MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE HONORS TODD HAYNES WITH MOVING IMAGE AWARD FOR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT ON DECEMBER 4, ACCOMPANIED BY FILM RETROSPECTIVE AND GALLERY EXHIBIT

MoMI also announces the acquisition of Haynes’s production archive and the publication of a new book that explores the filmmaker’s creative process

Presented as a temporary addition to the Museum’s core exhibition Behind the Screen, the exhibit will be on view starting November 18 and will center on Haynes’s elaborate “image books,” albums that gather visual inspirations for each of his productions, with a focus on his new film May December, which stars Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. The exhibit will also feature video interviews with Haynes and additional production material drawn from the archive recently donated to the Museum.

“We are thrilled to honor Todd Haynes's extraordinary career with this expansive initiative,” said Barbara Miller, MoMI’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs. “From his electrifying emergence in the 1980s to the brilliant May December, Haynes has remained a singular filmmaker, crafting artistically fearless films that subvert genre expectations and explore transgressive identities. We're excited to present a retrospective of his works, and to be able to offer, through the exhibit and the publication of Todd Haynes: Rapturous Process, a glimpse into his compelling creative process.”

May December

From December 1–30, the Museum will present a complete retrospective including all of Todd Haynes’s feature films from Poison (1991) through May December (2023) as well as early short films, and television work.

The book, Todd Haynes: Rapturous Process, published by the Museum, is an adaptation of Centre Pompidou's book published on the occasion of its own Haynes retrospective earlier in 2023, but with new material for English-language readers. It includes an in-depth 2023 career interview with Haynes by the Pompidou's Judith Revault d'Allonnes, a new essay by Michael Koresky, a conversation about May December between Haynes and filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, and a foreword by Julianne Moore. The book features more than 200 pages of materials from Haynes's archives, including drawings, paintings, storyboards, notes, on-set photographs, costume and set designs, and more—much of which is drawn from Haynes’s production archive, which is part of the Museum’s permanent collection. Copies will be available for purchase in the MoMI Shop onsite and online starting in late November.

May December opened the 61st New York Film Festival and will be released by Netflix in theaters November 17 and on Netflix December 1. View the trailer here.

Passionate about the visual arts since childhood, Todd Haynes studied art and semiotics at Brown University. In 1987, he created the short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story with Barbie dolls. Since then, he has tirelessly continued to address questions of gender and identity. His first feature film Poison, inspired by Jean Genet, was released in 1991 and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. After Safe (1995), which revealed Julianne Moore, he conjured David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust period in Velvet Goldmine (1998), then paid homage to Douglas Sirk in Far From Heaven (2002). In 2006, he had six actors play Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. He then directed the mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011), before returning to feature films with Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017), and Dark Waters (2019), followed by the documentary The Velvet Underground (2021).

Funds raised from the Moving Image Awards will support the Museum’s mission to explore all facets of film, television, and digital media, including support for education and community engagement programs which serve youth, adults, and their families across all of New York and beyond.

Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) is the only institution in the United States that deals comprehensively with the art, technology, enjoyment, and social impact of film, television, and digital media. In its stunning facility in Astoria, New York, the Museum presents exhibitions; screenings; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, and creative leaders; and education programs. It houses the nation’s largest collection of moving image artifacts and screens over 500 films annually. Its exhibitions—including the core exhibition Behind the Screen and The Jim Henson Exhibition—are noted for their integration of material objects, interactive experiences, and audiovisual presentations. For more information about the MoMI, visit movingimage.us.