Film at Lincoln Center Chooses Daniel Battsek as Next President

Film at the Lincoln Center, the non -profit organization that programs the New York Film Festival, has appointed the manager of the British film Daniel Battsek his next president.

From 2016 until the beginning of 2024, Battsek, 66, was president of the British production company Film4, supervising the financing of “Three advertising billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) and “The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022), among other releases.

Battsek will happen Lesli Klainberg, who had guided the film at the Lincoln Center since 2014 before resigning last year.

In an interview, Battsek, who will take over in May, said that the centrality of the film in the Cultural Landscape of New York City had always appealed to him.

“In many other cities, including London, the film is much lower in the scale of culture than it is here,” said Battsek, who was home to New York as president of Miramax Films before joining Film4. “I love the fact that cinema is seen as a level with work, ballet and theater.”

Battsek’s appointment comes in the midst of a recession throughout the sector while cinemas struggle to attract an audience that has yet to return to the prepandemic numbers And they compete more and more with the competition of streaming services.

While he recognized those pressures, he also played a note of optimism: there was a growing interest in independent films, Battsek said.

“If you look at the independent versions as a” anore “that have really done well both the theatrically and on streaming, all this is based on the potential to capture a growing audience, instead of desperately trying to retain a falling audience,” he said, referring to the best images of this year’s images at the Oscars.

Founded in 1969, the Lincoln Center film operates with an annual budget of $ 15.5 million with 85 employees e has more than 5,300 members. Previously known as the film Society of Lincoln Center, he dropped the part of the “society” of his name in 2019 in an attempt to expand his charm and reach a wider audience.

It is perhaps better known for the New York Film Festival, where “Anore”, Sean Baker’s dramatic sex, played last autumn together with “The Brutalist” and “Nickel Boys”. And the organization jointly programs the New directors/new movies Series with the Museum of Modern Art. But the film at the Lincoln Center is also a home for the whole year for the indie versions in the first place; smaller events such as Rendez-Vous with French cinema; and the magazine Movies like.

Last year, the Lincoln Center film recorded the highest ticket sales in its history for the New York Film Festival and its most gross in a decade in the screens throughout the year.

“I think it’s really in a great place,” Battsek said. “The pandemic, as with many other forms of entertainment that involves the people who came out, was really, really difficult, and we wanted time to recover from that. But the New York Film Festival has always gone stronger.”

Battsek has a new job track. In Film4, who joined the director in 2016 before being promoted president in 2022, supervised the production of the drama of the Holocaust “The Zone of Interest”, the black comedy led by Emma “Poor Things” and the metaphysical melodrama “All of us unknown”.

Before joining Film4, he was president of National Geographic Films, where he acquired and developed projects that included the documentary “Restrepo”, appointed to Oscar, who followed a company of American soldiers in Afghanistan.

He also led Miramax for five years After Harvey Weinstein started in 2005Sign or acquire Oscar winning films such as the document “The Queen” (2006), The newborn criminal thriller “No Country for Old Men” (2007) and the epic of Paul Thomas Anderson “There Will Be Blood” (2007).

What do you hope to make the film at the Lincoln Center?

“Sean Baker caught him very well When he accepted his Oscar And he made a point of talking about why watching movies in a theater is a common experience that is not achieved at home, “Battsek said.” And I think it’s something we can be the avant -garde.

“There is a growing appreciation, understanding and connection of the younger audience with cinema,” he continued, “and Not only the “Minecraft” film. “