January 2026 programs at MoMI

Launch of new season of Open Worlds free community programs, Curators’ Choice screening series, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day programs

Astoria, New York, January 7, 2026 — Museum of the Moving Image starts the new year with a look back at some of the best films released in 2025, many with filmmakers in person; launches an expanded season of Open Worlds, featuring free community programs; presents its annual celebration commemorating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with a free family day and special screenings; explores the first decade of immersive documentary with Inside the Story, a convening of artists and filmmakers; and more.
 
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Museum will present a free Family Day on Sunday, January 18, from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. featuring digital media-making, tours, and other programming. The Museum will also be open on Monday, January 19, 12:00–6:00 p.m. with a free screening of films by documentary pioneer Madeline Anderson. Also on Monday, Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster horror thriller Sinners will screen at 3:00 p.m. as part of the Museum’s Curators’ Choice series.
 
Below is a schedule of exhibitions and programs in January. Unless noted, all programs take place at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106. Screenings are presented in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater and/or the Celeste and Armand Bartos Screening Room. Schedule and tickets are available at movingimage.org. (See all January events.)
 
Schedule is subject to change. Additional programs will be added as they are confirmed.
 
SCREENING SERIES AND EVENT SERIES
 
Curators’ Choice 2025
January 9–February 8
Curators’ Choice is the Museum’s annual survey of favorite films that premiered theatrically during the previous calendar year, selected by its curators and programmers. The series features films big and small, from studio releases like One Battle After Another (to be presented in 70mm) and Sinners to precious, enrapturing works of art like 7 Walks with Mark Brown and Caught by the Tides. New York audiences will have another chance to see these splendid films on the big screen, featuring a selection of special guests in person to discuss their craft and process. They include Ari Aster, Mary Bronstein, Robert Kaplow, Angus MacLachlan, Julia Loktev, David Osit, Alex Ross Perry, Ira Sachs, and David Strathairn, plus more to be announced. January screenings include: 7 Walks with Mark Brown, Eddington with Ari Aster in person, Blue Moon with screenwriter Robert Kaplow in person, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You with Mary Bronstein in person, It Was Just an Accident (with editor Amir Etminan joining via live video), A Little Prayer with David Strathairn and Angus MacLachlan in person, Magellan, Marty Supreme, Misericordia, My Undesirable Friends, Part I—Last Air in Moscow with Julia Loktev in person, The Naked Gun, Nouvelle Vague, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, One Battle After Another (70mm), Predators with David Osit in person, Resurrection, Sinners, Videoheaven with Alex Ross Perry and Clyde Folley in person, and Train Dreams. Press release | Series info
 
Open Worlds 2026
Museum of the Moving Image opens its third season of Open Worlds, on Saturday, January 24 and continuing year-round. This initiative offers free access to the Museum’s ground floor to the public accompanied by a series of free community events that spark curiosity with explorations of the moving image across platforms—gaming, film, television, immersive experiences, and emerging technologies. On opening day, people of all ages are invited to participate in puppet-making and performance workshops with MoMI’s puppeteer-in-residence Brian Carson featuring a talk show–style setup; creating a 3D painting in virtual reality (ages 13+); attend a soccer-themed activation ahead of the Museum’s World Cup-related programs this summer, and join a free screening of The Naked Gun (2025), a selection in our Curators’ Choice 2025 series (RSVP required; mature audiences recommended). Series info
Programmatic support for Open Worlds is provided by Bank of America and the William Fox, Jr. Foundation. Open Worlds: Science programs supported by the Simons Foundation.


EXHIBITIONS
 
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—Story and Spectacle
Extended through January 11, 2026
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—Story and Spectacle celebrates the phenomenon of Paramount Pictures’ thrilling MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise. The exhibition spotlights star and producer Tom Cruise’s exceptional commitment to practical stunt work, and explores how the series combines technical ingenuity, personal discipline, and artistic commitment, all in service of storytelling, character development, and performance. Sections of the exhibition are devoted to each film in the series, with a focus on that film’s key stunt or action sequence, along with unique behind-the-scenes content that offers insight on how the remarkable stunts were prepared for and filmed, complemented by related production artifacts. Exhibition info
 
Contingent
James Bloom in collaboration with Gottfried Jäger
November 28, 2025–February 15, 2026
On the Herbert S. Schlosser Media Wall in the Museum lobby. Presented in partnership with the Tezos Foundation. 
Exhibition info
 
Lu Yang: The Great Adventure of Material World 
September 26–Spring 2026 
In the Jane Henson Amphitheater 
Exhibition info
 
Dissolving Views: Magic Lantern Performance  
August 29–Spring 2026 
In the Amphitheater Gallery 
Exhibition info 
 
The Jim Henson Exhibition
Ongoing
Exhibition info
 
Behind the Screen
Ongoing
Exhibition info
 
See a listing of all current and fall exhibitions here.
 
