63rd New York Film Festival Revivals Announced

Film at Lincoln Center announces the Revivals selections for the 63rd New York Film Festival. Expanding the traditional canon, Revivals celebrates works that have been restored, preserved, or digitally remastered. Featuring rediscovered gems and influential rarities, this selection highlights 12 films that have been acclaimed for their artistic innovation and cultural significance or that were underappreciated in their time but offer fresh relevance for today’s audiences.

Presented by Film at Lincoln Center in partnership with Rolex, NYFF63 takes place September 26 through October 13 at Lincoln Center and in venues across the city. 

Secure your tickets with Festival Passes, limited quantities on sale now with final discounts through today, August 14. Single tickets go on sale September 18 at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders.

This year’s Revivals notably boasts two major Indian films of the 1970s: the recently completed director’s cut of Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975), the biggest action-adventure film ever made in India, and a glorious restoration of Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), a fully dimensional portrait of a generation of young Indian men that deserves to be counted among Ray’s crowning achievements.

Making use of new research and recently discovered materials, Queen Kelly (1929) is a sumptuous reconstruction of Erich von Stroheim’s unfinished silent-era epic. The restoration of Mamoru Oshii’s haunting Angel’s Egg (1985) is a major event for anime fans and cinephiles alike (and is one of two Japanese films in this year’s Revivals lineup). Howard Brookner’s documentary Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars (1985) follows the great theater artist Robert Wilson (who died in July at age 83) during his creation of an epic 12-hour opera for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The section also includes T’ang Shushuen’s The Arch (1968), a pioneering work of Hong Kong independent cinema that serves as an overdue reintroduction of a groundbreaking female director.

Several of this year’s Revivals selections are notable for their continued social and political relevance. Yasuzo Masumura’s elegant masterwork The Wife of Seisaku (1965) is a fierce critique of militarism, rigid gender roles, and social norms in prewar Japan. The Razor’s Edge (1985), by Lebanese war correspondent–turned–filmmaker Jocelyne Saab, offers a vivid and arresting portrayal of life during wartime. Flora Gomes’s Mortu Nega (1988), a milestone of African cinema set during the end of Guinea-Bissau’s War of Independence, remains as politically urgent and emotionally resonant now as ever.

Two restorations making their world premiere are a 2K restoration of Mary Stephen’s Ombres de soie (1978), a fascinating early work by a filmmaker who would go on to edit films by Éric Rohmer, among many others, and a 4K restoration of Henry Jaglom’s Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983), a comedic portrait of midlife romance in 1980s New York. Rounding out the selection is another undersung entry in the annals of American independent filmmaking, Ossie Davis’s vital social drama Black Girl (1972).

The Revivals section is programmed by Florence Almozini, Dan Sullivan, and Gina Telaroli in collaboration with Dennis Lim.

NYFF63 Revivals is supported by Anne-Victoire Auriault.

NYFF63 is generously supported by Festival Co-Chairs Susan and John Hess, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Imelda and Peter Sobiloff, and Nanna and Dan Stern; Vice Chairs Susannah Gray and John Lyons, and Tara Kelleher and Roy Zuckerberg; and Supporters Hillary Koota Krevlin and Glenn Krevlin, Ronnie Planalp, and Ari Rifkin.

The New York Film Festival is an annual celebration of the most significant films from around the world. Since its inception in 1963, NYFF has played a pivotal role in shaping film culture, presenting a curated selection of bold and remarkable works by acclaimed directors alongside emerging talents.

Secure your tickets with Passes, limited quantities on sale now with final discounts through today, August 14. NYFF63 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, September 18 at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date. Become an FLC Member by August 29 to secure NYFF63 pre-sale access and discounted tickets year-round. NYFF63 Press and Industry accreditation is now open through August 18.

Explore the NYFF63 lineup. The Talks section and more will be announced soon. Sign up for NYFF updates for the latest news.

Revivals Films & Descriptions

Angel’s Egg / 天使のたまご
Mamoru Oshii, 1985, Japan, 73m
Japanese with English subtitles
New York Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Angel’s Egg. Courtesy of GKIDS.

