May at MoMI: new season of Open Worlds programs launches

With live music, talks, and kickoff event; plus See It Big: Stunts! screening series, and more

May 8–31, 2025

Astoria, New York (May 6, 2025) — This May, the Museum launches the second edition of its Open Worlds free programming, with a festive kick-off event on Saturday, May 17, and a dedicated Open Worlds: Science series that begins May 10. In its new exhibition Mission: Impossible—Story and Spectacle, the Museum will unveil a section featuring objects and video from the new film Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which opens in theaters May 23. In related programs, the screening series See It Big: Stunts! continues with big-screen movies featuring practical stunt work, including Hong Kong action films The Heroic Trio, Executioners, and Police Story, plus a members-only Mission: Impossible – Weekend Marathon, featuring the first seven films in the franchise.
 
The Museum’s Mother’s Day weekend offerings include the family-friendly Love Your Mother Earth Mushroom Party, the kick-off event for Open Worlds: Science on May 10, featuring an afternoon of art-making, a neighborhood stroll with the New York City Mycological Society, and screening of a short film Fungi: Web of Life—all celebrating and exploring the natural world with a focus on the third kingdom of life: fungi. Plus, see Serial Mom, John Waters’s black comic cult classic starring Kathleen Turner, on May 9 or 11.

For the summer, and coinciding with the launch of Open Worlds, the Museum will extend Friday evening hours to 10:00 p.m. beginning on May 16. Mon Amour in the MoMI Café will also remain open, serving a new menu of snacks, drinks, and other beverages; with a new Courtyard kiosk  opening May 17.
 
Also, the Museum’s Friday Date Night promotion continues through June. This $50 pass includes admission for two guests, plus a complimentary coffee or drink (for two) at Mon Amour café—featuring a new spring menu—in the Museum lobby, a discount on the popular Museum flipbook, and the option of attending the evening screening.
 
Highlighted programs are listed below. For a complete schedule, visit movingimage.org (click here for a month view). Schedule is subject to change. Additional programs may be added as they are confirmed.
 
 
SCREENING SERIES AND EVENT SERIES
 
See It Big: Stunts!
April 25–June 15
As thrillingly demonstrated in the new exhibition Mission: Impossible—Story and Spectacle, the art, craft, and visual astonishment of practical stunt work remains one of the reasons we still go to the movies, especially in an era when so much CGI has taken the place of human derring-do. This screening series offers a selection of movies from around the world that feature some of the most eye-popping, “how-did-they-do-that?” moments of human physicality ever captured on screen. See It Big: Stunts! is a timely tribute (see the newly announced Oscar category for Stunt Design) to the stuntpeople, the stunt coordinators, and all the fearless innovators who have often risked it all for the sake of unforgettable movie magic. Films include: Executioners, Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, Police Story, Raiders of the Lost Ark,  The Great Waldo Pepper, The Heroic Trio, , and more titles to come in June. Press release | Series info
 
FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Open Worlds 2025
May 2–November 2
An initiative of Museum of the Moving Image, Open Worlds is an accessible, 15,500-square-foot, climate-controlled, WiFi-enabled community resource for visitors of all ages looking to convene, find creative inspiration, learn about and experience new media technologies, or participate in many diverse programming selections. This year’s Open Worlds offerings will include a wide range of free public programming spanning themes of performance, arts conservation and accessibility, science, special effects, video gaming, and much more. Programmatic support provided by the William Fox Jr. Foundation. Series Info
A subset of these programs, Open Worlds: Science focuses on exploring the world through science and cinema and features seven free public events that include screenings, experiences, and live talks—free for all! Presented with support by Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division. Series info
 
Mission: Impossible – Marathon Weekend
May 16–18
Museum of the Moving Image will present a special members-only weekend event screening the first seven Mission: Impossible films, sponsored by Paramount Pictures, in the newly renovated Sumner M. Redstone Theater, just ahead of the studio’s theatrical release of the franchise’s eighth installment, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on May 23. Series info
  
HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS
 
Stelios
Preview screening co-presented by the Hellenic Film Society USA
Thursday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. 2025, 132 mins. Greece. DCP. Stelios is the touching story of a child from a Pontic refugee family who managed to survive and thrive against all odds, thanks to his immense talent and resilience in the face of social and personal challenges. Music, love, family, friends, fishing, creativity, people of the night, hardcore fans, and intense conflicts come together to create the mosaic of his life. This film is a tribute to legendary singer Stelios Kazantzidis, whose voice touched the hearts of Greeks around the world. A Firestorm Entertainment release. Event info
 
