Film Forum Features Cinematic Tales of AI
Film Forum Announces a spectacular series of AI-centric films.
Attention NYC and metropolitan area sci-fi cinephiles: exciting things are happening over at Film Forum! Today the historic and much beloved theater kicks off a three-week festival dedicated to movies that deal directly or tangentially with artificial intelligence (AI).
“AI: From Metropolis to Ex Machina . . . or How the Movies Have Been Warning Us for Nearly 100 Years” will run from Friday, January 3rd to Thursday, January 23rd.
I looked at the lineup and it is a knockout! Film Forum is screening an extremely diverse series of more than 30 live-action and animated science fiction films. This series covers a wide spectrum in terms of subject and tone: from absurd and satirical, to comedic and playful, to dark and dystopian. There’s truly something for everybody here.
There are a few too many titles to detail them all but here are a few highlights to whet your appetite. We’ll start with the seminal silent German expressionist film Metropolis (1927), with its stylized Art Déco production design and dramatic presentation of a utopian future, class divides, and, of course, the iconic humanoid robot Maria. Then there is Forbidden Planet (1956), a dazzling high point for mid-century science fiction that had a huge influence on big- and small-screen sci-fi productions to follow. This film also features Robby the Robot, one of the most recognizable signifiers of classic science fiction.
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) is an exciting if sobering and cautionary tale of an all-powerful supercomputer gone wrong—very wrong. And it is hard to overstate the impact of Bladerunner (1982), a dark glimpse of a dystopian future where near-human and near-perfect replicants who want more from “life.” And then there’s Pixar’s WALL-E (2008), everyone’s favorite curious and kind robot who hitches a ride into space and unwittingly saves a consumption-driven humanity from itself. Last (but certainly not least), we have Ex-Machina (2015), a visually chic, minimalist, and unsettling story of cyborgs with an artificial intelligence who may be one step ahead of their human creator.
The list goes on—from Alphaville (1965) and The Stepford Wives (1975), to War Games (1982) and The Matrix (1999). There is no shortage of good films here.
A huge plus for this festival: nearly every film will be featured more than once in staggered screenings within the three-week period. Check out this two-page festival flyer in PDF or visit the series landing page for more information, including the full slate of movies and their screening dates/times.
A good number of these movies fall firmly into Concentric Cinema’s wheelhouse so we will be featuring many of them in the future. In the meantime, get out and see some movies and let us know what you thought!
Rest assured this is us talking, not an AI-generated chatbot. Hope to see you at the movies!
Exterior shot of Film Forum’s current location since 1990.
Established in 1970, Film Forum is a nonprofit theater that specializes in independent film premieres, international film screenings, and repertory programming. They are a cinematic institution here in NYC and one worth preserving. They also have great popcorn!
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