Now recognized as a landmark work of animation, Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg is a cryptic, allegorical masterpiece, a hypnotic collage of signs and symbols, enigmatic ideas and overwhelming emotions. Inspired in part by the work of Andrei Tarkovsky and made in collaboration with legendary illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, Angel’s Egg is set in a nameless, ravaged land. A young girl scours the ruins of an abandoned city searching for food, while transporting a large egg she believes contains an angel. She then encounters a young man who wishes to crack the egg open. But the plot is, in a sense, neither here nor there: The central action of Angel’s Egg is Oshii and Amano’s astounding imagery, conjuring the vastest of sci-fi dystopias and provocative biblical motifs. Haunting, curiously intimate, and boldly experimental, Angel’s Egg is perhaps Oshii’s most personal work, and a crucially important film in anime history. A GKIDS release. 

4K restoration supervised by Mamoru Oshii. Colorist Noboru Yamaguchi. Mix Supervisor Kazuhiro Wakabayashi. Sound Effects Restoration Kaori Yamada. Digital Restoration Yoko Arai, Kensuke Nakamura, Eiji Yamataka, Tajima Onodera. Presented by Tokuma Shoten Publishing.

The Arch / 董夫人
T’ang Shushuen, 1968, Hong Kong, 95m
Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles
New York Premiere of New 4K Restoration

The Arch. Courtesy of M+.

A pioneering work of Hong Kong cinema, T’ang Shushuen’s self-financed debut feature—produced and released when the broader Chinese film industry was almost completely dominated by men—was among the first independent films to break out and garner international acclaim. Set in 17th-century China, the film follows its titular protagonist (Lisa Lu, who won a Golden Horse Award in 1971 for her performance) as she finds her heart torn between her beloved daughter and the younger man who has awoken her dormant desires. An emotionally magisterial portrait of the plight of women in Chinese society, The Arch is a film of striking visual richness and distinctive rhythms, achieved by T’ang through two notable collaborations: it was shot by Subrata Mitra (best known for his work with Satyajit Ray and Merchant-Ivory), and edited by the great documentarian Les Blank.

The film was restored in 4K by M+, Hong Kong, in 2025, from a 35mm release print preserved at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and Pacific Film Archive, and a 35mm release print preserved and scanned at the BFI National Archive. Conformation, restoration, and color grading were undertaken at Silver Salt Restoration.

Black Girl
Ossie Davis, 1972, U.S., 35mm, 97m
New York Premiere of Newly Restored 35mm Print

Black Girl. Courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Actor and activist Ossie Davis’s third feature as director, adapted from J. E. Franklin’s popular off-Broadway play, stars Peggy Pettitt as Billie Jean, a misunderstood young Black woman attempting to build a new life by becoming a dancer. Billie Jean lives with her janitor mom, Mama Rosie (Louise Stubbs), along with her older half-sisters, their children, her grandmother, and her grandmother’s boyfriend. The stellar cast, including Claudia McNeil, Brock Peters, and Davis’s wife Ruby Dee, dig deep in every scene, creating a fiercely honest world and a poignant intergenerational portrait that captures the personal effects and rooted realities of poverty. Pettitt, a lifelong teacher working in experimental theater and bringing her skills to prisons, drug treatment centers, homeless shelters, and more, was nominated for Best Actress by the NAACP for this, her one and only screen performance. The textures and colors of this moving social drama are especially vibrant on the newly restored 35mm print, cementing Black Girl’s legacy as a vital and prescient meditation on Black femininity and the ties that bind.

Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
Henry Jaglom, 1983, U.S., 91m
World Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? Courtesy of Hope Runs High.

New York’s Upper West Side comes to life in actor-director Henry Jaglom’s (A Safe Place, NYFF9) freewheeling fourth feature. Karen Black embodies Zee, a middle-aged woman abandoned by her husband. Wandering the streets of Manhattan and endlessly muttering to herself, she serendipitously meets Eli (Jaglom regular Michael Emil) at a coffee shop. A topsy-turvy romance ensues as they go to concerts and movies, fight and make love, and traverse city streets filled with real-life pedestrians—the filmmakers preferring to capture New York as it is over hiring extras and staging scenes. Frances Fisher and Michael Margotta round out the cast, with notable cameos from Larry David and Jaglom’s friend and business partner Orson Welles, who plays a charming movie magician. An endearing and dryly comedic portrait of the randomness of urban life, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? is humbly suffused with a sweet and tender spirit, but it’s also a captivating, invaluable document of a time and a place. A Hope Runs High Films release.

