Don’t miss acclaimed director Ron Howard as he appears at Lincoln Center on November 22.
Sponsored by HBO, these free Amphitheater talks are presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, each featuring directors and actors discussing their new work and reflecting on their career, influences, and approach to filmmaking.
Ron Howard began his career as an actor, playing beloved television roles such as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days before transitioning into film with American Graffiti (1973). After making his feature directorial debut with Grand Theft Auto in 1977, Howard shifted his focus to filmmaking and amassed a body of work that includes Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985), Apollo 13 (1995), and A Beautiful Mind (2001), which earned him the Oscar for Best Director.
Howard comes to Lincoln Center as part of the year-round Film Society Talks series, sponsored by HBO, to discuss his latest work, In the Heart of the Sea. In the winter of 1820, a New England whaling ship was assaulted by a whale of mammoth size and will, stranding its crew at sea for 90 days. The real-life disaster inspired Herman Melville’s landmark novel Moby-Dick, and In the Heart of the Sea reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits to stay alive. Howard will discuss his career in front of and behind the camera, as well as the making of this new film, which stars Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson, and opens in theaters December 11.
Free tickets will be distributed at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office (144 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam) on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the talks. Limit one ticket per person, subject to availability.
America’s pre-eminent film presentation organization, the Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience.
As an independent constituent of the world’s foremost performing arts center, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents year-round programming that includes premieres of new films from an international roster of established and emerging directors; major retrospectives; in-depth symposia and high profile events. The Film Society is one of those rare institutions whose stature is matched by its popularity, each year welcoming an aggregate audience of more than 200,000 film aficionados, filmmakers and industry leaders of every nationality, age, economic and ethnic group. The organization has been a pioneer among film institutions and one of the film world’s most respected and influential arbiters of cinematic trends and discoveries. François Truffaut, R.W. Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson—over the last four decades there is scarcely a major director who has not been introduced to American audiences by the Film Society.
The Film Society is best known for two world-class international festivals—the New York Film Festival (the most famous and prestigious in the country), and New Directors/New Films (celebrating new cinematic artists). It runs two state-of-the-art year round cinemas, the Walter Reade Theater (268 seats) and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (90 seats, 150 seats and the 75-seat Amphitheater), and publishes the country’s most respected cinematic journal, Film Comment. Each year the organization presents its annual Gala Tribute honoring legendary stars and industry leaders of our generation at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. At various times of the year the Film Society partners with Hollywood studios to present premieres and special live appearances.