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# Museum of the Moving Image Presents First Look Festival
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/museum-of-the-moving-image-first-look-festival/
- Published: 2024-03-05T19:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:04:44.000Z
- Description: Featuring premieres of innovative international films, this annual event brings the world to Queens, opening with Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s Sujo on March 13.
- Author: Museum of the Moving Image
- Tags: Announcement, Event Announcement, Film Announcements, New York, Sponsored, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:36 (2023, 2024, part 2)

[First Look](https://bit.ly/48GfQGf?ref=hyperallergic.com), Museum of the Moving Image’s festival of new and innovative international cinema, introduces New York audiences to formally inventive new works that seek to redefine the art form while engaging in a wide range of subjects and styles. Debuting 46 new works and a gallery installation by Fiona Tan, the 13th edition takes place March 13–17\. 

Opening Night on March 13 features the New York premiere of Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s extraordinarily affecting [*Sujo*](https://bit.ly/49XrAWa?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2024), which recently took home the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. On Sunday, March 17, the festival closes with the New York premiere of Bill and Turner Ross’s rambunctious coming-of-age road movie [*Gasoline Rainbow*](https://bit.ly/4c0Jw3W?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023). Rounding out the Showcase Screenings are Tatiana Huezo’s sweeping ode to young women in rural Mexico, [*The Echo (El Eco)*](https://bit.ly/4c4LcJy?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023); Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s hardscrabble Brooklyn kaleidoscope [*Tendaberry*](https://bit.ly/43kvGWl?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023) (also following its Sundance premiere); and Robert Kolodny’s docu-fictional portrait of pugilist Willie Pep, [*The Featherweight*](https://bit.ly/3Img1vZ?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023) — the latter two marking hometown premieres for New York filmmakers. In all, the festival boasts 46 premieres, including 20 features, representing 21 countries. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/03/the_featherweight_2_pep_films.jpg)

James Madio in *The Featherweight* (2023), directed by Robert Kolodny (image courtesy Pep Films)

“First Look has carved out a unique, and we think essential, place in New York’s film and cultural landscape. Over five days, our festival creates a space for active discovery, experimentation, dialogue, and possibility. We’re presenting films that we love and admire, and we can’t wait to show them to our audiences. We’re also continuing our Working on It section, in which we welcome artists from around the world to meet and inspire one another,” said Eric Hynes, MoMI Curator of Film and First Look Artistic Director. 

Further highlights are the experimental shorts program [Illuminations](https://bit.ly/3P8vnro?ref=hyperallergic.com), featuring new work by Kevin Jerome Everson, Nathaniel Dorsky, Alee Peoples, and others; Graham Swon’s sui generis love triangle [*An Evening Song (for three voices)*](https://bit.ly/48GfFe3?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023); Lois Patiño’s spiritually transporting [*Samsara*](https://bit.ly/432dfVW?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023); and Zhang Mengqi’s [*Self-Portrait: 47 KM 2020*](https://bit.ly/3Pvocdp?ref=hyperallergic.com) (2023), a painterly vision of the filmmaker’s ancestral village. 

First Look also presents [*Fiona Tan: Footsteps*,](https://bit.ly/3wI6XyV?ref=hyperallergic.com) a gallery installation, supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York. 

**To purchase tickets and passes, visit** [**movingimage.org/firstlook2024**](https://bit.ly/48GfQGf?ref=hyperallergic.com)**.**

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/03/sujo_still01_enaguas_cine.jpg)

Juan Jesús Varela in *Sujo* (2024), directed by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez (image courtesy Enguas Cine)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/03/gasoline_rainbow_inside-car.jpg)

Still from *Gasoline Rainbow* (2023), directed by Bill and Turner Ross (image courtesy MUBI)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2024/03/the-echo_radiola_film_2.jpg)

Still from *The Echo* (2023), directed by Tatiana Huezo (image courtesy Radiola Film)

MoMI is grateful to First Look 2024 Presenting Sponsors Lismore Road and MUBI and all additional supporters.

First Look is supported by a Market New York grant from Empire State Development and I LOVE NY/New York State’s Division of Tourism, awarded through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.