THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ANNOUNCES THE 2025 LINEUP FOR THE CONTENDERS

The Annual Series Will Feature Post-Screening Conversations with Filmmakers and Actors from the Year’s Best and Boldest Films

 

The Phoenician Scheme. 2025. USA/Germany. Directed by Wes Anderson

 

NEW YORK, October 21, 2025—The Museum of Modern Art announces its selection of the best and boldest films of 2025 for the 18th annual edition of The Contenders, running November 6, 2025, through January 7, 2026. 

 

Opening the series is Dead Man’s Wire, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Dacre Montgomery, and Al Pacino, which premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in September 2025. The film, soon to be released by Row K Entertainment, is a visceral retelling of a 1977 kidnapping with powerful contemporary parallels. The screening on November 6 will be followed by a conversation with acclaimed director Gus Van Sant.

 

Closing the series on January 7, 2026, is Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow. The first solo directorial effort by Josh Safdie, an electrifying reimagining of the sports movie, tells the story of a young ping pong star striving for greatness in the 1950s. 

 

Other notable screenings include ARCO on November 11 (post-screening conversation with director Ugo Bienvenu), Sound of Falling on November 14 (post-screening conversation with director Mascha Schilinski), Blue Moon on November 19 (post-screening conversation with actor Ethan Hawke), Sirât on December 4 (post-screening conversation with director Oliver Laxe),Cover-Up on December 7 (post-screening conversation with director Laura Poitras), Peter Hujar’s Day on December 17 (post-screening conversation with writer and director Ira Sachs), and O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent) on January 5 (post-screening conversation with writer and director Kleber Mendonça Filho and actor Wagner Moura).

 

Highlights of the 2025 lineup include A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow), After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino), Ástin Sem Eftir Er (The Love That Remains) (Hlynur Pálmason), BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Khalil Joseph), Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke), Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Cover- Up (Laura Poitras), Eddington (Ari Aster), Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland), Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro), Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes), Hamnet (Chloé Zhao), Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein), Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper), It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi), Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach), Kaj ti je deklica (Little Trouble Girls) (Urška Djukić), Kokuho/ 코쿠호 (Lee Sang-il/ 이상일), La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino), Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han), Magellan (Lav Diaz), Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie), My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr.), No Other Choice/어쩔수가없다 (Park Chan-wook/ 박찬욱), Nouvelle Vauge (Richard Linklater), One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson), Orwell: 2+2=5 (Raoul Peck), Pillion (Harry Lighton), Resurrection (Bi Gan), Roofman (Derek Cianfrance), Rosemead (Eric Lin), Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (Quay Brothers), Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier), Sinners (Ryan Coogler), Sotto le nuvole (Below the Clouds) (Gianfranco Rosi), Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper), Strichka Chasu (Timestamp) (Kateryna Gornostai), The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson), The President’s Cake (Hasan Hadi), The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie), and The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania). 

 

The Contenders November schedule is currently available at moma.org/contenders. More titles and special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. 

 

Tickets are available to members at the Explore category and above beginning two weeks before each screening date. Additional tickets will be released to members and the general public one week before each screening date. Please note that space is extremely limited and tickets will be in high demand. Tickets can be reserved at moma.org/contenders beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET.

 

For the Contenders series, due to limited availability, members at the Explore category and above receive two free tickets per membership.

 

If a screening is sold out, a standby line will form one hour before the start time. If you are a ticket holder and arrive after the scheduled start time, we cannot guarantee entry. 

 

 

The Contenders 2025

Nov 6, 2025–Jan 7, 2026

 

The Contenders 2025, your chance to catch up on the past year’s most noteworthy films on the big screen, opens on November 6, with special presentations and post-screening conversations with filmmakers and more. Don’t miss the very best in recent cinema—from the latest work by established directors to exciting new voices—as selected by MoMA’s Department of Film. Check out just a few November highlights below. 

 

As an Explore member, you can reserve complimentary tickets two weeks in advance of each screening. Please note, due to limited availability, members at the Explore category and above may receive two free tickets per membership.

 

Please note that space is extremely limited and tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 10:30 a.m. ET on release dates. 

 

 

ARCO

Tue, Nov 11, 7:00 p.m.

 

A success at Cannes, ARCO, the remarkable debut feature of the French illustrator and animation filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu, is a deeply touching animated fable, which follows a boy from the distant future who hitches a ride on a rainbow and crash-lands in the year 2075. There he befriends a lonely girl, Iris, whose only companion is the family robot. The screening is followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.

  

Sound of Falling

Fri, Nov 14, 7:00 p.m.

 

Director Mascha Schilinski’s second feature washed over audiences at the Cannes Film Festival with a wave of emotion and exhilaration—and was awarded the Jury Prize as a result. Centered around a rural German farm and the imposing family home anchoring it, Sound of Falling guides us through different eras, families, traumas, and discoveries. The screening is followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.

 

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Sun, Nov 23, 2:00 p.m.

 

On January 29, 2024, volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society fielded emergency calls from six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was trapped inside a car in Gaza shelled by Israeli forces. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania reconstructs those harrowing hours in this gut-wrenching docudrama, interweaving Hind’s voice—excerpted from the original audio recordings—with dramatized reenactments of the call center responders. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

 

Sinners

Sun, Nov 30, 5:00 p.m.

 

Rooted in the intertwined histories of Black cultural achievement and racism in America, Sinners is destined to be regarded as a landmark of its genre. Twin WWI vets Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) open an exclusive juke joint for a Black community in Mississippi, but the irresistible music and dance emanating from within brings a clan of immigrant Irish vampires to the crowded club doors.