“Erupcja” dir. Pete Ohs (2026)

Film at Lincoln Center & Roxy Cinema via 1-2 Special – Opens April 17

While traveling through Warsaw with her partner, a woman rekindles a connection with someone from her past, stirring dormant emotions and destabilizing her present life. Ohs traces how memory and proximity can blur boundaries between nostalgia and desire.

“With its Warsaw setting, French New Wave-inspired aesthetic, and techno-pulse reminiscent of a Danny Boyle film, ‘Erupcja’ (Eruption) plays like a modern arthouse pastiche from Eastern Europe.” – Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review 

For fans of: chance encounters, emotional ambiguity, “Lost in Translation,” texting someone you shouldn’t

English 

“Wasteman” dir. Cal McMau (2025)

Quad Cinema via Sunrise Films – Opens April 24

McMau crafts a tense, character-driven portrait of survival following a man who fixates on meeting the son he’s never known, while shifting power dynamics inside prison threaten to derail his fragile hopes.

“An energetic, urgent and damning assessment of our prison crisis, Wasteman marks Cal McMau as an exciting new homegrown director.” – John Nugent, Empire Magazine

For fans of: prison dramas, moral crossroads, clenched-jaw tension, Andrea Arnold

English 

“Omaha” dir. Stephen Cole Webley (2025)

IFC Center via Greenwich Entertainment – Opens April 24

A cross-country trip takes on unexpected weight when a young girl begins to sense that her family’s spontaneous journey carries deeper, more troubling motives. Webley builds a slow-burn coming-of-age story shaped by discovery, unease and the shifting meanings of home.

“Intimate in its scope, yet emotionally monumental, this debut feature by director Cole Webley (…) resonates for how spontaneously the interactions seem to unfold, as if sparked by reality in front of the camera.” – Carlos Aguilar, Variety

For fans of: road movies, “Paris, Texas,” Chloé Zhao, “Aftersun,” Kelly Reichardt, staring out the car window

English 

“No Picnic” dir. Philip Hartman (1986)

Film Forum via Film Desk – Opens April 17

Set in a pre-gentrified East Village, Hartman’s black-and-white indie follows a down-on-his-luck jukebox operator drifting through the neighborhood in search of a mysterious woman in a striped dress. Anchored by David Brisbin’s performance, the film doubles as a time capsule of a vanished downtown scene.

“One movie about the East Village that gets it right. … A swan song to a languishing New York tribe.” – Manohla Dargis, Village Voice

For fans of: indie grit, the 1980s, Jim Jarmusch, black coffee

English 

“Our Land (Nuestra Tierra)” dir. Lucrecia Martel (2025)

Film Forum via Strand Releasing – Opens May 1

Acclaimed Argentine director Lucrecia Martel turns to nonfiction to examine the killing of an Indigenous leader and the legal battle that followed, weaving courtroom footage, testimony and sweeping landscapes into a layered account of resistance and erasure. 

“A slow-burning, increasingly incensed unraveling of a horrific murder case underpinned by colonialist privilege and prejudice (…) with steadily rising emotional impact and a long view of Latin American history that transcends any true-crime trappings.” – Guy Lodge, Variety

For fans of: political documentaries, investigative storytelling, “The Act of Killing,” Patricio Guzmán, Joshua Oppenheimer

Spanish with English Subtitles 

“Pauline at the Beach” dir. Éric Rohmer (1983)

Roxy Cinema on 35mm via Janus Films – Opens April 16

Set along the Normandy coast, Rohmer’s sunlit story follows a teenager observing the romantic entanglements of the adults around her, where shifting alliances and conflicting desires reveal the illusions people maintain about love.

“effortlessly witty, effervescent (…) comedy of romantic manners about six civilized people, each of whom works stubbornly, and at cross purposes, to enlighten someone else about the true nature of love. It’s a sunny month in the country.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times

For fans of: romantic misalignment, talky French cinema, “Call Me by Your Name,” eavesdropping, “It’s complicated”

French with English subtitles

“The Long Goodbye” dir. Robert Altman (1973)

Metrograph on 35mm via Park Circus – April 24

Now considered a classic of 1970s cinema, a laid-back private detective agrees to help his old friend get to Mexico, only to return to Los Angeles and find himself under suspicion in the aftermath of his wife’s death. With a drifting, off-kilter rhythm, Altman treats the mystery less as a puzzle to solve than as something slippery and almost absurd.

