After the filmmaker Kent Jones stepped down from his role as the director of the New York Film Festival last fall, Film at Lincoln Center, which organizes the event, did not have to look far for his successor.
The organization announced Wednesday that Eugene Hernandez, its deputy executive director, has been appointed director of the festival.
Hernandez currently oversees the organization’s artist, industry and education initiatives. He has also been the co-publisher of Film Comment magazine, along with Lesli Klainberg, the executive director of Film at Lincoln Center. With his new role, he will become the sole publisher of the magazine and will also serve on the festival’s selection committee.
Hernandez hopes to attract even more global artists and audiences to the festival, he said in a phone interview. “We’re at such a great moment for cinema internationally,” he said. It is “humbling and exciting to be in this role at this very specific moment.”
After Jones’s departure, Film at Lincoln Center re-evaluated the festival and the responsibilities of its director.
“The festival itself is our biggest event of the year,” Klainberg said. “It really needed a position that encompassed more of an overall strategy and leadership of the festival, not just with the programming.”
With the changes comes an expanded position for Dennis Lim, the director of programming at Film at Lincoln Center, who will now also become the director of programming for the festival.
Hernandez joined Film at Lincoln Center as the director of digital strategy in 2010. He was promoted to deputy director in 2014. Previously, he was a founder of the film news site IndieWire and was its editor in chief for nearly 15 years.
The 2019 New York Film Festival featured 153 movies, including the world premiere of Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated Mafia film, “The Irishman.” This year’s edition will run Sept. 25 to Oct. 11.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
