Eugene Hernandez has been promoted to the new role of SVP of Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) and Executive Director of the New York Film Festival (NYFF), and Dennis Lim has been upped to the NYFF’s first-ever Artistic Director, newly promoted President, Lesli Klainberg, announced on Friday. Hernandez will also continue to lead FLC’s strategic initiatives, including his role as publisher of Film Comment.
This year will mark the 60th anniversary of NYFF, and the festival will run from Sept. 30 to Oct. 16. The NYFF Main Slate selection committee, chaired by Lim, also includes Hernandez, Florence Almozini, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen.
“Eugene and Dennis have done an extraordinary job during challenging times, leading the last two New York Film Festivals to great success,” Klainberg said in a statement. “With the upcoming 60th edition, we seek to expand our commitment to the festival and its integral role in film culture by elevating Eugene and Dennis and dedicating more of our resources and energy to ensuring a significant impact and awareness this year and in the years to come.”
Klainberg added: “Dennis is one of the most highly respected programmers in the world. This new role as Artistic Director puts him alongside those with similar roles at leading international film festivals. Eugene continues to be a leading light in the film community, and his leadership of NYFF has been transformative. This also presents us a remarkable opportunity to introduce a new curatorial voice to our year-round programming of the Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.”
As NYFF Artistic Director, Lim will continue to oversee the curation and programming process for the festival. Lim will continue to provide input for other FLC programs. Matt Bolish, FLC’s new VP of Operations & Production, will continue as Producer of NYFF, rounding out the festival’s leadership team. Bolish has been with FLC for 11 years.
Hernandez is a film journalist and the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of IndieWire. In 2010, he joined FLC as director of digital strategy and was promoted to deputy director in 2014. He was named the Director of the NYFF in 2020. He’s worked as a consultant for non-profits including the Creative Capital Foundation, and he serves on the board of advisors for SXSW, SeriesFest, and Art House Convergence and is a programming consultant for the Key West Film Festival. Earlier this year, he joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a Member-at-Large.
Lim has been the director of programming at FLC since 2013, leading the year-round curatorial strategy for the organization. During his tenure, he has co-chaired the New Directors/New Films selection committee, launched FLC’s annual Art of the Real festival, and organized retrospectives of Jane Campion, George Cukor, Christian Petzold, Raúl Ruiz, Agnès Varda, and John Waters. He was previously the film editor of the Village Voice and the editorial director of the Museum of the Moving Image, and was the programmer of the 2010 Flaherty Film Seminar. His 2015 book “David Lynch: The Man from Another Place” has been translated into three languages. His monograph on the Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo will be published this spring.