This restoration was completed from a 4K, 16-bit scan of the 35mm interpositive by Vinegar Syndrome in Bridgeport, Connecticut, via an ARRISCAN XT. Scanning Technician: Brandon Upson. Frame-by-frame manual digital restoration and color grading was completed by Marcus Johnson of Emulsional Recovery. This restoration was a collaboration between Hope Runs High and Cinématographe, supervised by Taylor Purdee of Hope Runs High and Justin LaLiberty of Cinématographe. Film materials made available through the generous cooperation of the Academy Film Archive. 

Days and Nights in the Forest / Aranyer Din Ratri
Satyajit Ray, 1970, India, 116m
Bengali with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Days and Nights in the Forest. Courtesy of Janus Films.

Among Satyajit Ray’s crowning achievements—albeit one ripe for reappreciation—Days and Nights in the Forest (NYFF8) is an astonishing, fully dimensional portrait of a generation of young Indian men yearning for a break with the tyranny of everyday life. We follow four bachelor friends as they decamp for a forest holiday in Jharkhand, during which they hope to cut loose and sow wild oats. But when the four cross paths with a local tribe, the dynamics grow ever more complicated—not least between the men themselves. Featuring some of the richest characterizations in Ray’s legendary oeuvre, Days and Nights in the Forest somewhat resembles the contemporaneous films of John Cassavetes, though Ray introduces profound elements of class and gender to the psychodramatic proceedings, arriving at a masterwork that’s entirely his own. A Janus Films release.

Presented and restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and the Criterion Collection. Funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation. Special thanks to Wes Anderson. 4K restoration completed using the original camera and sound negative preserved by Purnima Dutta, and magnetic track preserved at the BFI National Archive. Special thanks to Sandip Ray.

Mortu Nega
Flora Gomes, 1988, Guinea-Bissau, 96m
Portuguese with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Mortu Nega

Flora Gomes’s debut feature is an enduringly influential work of historical ethnofiction, and for good reason: synthesizing historiography with mythology to striking, vibrant effect, Mortu Nega is a structurally fascinating and texturally engrossing meditation on revolution. We begin toward the end of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence of the mid-1970s, following Diminga (Bia Gomes), a wounded soldier’s devoted wife, as she heads to battle to be with her husband. The war soon draws to a close, and we then follow Diminga as she struggles to extract support and dignity from a post-revolutionary bureaucratic apparatus. The rare war film that insistently poses the question “what comes next?” this singularly thought-provoking political drama pays tribute to Guinea-Bissau’s struggle for independence while remaining critical of the society to come.

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Flora Gomes. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO—in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna—to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.

Ombres de soie (Shades of Silk)
Mary Stephen, 1978, Canada/France, 62m
French and Mandarin Chinese with English and French subtitles
World Premiere of New 2K Restoration

Ombres de soie (Shades of Silk)

An accomplished film editor who went on to forge a long creative partnership with none other than Éric Rohmer, Hong Kong–born Mary Stephen’s 1978 debut feature announced her as a director to watch in her own right. Suffused with alluring atmospherics and a slight air of the oneiric, Ombres de soie traces the relationship between two Chinese women in Shanghai in 1935; through glances, gestures, and confessional voice-overs, the two women negotiate the tension between their shared wish for stability and the nagging sense that there may be more to their bond than meets the eye…. An astounding low-budget achievement (in which 1970s Paris passes for 1930s Shanghai), this entrancing film evokes the Marguerite Duras of India Song, which is no accident: Stephen explicitly wished for Ombres de soie to be a counterpoint to India Song, from an Asian woman’s point of view.

Ombres de soie (Shades of Silk) was restored from a 16mm print scanned at Library and Archives Canada. The 2K restoration work was carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna in 2024, and is made possible by the generous support of M+, Hong Kong, 2024.