 
HIGHLIGHTED SCREENINGS AND EVENTS
 
FREE EVENT
Inside the Story: Ten Years of Immersive Documentary
Demos, discussion, and reception
Thursday, January 8, 6:00 p.m.
This second program leading up to the opening of the Museum's new MoMI LAB space will provide an opportunity to experience landmark works of immersive documentary including Tree, Traveling While Black, Notes on Blindness, Step to the Line, and Clouds Over Sidra; with screenings and discussion around how stories are made, shared, and felt, amidst the latest wave of AI and other emerging technologies. Participating speakers include Chris Milk, visionary immersive artist and founder of Within; James George, Emmy Award–winning immersive creator and inventor of Depthkit; Yasmin Elayat, Emmy Award–winning director, producer, and entrepreneur; and Gabo Arora, VR pioneer and inaugural director, MoMI LAB; in a conversation moderated by Angela Watercutter from Wired magazine. Free with RSVP. Event info
 
SCREENING
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Friday, January 9, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Kaouther Ben Hania. 2025, 89 mins. January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call from a six-year-old girl trapped in a car under fire in Gaza. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab, and her story marked a turning point in the world’s understanding of the ongoing genocide. Writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania (Four Daughters) respectfully utilizes the 70-minute audio recording of her call to allow viewers to bear witness. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025 and Infinite Beauty: Muslim and MENASA Identity Onscreen. Event info
 
SCREENING
KPop Demon Hunters (Singalong Version)
Saturday, January 10, 1:00 p.m.
Dirs. Chris Applehans, Maggie Kang. 2025, 95 mins. Dolby Atmos. When they aren’t selling out stadiums, Kpop superstars Rumi, Mira, and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet—an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise. The year’s huge surprise sensation is an animated musical spectacle that deserves the big-screen treatment, a blast of joyous energy that has delighted viewers of all ages. Part of World of Animation. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Predators
With director David Osit in person
Saturday, January 10, 3:00 p.m. 
Dir. David Osit. 2025, 96 mins. In this gripping and troubling documentary, filmmaker David Osit (Mayor) delves into the history and cultural persistence of the sensationalistic and highly ethically dubious television series To Catch a Predator, an early aughts hit spinoff of the hit NBC series Dateline that set up sting operations against potential pedophiles. More than an exposé of an exposé, Osit’s film is a moral inquisition and a call to arms for a culture thirsty for justice without feeling. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Eddington
With director Ari Aster in person
Saturday, January 10, 6:00 p.m.
Dir. Ari Aster. 2025, 145 mins. In his exhilarating, wildly (and aptly) cynical new vision, set at the inflection point of May 2020, Ari Aster pits the intractable factions of the contemporary sociopolitical divide against one another—personified in a small-town New Mexico sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal)—in an escalating series of faceoffs. No one (especially the audience) gets off easy. An elegantly structured pitch-dark comedy, Eddington is both caustic prank and serious as a heart attack, boasting the director’s customary visual control and mastery of storytelling, and brilliantly acted by a fearless, fully committed cast. Event info
 
SCREENING
Mission: Impossible
Special final screening on the last day of the exhibition MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—Story and Spectacle
Sunday, Jan 11, 12:30 p.m.
Dir. Brian De Palma. 1996, 110 mins. U.S. 35mm. Tom Cruise’s first film as producer, Mission: Impossible kicked off the film franchise in high style with a coolly elegant Euro-thriller directed by master of suspense De Palma. After a mission goes wrong, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is framed for the death of his team members and must uncover the true perpetrators. He is aided by computer hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), who would reappear throughout the franchise as one of Hunt’s key allies. Event info
 
SCREENING
Utopolis
Sunday, Jan 11, 3:00 p.m.
Dir. Vladimir Subotic. 2024, 78 mins. As topical as today’s headlines, this compelling drama focuses on anti-immigration sentiment and social conflict. Discrimination manifests in various ways, from small biases to overt hostility. Here, a pair of friends (played by two of Greece’s brightest stars, Andreas Konstantinou and Makis Papadimitriou) voice opposing positions on the subject, but ingrained hate will lead to a brutal confrontation over the course of one fateful night. Part of Always on Sunday: Greek Film Series, co-presented with the Hellenic Film Society USA. Event info

SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Palestine 36
With director Annemarie Jacir in person
Sunday, January 11, 3:30 p.m.
Dir. Annemarie Jacir. 2025, 119 mins. DCP. In 1936, as the British Empire tightens its grip on Palestine, Yusuf is caught between his village home and his work in Jerusalem. Amidst an anti-colonial revolt, and Jewish refugees fleeing persecution from Europe, all sides converge in a decisive moment for the entire region. Palestine's Official Selection for the 98th Academy Awards. Part of Infinite Beauty. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
It Was Just an Accident
Preceded by a live video conversation with editor Amir Etminan and programmer David Schwartz
Sunday, January 11, 5:00 p.m.
Dir. Jafar Panahi. 2025, 103 mins. Iran/France. DCP. One of the world’s great filmmakers, Iranian director Jafar Panahi has also long been one of the medium's most controversial and stalwart freedom fighters. His latest, which deservedly won this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is a major work, a deeply personal thriller that follows a chain of events after an unassuming mechanic believes he has come face to face with a former prison official who had tortured him. Toggling between harrowing suspense and amusing absurdity, It Was Just an Accident asks questions about the nature of revenge and governmental control. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025 and Art & Craft. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
With writer-director Mary Bronstein in person
Friday, January 16, 6:30 p.m. 
Dir. Mary Bronstein. 2025, 113 mins. Rose Byrne gives one of the year’s great full-tilt performances in this brilliantly nightmarish evocation of a woman’s unrelenting experience as a stressed-out mom. As a therapist dealing with an ailing young daughter, a burst water main in the bedroom, and a series of colleagues and patients who are different gradations of (incredibly) unhelpful, Byrne collapses comedy and horror, while writer-director Mary Bronstein creates a world of escalating absurdity around her. It’s cinema as constant boiling point, and you can’t take your eyes off it. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Blue Moon
With screenwriter Robert Kaplow in person
Sunday, January 18, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Richard Linklater. 2025, 100 mins. Richard Linklater’s poignant film features an astonishing, transformative central performance from Ethan Hawke as the legendary music song lyricist Lorenz Hart. Blue Moon takes place entirely at the Broadway watering hole Sardi’s on the rainy night in 1943 when the musical Oklahoma! premiered and instantly severed Hart from his composer collaborator Richard Rodgers. Written by Robert Kaplow with devastating wit and precise detail and directed by Linklater with classical elegance, Blue Moon brilliantly excavates a specific moment in history to get at ever-relevant questions about art and compromise, popular culture, sexuality, love and disappointment, and the feeling of being out of time. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025 and Writers’ Room. Event info

SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow
With director Julia Loktev in person
Sunday, January 18, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Julia Loktev. 2024, 324 mins. U.S./Russia. DCP. This gripping, epic documentary from American filmmaker Julia Loktev, told in five parts, is one of the year’s major achievements in nonfiction. This project began when Loktev, who was born in the Soviet Union, ventured back to Moscow in 2021 to film the efforts of Russia’s last functioning independent news channel to maintain its existence and critical view of Putin—even as, it turned out, the country’s invasion of Ukraine was only months away. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
Martin Luther King Jr. Family Day
Sunday, January 18, 2:00–6:00 p.m.
MoMI will celebrate the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with talks, tours, digital media-making activities, and more for the whole family. Explore the connections between moving image history and Black Americans’ fight for freedom during the Civil Rights Movement. Part of Open Worlds 2026. Free admission.
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
A Little Prayer
With actor David Strathairn and director Angus MacLachlan in person
Sunday, January 18, 4:00 p.m. 
Dir. Angus MacLachlan. 2024, 91 mins. The latest gem from director, screenwriter, and playwright Angus MacLachlan (Junebug), set in his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a loving constellation of fine-tuned character studies, anchored by a magnificently understated David Strathairn as Bill, a mild-mannered small business owner and Vietnam veteran who has reached a personal crossroads. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
FREE SCREENING
Two Short Documentaries by Madeline Anderson 
Monday, January 19, 1:00 p.m.
A Black woman who forged a path within an overwhelmingly white, male industry, Madeline Anderson created unforgettable works of nonfiction. In her long career, the trailblazing Anderson—now 102 years old—has worked as producer, director, and editor, and made her name alongside documentary titans William Greaves on Black Journal and Richard Leacock. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Museum will present screenings of two classic shorts by Anderson that are among the finest works of cinematic journalism produced during that tumultuous decade in American life: Integration Report One (Dir. Madeline Anderson. 1960, 20 mins.) and I Am Somebody (Dir. Madeline Anderson. 1970, 30 mins.). Free admission. Event info

