Annual Museum Of Modern Art International Festival of Film

Our annual To Save and Project festival returns in 2025 with a rich selection of newly restored treasures from archives around the world. This year's program spans nearly a century of cinema, from pioneering German Expressionist works like Robert Wiene's Raskolnikow (1923) to groundbreaking independent films of the 1970s like James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus (1971). Films from Argentina, Thailand, India, Syria, the Czech Republic, and beyond highlight cinema's global diversity and the work of film preservation institutions worldwide.

Highlights include the rediscovery of Yevgeni Cherviakov's forgotten Soviet masterpiece My Son (1928), found in Argentina and restored by GEM; the racy pre-Code Hollywood comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932) from the Library of Congress; and Andre Bonzel's Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By, a powerful repurposing of home movies from Janus Films. The program features restorations by major archives and funders, including The Film Foundation, UCLA Film and Television Archive, the Cinemathèque française, and Filmmuseum München.

The series opens on January 9 with the world premiere of MoMA's newly upgraded restoration of Frank Borzage's transcendent romance 7th Heaven (1927), and concludes on January 30 with the world premiere of MoMA's new reconstruction of the long unseen, original 1918 version of Charles Chaplin's World War I comedy Shoulder Arms.

Schedule of Events:

4:00 pm: Gunman's Walk. 1958. Directed by Phil Karlson

Gunman's Walk. 1958. USA. Directed by Phil Karlson. Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, Ric Hardman. With Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Kathryn Grant. New York City premiere. Courtesy Swank. 97 min.

Phil Karlson's widescreen Western continues the psychological and thematic complexity that had been transforming the genre since the late 1940s, particularly in its examination of violence and patriarchal authority in the American West. Van Heflin, one of the first Hollywood stars to embrace the neuroticism of the American male, plays Lee Hackett, a veteran rancher whose mythologized tales of frontier conquest have molded his son Ed (Tab Hunter, in a dark and surprisingly effective performance) into a dangerous reflection of outdated values. Kathryn Grant delivers a nuanced performance as Clee Chouard, a half–Native American woman whose romance with Ed's younger brother Davy (James Darren) catalyzes the film's tragic confrontation with racial prejudice and familial obligation.

Frank S. Nugent's sophisticated screenplay (following his work on The Searchers) deepens the decade's ongoing critique of frontier mythology, while Karlson, celebrated for his taut crime dramas (The Phenix City Story, 99 River Street), applies his characteristic attention to power dynamics and moral compromise to the Western format, creating moments of shocking cruelty.

4K digital restoration by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Restored from the 35mm original picture negative and the 35mm original magnetic mono soundtrack master. 4K scanning and digital image restoration by Cineric, Inc. Sound restoration by BluWave Audio. Color grading, conforming, additional image restoration, and DCP creation (preserving the original Cinemascope aspect ratio 2.55:1) by Motion Picture Imaging with colorist Sheri Eisenberg. Restoration supervised by Grover Crisp.

6:30 pm: Bend of the River. 1952. Directed by Anthony Mann

Bend of the River. 1952. USA. Directed by Anthony Mann. Screenplay by Borden Chase, Bill Gulick. With James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Rock Hudson. US premiere. 91 min.

In this second collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart (after Winchester '73), their reinvention of the Western achieves a remarkable fusion of psychological complexity and natural grandeur. Filmed amid the wintry landscapes of Oregon's Mount Hood region, the film transforms the familiar Western journey narrative into a penetrating study of moral character under extreme pressure. Stewart, continuing to darken and deepen his screen persona, plays Glyn McLyntock, a former Missouri border raider seeking redemption as a wagon train guide. His path crosses with Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy), another man with a violent past, setting up a complex mirror relationship that defies simple moral binaries.

Working from Borden Chase's screenplay (adapted from Bill Gulick's novel), Mann crafts a narrative that begins in the familiar territory of community-building and settlement but evolves into something far more troubling: an examination of how quickly civilized veneer can crack under pressure. Stewart's performance as McLyntock represents a crucial development in his postwar screen persona, suggesting depths of violence and moral ambiguity that would have been unthinkable in his prewar roles.

Based on the original Technicolor separations, this new digital restoration from Universal Pictures returns a breathtaking depth and clarity to Irving Glassberg's innovative location photography.

4K digital restoration by Universal Pictures from the 35mm three-strip original negative in collaboration with The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Restoration services conducted by NBCUniversal StudioPost.