Queen Kelly
Erich von Stroheim, 1929, U.S., 105m
North American Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Queen Kelly. Courtesy of Milestone / Kino Lorber.

A decadent late-silent masterpiece, Erich von Stroheim’s epic unfinished swan song pulls no punches. His characters contend with whippings, suicide, a German East African bordello and more in this story of a prince, the orphan girl he falls in love with, and the mad queen whose jealousy wreaks havoc on everyone involved. The great silent film star Gloria Swanson plays Patricia Kelly, the convent orphan whose life is turned upside down when Prince “Wild” Wolfram (Walter Byron) becomes obsessed with her, angering his betrothed queen. The making of the film was rife with controversy: Swanson’s then-lover Joseph P. Kennedy provided the financing that quickly spiraled out of control, and a fed-up Swanson eventually fired von Stroheim. This vital new digital reconstruction, overseen by Milestone Films’ Dennis Doros, brings von Stroheim’s original script to life, using new research and recently discovered materials. The result is Queen Kelly in its most complete and spectacular form to date, belatedly closing the circle on von Stroheim’s legendary directing career. Featuring a new orchestral score by Eli Denson. A Milestone / Kino Lorber release.

Reconstruction: Dennis Doros and Amy Heller, Milestone Film & Video, Harrington Park, NJ. Nitrate materials and stills courtesy of The George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. 4K digital stabilization, timing and cleanup by Metropolis Post, NYC. Colorist: Jason Crump. Digital restoration artist: Ian Bostick. Supervised by Milestone Films.

The Razor’s Edge / Ghazl El-Banat
Jocelyne Saab, 1985, France/Lebanon, 102m
Arabic and French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of New 4K Restoration

The Razor’s Edge

“I’ve invented places, as if by making a work of fiction about them, I could preserve them,” the Lebanese war correspondent–turned–filmmaker Jocelyne Saab said of her interest in fiction. Her 1985 drama The Razor’s Edge takes place during the Lebanese Civil War and centers on the bond formed between Karim (Jacques Weber), a fortysomething painter, and Samar (Hala Bassam), a teenager who grew up during the war (Juliet Berto has a small but striking role as Karim’s friend). Underneath the character-driven narrative is another story, that of a place. Saab started her career as a journalist working for French television and her reporter’s eye deftly captures the destruction of war-torn Beirut and the disparate but vibrant people wandering through its rubble and ruins. Screenwriter Gérard Brach (The Tenant, Identification of a Woman) worked on the final version of the script, and the result, juxtaposing the creation of art with violence, is an arresting meditation on humanity’s struggle in the face of unthinkable horror.

Restored in 4K in 2025 by Association Jocelyne Saab in collaboration with Cinémathèque suisse and La Cinémathèque québécoise at Cinémathèque suisse and Association Jocelyne Saab laboratories, from the positive preservation copy of the original cut presented at Cannes in 1985. Funding provided by Association Jocelyne Saab and Nessim Ricardou-Saab. 

Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars
Howard Brookner, 1985, U.S., 94m
English, German, Italian, and Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere of New Restoration

Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars

In the early ’80s, legendary theater artist Robert Wilson (who died in July at the age of 83) set out to create an epic 12-hour opera, a collaboration between six international theater companies, that would take place during the 1984 Summer Olympics. Filmmaker Howard Brookner, Wilson’s good friend, documents the dizzying and difficult process, and traces the history of Wilson’s hypervisual theatrical work, in this fascinating portrait of a deeply dedicated artist working at an incredibly high level. Grounded in the practical derailments—schedules, budgets, exhaustion—that often accompany ambitious artistic undertakings, the film has been long unseen, with some original materials lost to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Aaron Brookner, the filmmaker’s nephew, has spent 12 years on this invaluable new restoration of a surviving 16mm print, as well as video tapes and magnetic tapes for audio, to finally do justice to Wilson’s artistic process, as well as Brookner’s own gifts for intimate documentation. A Janus Films release.