Behind the Screen: Nuestros sonidos Tour
Friday, May 9, 5:00 p.m.
Explore Behind the Screen with a guided tour highlighting the artistry and talent of often overlooked Latin American and Caribbean artists in film and television history, such as the work of sound designer Gonzalo Gavira who created groundbreaking sound effects for The Exorcist; wig-maker Josephine Turner; actress Rita Moreno; and more. Presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Nuestros sonidos (Our Sounds) program, celebrating the vibrant sounds, pioneering rhythms, endlessly diverse traditions, and enormous influence of Latin culture in the United States. Recommended for ages 6 and up. Event info
 
MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND SCREENING
Serial Mom
Friday, May 9, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 11, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. John Waters. 1994, 95 mins. U.S. DCP. With Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake. Beneath the pastels and propriety of American conformity lies the dark camp heart of John Waters’s nastiest ’90s comedy, starring a hilarious, fully committed Kathleen Turner as a suburban matriarch who makes a home like Donna Reed but makes a killing like Ed Gein. Part of MoMI Loves. Event info
 
2025 Teen Film Festival
Friday, May 9, 7:00 p.m.
Join us for the annual Teen Film Festival, organized, programmed by, and hosted by the MoMI Teen Council! The festival will feature a screening of twelve selected short film works by teen filmmakers from New York City’s five boroughs. Free with RSVP. Event info
 
Two Dogs + Wild Hogs and Saffron
Followed by a discussion with filmmaker Andy Sarjahani, series programmer Farihah Zaman, and ArteEast‘s Gelareh Kiazand and Lila Nazemian
Saturday, May 10, 3:00 p.m.
Two Dogs. Dir. Amir Azizi. 2019, 82 mins. Iran. Persian with English subtitles. DCP. With Sajjad Dolati, Ali Bagheri. Iman and Sajjad are two young men facing the struggles of their thirties in contemporary Iran: unemployment, depression, and lack of self-confidence. Both men own dogs that eerily resemble their personalities. In a traditional Iranian society where the men often feel like outsiders, their dogs become their closest companions, offering them a rare sense of connection and solace. Wild Hogs and Saffron. Dir. Andy Sarjahani. 2024, 18 mins. U.S. DCP. Iranian-American filmmaker Sarjahani and his childhood friend Bubba Samuels go on a wild hog hunt in their native Ozarks. Unexpected conversations have a lasting impact on their friendship. Part of Infinite Beauty: Muslim and MENASA Identity Onscreen. Event info
 
FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Love Your Mother Earth Mushroom Party
Saturday, May 10, 12:30–4:30 p.m.
Join MoMI, the New York Mycological Society (NYMS), and special guests on Mother’s Day weekend to celebrate Mother Earth and observe the third kingdom of life: fungi. The New York Mycological Society will lead a walk around MoMI’s neighborhood exploring the mushrooms, lichen, and mycelium in our everyday landscape that we may not have noticed. MoMI then presents the not-to-be-missed New York City premiere of Fungi: Web of Life featuring noted mycologist Merlin Sheldrake and narrated by Björk. Space is limited; RSVP encouraged. Part of Open Worlds: Science. Event info
 
FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Open Worlds Opening Party
Saturday, May 17, 2:00 p.m.
Join MoMI to celebrate the season and officially kick off Open Worlds 2025, with free gallery admission from 2:00–6:00 p.m., a DJ, complimentary cocktails courtesy of Via Carota, and a VR experience in the Fox Amphitheater. Open Worlds is an accessible, 15,500-square-foot, climate-controlled, WiFi-enabled community resource for visitors of all ages looking to convene, find creative inspiration, learn about and experience new media technologies, or participate in many diverse programming selections. This year’s Open Worlds offerings will include a wide range of free public programming from May to November, spanning themes of performance, arts conservation and accessibility, science, special effects, video gaming, and much more. Event info | Open Worlds series info
 
Troma’s Curse of the Weredeer
New York City premiere followed by Q&A with director Ben Johnson
Saturday, May 31, 6:30 p.m.
Randy and his friends are on their way to South Tromaville for a backwoods bachelor party hunting trip they won’t soon forget, because there’s something in them woods, and it’s killin’ hunters! When Randy is bitten by a strange creature, his world is turned upside down and all hell breaks loose in this delightfully delirious movie massacre rich in the irreverence and black humor that is the trademark of Troma Entertainment. Part of Disreputable Cinema. Event info
 
