New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2023

NewFest is New York’s largest presenter of LGBTQ+ film & media and the largest convener of queer audiences in the city. Their mission is to give voice and visibility to the wide scope of LGBTQ+ experiences through films and programs that entertain, educate, and empower.

The 2023 special 35th anniversary edition of NewFest’s flagship festival will remain hybrid and take place in theaters within New York, and virtually throughout the United States on NewFest’s on-demand platform. The festival’s in-person premieres will take place in Manhattan at SVA Theatre and The LGBT Community Center, and in Brooklyn at Nitehawk Prospect Park and The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Highlights:
Opening Night Film & Party
Thursday, October 12th at 7pm (SVA Theatre)
RUSTIN, directed by George C. Wolfe. (USA)
Star-studded biopic shines a long-overdue spotlight on Bayard Rustin, the extraordinary activist and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. New York City Premiere.

Closing Night Film & Party
Sunday, October 22th at 7pm (SVA Theatre)
ALL OF US STRANGERS, directed by Andrew Haigh. (UK)
A solitary writer discovers that his dearly departed parents have reappeared at his suburban childhood home.

Centerpiece Films:

• New York Centerpiece: World Premiere of QUEEN OF NEW YORK, directed by Emma Fidel
• U.S. Centerpiece: New York City Premiere of NYAD, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster
• International Centerpiece: New York City Premiere of MONSTER, Cannes award-winner from Japan, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Documentary Centerpiece: World Premiere of BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES: 25 YEARS LATER, the long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking 2005 doc THE AGGRESSIVES

– Academy Award® and Emmy Award nominated filmmaker Todd Haynes to receive this year’s Queer Visionary Award, followed by a special screening of MAY DECEMBER

-Advance Screenings of SHOWTIME’s limited series “Fellow Travellers” starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, and Season 2 of Max’s “Our Flag Means Death”, starring Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi

-Legacy highlights include New York Premiere 4K Restorations of Isaac Julien’s YOUNG SOUL REBELS (1991) and Stephen Winter’s CHOCOLATE BABIES (1996)

OPENING NIGHT FILM & PARTY
Thursday, October 12th at 7pm (SVA Theatre)

RUSTIN, directed by George C. Wolfe. (USA)
Star-studded biopic shines a long-overdue spotlight on Bayard Rustin, the extraordinary activist and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. New York City Premiere.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM & PARTY
Sunday, October 22th at 7pm (SVA Theatre)

ALL OF US STRANGERS, directed by Andrew Haigh. (UK)
A solitary writer discovers that his dearly departed parents have reappeared at his suburban childhood home.