Restored in 2025 by Pinball London – Janus Films – The Criterion Collection at Pinball London, Bando a parte, Dan Zlotnik, and Matar Studio from a 16mm print, a VHS, and the stereo 16mm optical sound. Funding provided by Howard Brookner Legacy Project, Howard Brookner Estate, Pinball London and Janus Films – The Criterion Collection. Restoration supervised by Aaron Brookner, Paula Vaccaro, and Carlos Morales/EPost. 

Sholay (Original Cut)
Ramesh Sippy, 1975, India, 204m
Hindi with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of New 4K Restoration

Sholay

Conceived as the biggest action-adventure film ever made in India, Ramesh Sippy’s deeply influential 1975 “Curry Western” remains a towering landmark in film history. Written by the legendary screenwriting duo Salim–Javid, the film stars Sanjeev Kumar as a retired cop who, in seeking revenge against a nihilistic dacoit leader (Amjad Khan), enlists the help of two slick, charismatic crooks whom he put behind bars (unforgettably portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra). Naturally, the criminal duo soon fall in love with two local village girls, but danger remains on the horizon. A delirious four-course meal of action, musical numbers, ultramagnetic performances from Indian cinema’s most iconic actors, and jaw-dropping wide-screen 70mm cinematography, Sholay is here presented in its recently completed director’s cut, the most faithful approximation of Sippy’s original ending before it was censored by the Indian Censor Board.

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Sippy Films. Funding provided by Sippy Films. Sholay was restored using the best surviving elements: an interpositive and two color reversal intermediates found in a warehouse in the U.K. and a second interpositive dating from 1978 deposited by Sippy Films and preserved by Film Heritage Foundation. The sound was restored using the original sound negative, and the magnetic soundtrack preserved by Film Heritage Foundation. The film was originally shot on 35mm and blown up to 70mm for release. No 70mm prints of the film survive. The original camera negative was severely damaged due to heavy vinegar syndrome with coils adhesion and halos, overcoat deterioration both on base side and emulsion side, and base distortion. This restoration of the film in 4K includes the original ending as well as two deleted scenes and with the original 70mm aspect ratio of 2.2:1.

The Wife of Seisaku / 清作の妻
Yasuzo Masumura, 1965, Japan, 94m
Japanese with English subtitles
North American Premiere of New 4K Restoration

The Wife of Seisaku. © Kadokawa Corporation 1965

Considered a major work within Yasuzo Masumura’s remarkable and underrated filmography, The Wife of Seisaku finds the Japanese auteur again collaborating with his muse, Ayako Wakao (Daiei Studios’ top actress at the time). During the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War, Okane (Wakao), a widow, returns to her home village, only to be ostracized when she falls in love with an intensely idealistic young soldier. When he returns from the front wounded, Okane goes to extreme lengths to ensure that he won’t return to the battlefield. Masumura’s restrained, even minimalistic stylization is an elegant stage upon which Wakao enacts a psychodramatically rich and politically provocative tour de force.

The film was restored in 4K at IMAGICA Entertainment Media Services from the original 35mm negative films. For the sound, a direct print was generated from the 35mm sound negative, and the audio was digitized and restored. In this digital restoration, we aimed to repair the damage to the images and colors caused by the age-related deterioration of the materials, while at the same time restoring all of the texture and beauty that remained in the film at the time of its release. The grading was supervised by Masahiro Miyajima, a former member of Daiei Kyoto Studios’ Cinematography Department, who worked for many years as chief cinematography assistant to Daiei’s legendary cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa and is familiar with Daiei’s look. The method that surprised Martin Scorsese when The Film Foundation restored Ugetsu (1953) was used again this time: storyboards of all the cuts were transcribed, and the director’s and photographer’s aims were analyzed based on the cut divisions and other information.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates cinema as an essential art form and fosters a vibrant home for film culture to thrive. FLC presents premier film festivals, retrospectives, new releases, and restorations year-round in state-of-the-art theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. FLC offers audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.  

Founded in 1969, FLC is committed to preserving the excitement of the theatrical experience for all audiences, advancing high-quality film journalism through the publication of Film Comment, cultivating the next generation of film industry professionals through our FLC Academies, and enriching the lives of all who engage with our programs.

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