Winter’s Night / Khidki Gaav
Sanju Surendran, 2025, India, 100m
Malayalam and Hindi with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Kika
Alexe Poukine, 2025, Belgium/France, 104m
French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Maddie’s Secret
John Early, 2025, U.S., 98m
New York Premiere
Memory
Vladlena Sandu, 2025, France/Netherlands, 98m
Russian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Next Life
Tenzin Phuntsog, U.S./Mexico, 2025, 73m
English and Tibetan with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Panda / 傷寒雜病論
Xinyang Zhang, 2026, Singapore/Hong Kong, 146m
Nanjing dialect and Mandarin with English subtitles
North American Premiere
The Prophet / O Profeta
Ique Langa, 2026, Mozambique/South Africa/Qatar, 94m
Portuguese and Changana with English subtitles
New York Premiere
The River Train / El tren fluvial
Lorenzo Ferro, Lucas A. Vignale, 2026, Argentina, 75m
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Strange River / Estrany Riu
Jaume Claret Muxart, 2025, Spain/Germany, 105m
Catalan, German, and English with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Trial of Hein / Der Heimatlose
Kai Stänicke, 2026, Germany, 122m
German with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest / 东山飘雨西山晴
Viv Li, 2026, Germany/Netherlands, 85m
English, Chinese, and German with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Two Seasons, Two Strangers / 旅と日々
Sho Miyake, 2025, Japan, 89m
Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Variations on a Theme / Variasies op ’n Tema
Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar, 2026, South Africa/Netherlands/Qatar, 65m
Afrikaans with English subtitles
North American Premiere
ND/NF Shorts Program I
This program includes El Mahdi L Youbi’s Marseille, 14th July, James Paul Dallas’s Division, Conor Fay’s The Following Day, Renzo Cozza’s Time To Go, andEmma Hütt and Tina Muffler’s Unleaded 95.
ND/NF Shorts Program II
This program includes Ananth Subramaniam’s Bleat!, Gaël Kamilindi’s Taxi Moto, Mars Verrone’s Buckskin, Clément Pinteaux’s Only Angels, and Falcão Nhaga’s Sabura.