SCREENING
Tale of Tales: Yuri Norstein Shorts
Friday, January 23, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 31, 1:30 p.m.
The legendary Russian animator Yuri Norstein (b. 1941), a master of cut-out animation, is often cited as a major influence by Hayao Miyazaki and many other great contemporary filmmakers. The 1975 short Hedgehog in the Fog, made with his wife Francheska Yarbusova, tenderly traces a hedgehog’s journey to meet a friend for tea, with miraculous encounters along the way. Norstein's longest film to date, The Tale of Tales (1979), is a story about stories, a dream of many dreams, with a little gray wolf that watches silently over moments of human love and loss. Thanks to new restorations of Norstein’s films by publisher Deaf Crocodile as part of their collection Treasures of Soviet Animation, this program features these beloved Norstein shorts, as well as The Fox and the Hare (1973) and The Heron and the Crane (1974), plus early works, a program spanning 1968–1979. Running time: 111 mins. In Russian with English subtitles. Part of World of Animation.
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Johnny Carson Presents Jim Henson: Celebrating Johnny Carson’s Centennial
With Craig Shemin and Mark Malkoff, book signing follows program
Saturday, January 24, 1:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 25, 1:00 p.m.
Program duration: 100 mins. Henson historian and series programmer Craig Shemin and Mark Malkoff, Carson podcaster, historian, and author of the new book Love, Johnny Carson, will present a compilation of rarely seen highlights from Jim Henson and the Muppets’ various appearances with Johnny Carson through the years. This special screening is presented courtesy of Carson Entertainment in celebration of Johnny Carson’s centennial year. A signing of Love, Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan’s Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend will follow the screening on Saturday. Part of Jim Henson’s World. Event info
 
SCREENING AND LIVE EVENT
Videoheaven
With director Alex Ross Perry and editor Clyde Folley in person
Saturday, January 24, 1:30 p.m.
Dir. Alex Ross Perry. 2025, 173 mins. The video store is dead. Long live the video store. In this giddily overstuffed cine-essay more than a decade in the making, filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Phillip) has created a maniacally thorough, hugely entertaining look at the legacy of the video store in culture and as it’s been represented on film and television, created in close collaboration with editor Clyde Folley and narrated by Maya Hawke. The history and meaning of these now-lost spaces are thoroughly and entertainingly investigated using clips from seemingly every single movie or television show that ever featured a scene set in a video store. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
FREE SCREENING
The Naked Gun
Saturday, January 24, 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Akiva Schaffer. 2025, 85 mins. The hugely satisfying remake of the classic eighties comedy from Akiva Schaffer brings back the LAPD’s idiot police squad lieutenant Frank Drebin, now embodied by a brilliantly dopey Liam Neeson. In this tribute to the slapstick movies of the Zucker Abrahams Zucker trio (which also included Airplane!), it’s one clever-stupid joke after another. Schaffer’s update really gets what makes this genre of comedy work, without ever pushing things too far into easy tastelessness or anti-PC gags. Part of Curators’ Choice and Open Worlds. Event info
Free with RSVP. Reservations will open in early January 2026.
 
SCREENING
One Battle After Another in 70mm
Saturday, January 24, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 25, 5:30 p.m.
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. 2025, 161 mins. U.S. 70mm. Anderson’s rocket-fueled political action comedy has become the most acclaimed movie of 2025. Sixteen years after going into witness protection, former revolutionary activist Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is thrust back into reluctant action when his teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) becomes the target of a relentless military colonel (Sean Penn) with a very personal grudge. Paul Thomas Anderson’s most viscerally thrilling film to date is an epic, comic adventure of the weird new America that spans decades and stretches from Otay Mesa to the treacherous rolling-hill highways of the southwest. Featuring knockout performances from DiCaprio, Penn, Infiniti, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Benicio Del Toro. Part of Curators’ Choice 2025. Event info
 
SCREENING
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Sunday, February 1, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Haruo Sotozaki. 2025, 155 mins. Japan. DCP. In Japanese with English subtitles. Original Story: Koyoharu Gotoge (Jump Comics / Shueisha). The second feature film in the popular horror action series Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba plunges the trio of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, and the hashira, the strongest swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps, into the demons’ mysterious, labyrinthine stronghold. Falling through space into and out of an infinitely expanding mansion, they wield their swords and match their unique abilities against a never-ending army. Infinity Castle builds on the lore of the original series with its brutal, brilliantly choreographed set-piece fights against high-ranking demons—an astonishing visual achievement by studio ufotable—underscored by powerful moments of friendship and loss. Part of World of Animation and Curators' Choice 2025. Rated R. Recommended for ages 14+

 
About Museum of the Moving Image
MoMI celebrates the history, art, technology, and future of the moving image in all of its forms. Located 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 most comprehensive 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 MoMI, visit movingimage.org.

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Pictured: I Am Somebody (Madeline Anderson. 1970. courtesy of Icarus Films)