“‘The Long Goodbye’ … attacks film noir with three of (Altman’s) most cherished tools: Whimsy, spontaneity and narrative perversity.” – Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com

For fans of: neo-noir, detective driven mysteries, “Chinatown,” Paul Thomas Anderson 

English 

“Amrum” dir. Fatih Akin (2025)

Quad Cinema via Kino Lorber – Opens April 17

On a remote island at the end of World War II, a young boy helps sustain his family through demanding daily labor, only to discover that the return of peace carries its own unsettling consequences. Akin juxtaposes sprawling landscapes with creeping tension, capturing innocence at the edge of upheaval.

“Akin has fashioned a rare film that relies on the power of simplicity to tell a story that is anything but simple.” – Steve Pond, TheWrap

For fans of: untraditional coming-of-age, “All the Light We Cannot See,” Michael Haneke, “Jojo Rabbit,” Terrence Malick

German with English subtitles

Series and Festival Highlights:

The Grandmaster: Tony Leung

Film at Lincoln Center – April 29 – May 7

“Marking his first return to FLC in more than 25 years, this career-spanning retrospective gives audiences the chance to rediscover, on the big screen, why the world continues to fall for Tony Leung time and time again.” (filmlinc.org)

Showing: “Silent Friend,” “Bullet in the Head,” “Hard Boiled,” “Chungking Express,” “Cyclo,” “Happy Together,” “Flowers of Shanghai,” “In the Mood for Love” with “In the Mood for Love 2001,” “Hero,” “Internal Affairs,” “2046,” “Lust, Caution,” “Red Cliff,” “The Grandmaster (Hong Kong Cut)”

New York On The Verge: Four Films By Michael And Christian Blackwood

Spectacle – April 2-29

“Michael Blackwood directed and produced over 150 films beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 2010s, while his brother Christian directed and produced around 50 additional films himself. (…)  While most of the Blackwoods’ films remain underseen, the four films in this series about New York have never before screened theatrically in the city that inspired them. Each is unique in style — experimental, vérité, essay film, ‘expository’ — but they are all inherently city films. … These four films highlight the Blackwoods’ love for the city and its people and are full of new views of our great, messy, corrupt, beloved city.” (spectacletheater.com)

Showing: “Broadway Express,” “New Yorkers,” “Summer in the City,” “Empire City”

We’re Making A Movie!

Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park/Williamsburg – April 29 – May 7

“Innovative filmmaking captured in iconic documentaries and imagined with ensemble casts that send up the process, WE’RE MAKING A MOVIE! is a series that explores the portrayal of low budget productions in a variety of forms.” (nitehawkcinema.com)

Showing: “Cecil B. Demented,” “The Woman Chaser,” “Nickelodeon,” “Put the Camera on Me,” “Living in Oblivion,” “Ed Wood”

New Directors/New Films

Film at Lincoln Center – April 8-19

“Presented by Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, the 55th edition of New Directors/New Films features festival winners and favorites from Cannes, Sundance, Locarno, Venice, Berlinale, Rotterdam, Toronto, San Sebastián, and more, with directors in person.” (filmlinc.org)

Showing: “Aro Berria,” “Leviticus,” “Donkey Days,” “Agon,” “Erupcja,” “Kika,” “Maddie’s Secret,” “Strange River,” shorts programs and more.

New York African Film Festival 2026

Film at Lincoln Center – May 6-12

“Since its inception in 1993, the festival has been at the forefront of showcasing African and diaspora filmmakers’ unique storytelling through the moving image. … NYAFF will spotlight 14 contemporary and classic feature films and 25 short films.” (filmlinc.org)

Showing: “Promised Sky,” “The Eyes of Ghana,” “Afrotōpia,” “Barni,” “Caméra Arabe,” “Caméra d’Afrique,” “En résidence surveillée,” “The Heart Is a Muscle,” “Lace Relations,” “My Father and Qaddafi,” “Rumba Royale,” “So Long a Letter,” “The Soul of Africa,” “When Nigeria Happens” and three shorts programs.

All the Rage: The Films That Inspired Lee Sung Jin’s BEEF

Paris Theater – April 8-19

“In this all-star lineup of some of cinema’s greatest beefs, simmering tensions, rivalries, and conflicts between strangers, friends, enemies and lovers abound. (…) Lee drew from a rich cinematic history of uncovered secrets and explosive betrayals when crafting this hotly anticipated new season.” (paristheaternyc.com)

Showing: “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Burn After Reading,” “Cache,” “Force Majeure,” “The Handmaiden,” “The Informant!,” “Like Crazy,” “Michael Clayton,” “Phantom Thread,” “Revolutionary Road,” “The Second Mother,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”