The Contenders 2023

The Museum of Modern Art announces its selection of the best and boldest films of 2023 for the 16th annual edition of The Contenders, running November 10, 2023, through January 10, 2024.

Opening the series is The Taste of Things, which won director Trân Anh Hùng the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director. The film, which will be released in the United States on February 9, 2024, follows the love story of a cook (Juliette Binoche) and the gourmet she works for (Benoît Magimel). Trân Anh Hùng will introduce the film by video. Other notable screenings include: May December on November 11 (post-screening conversation with Todd Haynes, director), Past Lives on November 15 (post-screening conversation with Celine Song, writer/director), Anselm on December 7 (post-screening conversation with Wim Wenders, director), The Holdovers on December 9 (post-screening conversation Alexander Payne, director), Little Richard: I Am Everything on December 10 (post-screening conversation with Lisa Cortes, director), Passages on December 14 (post-screening conversation with Ira Sachs, director), and Priscilla on December 18 (post-screening conversation with Sofia Coppola, writer/director). 

Highlights of the 2023 lineup include: About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan), All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh), American Symphony (Matt Heineman), Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), Barbie (Greta Gerwig), El Conde (Pablo Larraín), Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki), Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania), Here (Bas Devos), Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese), Maestro (Bradley Cooper), Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam), Menus Plaisirs: Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman), Music (Angela Schanelec), Nyad (Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhellyi), Origin (Ava Duvernay), Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan), Orlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado), Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho), Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos), Property (Daniel Bandeira), Rotting in the Sun (Sebastián Silva), Rustin (George C. Wolfe), The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki), The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno), The Killer (David Fincher), The Pigeon Tunnel (Erroll Morris), The Teachers’ Lounge (Ilker Çatak), The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson), Totem (Lila Avilés), You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener), and Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing). 

The Contenders November schedule is currently available at moma.org/film. More titles will be announced in the coming weeks.

Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.

Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black, with major contributions from the Triad Foundation, Inc., The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, and by Karen and Gary Winnick.