MoMA Announced 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 Museum of Modern Art announced its selection of the best and boldest films of 2025 for the 18th annual edition of The Contenders, running now through January 7, 2026.

Opened the series 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 included 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), Á stin 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 (Lee Sang-il), La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino), Little Am é lie 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 (Park Chan-wook), 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.

SPONSORSHIP:

Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.

Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.