FREE COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Gaymer Pride
Saturday, May 31, 12:00–6:00 p.m.
To kick off Pride Month, MoMI welcomes NYC Gaymers for the 2nd annual Gaymer Pride, celebrating all aspects of gaming within the LGBTQIA+ community. Enjoy a free afternoon of panels, video games, board games, national- and NYC-based game houses, community groups, and more! NYC Gaymers Inc. empowers gamers across the intersections of orientation, identity, expression, race, and ability in order to uplift and center our most marginalized community members through education, advocacy, and the creation of safer spaces. Open Worlds series info
 
INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS
 
Mission: Impossible—Story and Spectacle
On view through December 14, 2025
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. Press release| Exhibition info
 
Portals of Solitude: Virtual Experiences from Taiwan
April 25–July 27
The Museum will present the New York premieres of four virtual reality projects in the exhibition Portals of Solitude: Virtual Experiences from Taiwan,  in the Museum’s Jane Henson Amphitheater. Featuring a broad range of styles and subjects, the four works capture feelings of isolation and ostracization through the lens of oppression, sickness, and loneliness. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Michaela Ternasky-Holland and presented in partnership with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). The works include: Hungry (Dir. Liu Yushu. 2024, 11 mins.), The Sick Rose (Dir. Huang Yun-Hsien, Tang Zhi-Zhong. 2021, 17 mins.), The Man Who Couldn’t Leave (Dir. Singing Chen. 2022, 35 mins.), and Dora (Dir. Yi Jung Chen. 2024, 30 mins.). Press release | Exhibition info
 
Compositions in Code: The Art of Processing and j5.ps
LIA & Sarah Ridgley
May 8–June 29
The latest and final installation series presented in partnership with the Tezos Foundation features diptychs by renowned artists working with code on the Museum’s Herbert S. Schlosser Media Wall. The featured artists all used the accessible, open-source programming environment Processing or the p5.js library as tools in the creation of their work. Each artist will make a fragment of the exhibited work available for the public to collect for free onsite and online via the Tezos blockchain. On view starting May 8, works by LIA (It Is Black It Is White, 2007, 2019, 2025) and Sarah Ridgley (The Words Were Only Coordinates, 2025). Press release | Exhibit info
 
is this thing on?
April 12–August 10
The livestreaming collective “is this thing on?” emerged in 2021, bringing together the artist supergroup Christopher Clary, Sarah Rothberg, Bhavik Singh, and Molly Soda. Their eponymous series has been hosted exclusively online through thing.tube, their artist-run, interactive platform. Museum of the Moving Image presents THING+YOU, inaugurating their fifth season. This latest iteration introduces hybridization to the project, blending real-time online interactives with in-person encounters for the first time. THING+YOU showcases how artists can reclaim agency in digital spaces while fostering genuine community engagement across platforms. Through this unique hybrid format, the collective extends these principles into tangible space, challenging the boundaries between online and in-person experiences. The exhibition opens with the artists taking over the Museum’s amphitheater gallery into a site-specific version of their website. The artists will continue to stream on thing.tube throughout the run of the exhibition. Press release | Exhibition info

The Jim Henson Exhibition
Ongoing
This exhibition offers a dynamic exploration of Jim Henson’s groundbreaking work for film and television and his transformative impact on culture. It features a broad range of objects from throughout his remarkable career and reveals how Henson and his team of builders, performers, and writers brought to life the enduringly popular worlds of The Muppet Show, the Muppet movies, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. Exhibition info
 
Behind the Screen
Ongoing
The Museum’s core exhibition explores how moving images are made, marketed, and shown and features more than 1,400 objects from the MoMI collection, integrated with audiovisual material and computer-based interactive experiences. The latest addition, Clayography in Motion, which highlights the film Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot—nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature—features original puppets from the film and interactive stations where visitors can create their own short animations using 2D cutouts of characters. Exhibition info
 
Find all current MoMI exhibitions here.
  
About Museum of the Moving Image
Founded in 1985, 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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Image: 2024 Open World program in the MoMI Courtyard (Thanassi Karageorgiou)

Press contacts:
Tomoko Kawamoto, MoMI, tkawamoto@movingimage.org
Anya Shelton, Precision Strategies, anya@precisionstrategies.com

PRESS IMAGES

Museum of the Moving Image is located at 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106.

 Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and has received significant support from the following public agencies: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York City Council; New York City Economic Development Corporation; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Institute of Museum and Library Services; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Arts; and Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation).