NYFF Launches 'Encounters' Series With Panahi Documentary
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- NYFF is launching "NYFF Encounters" at its 64th edition, commissioning directors with films in the lineup to shoot short films at the festival; each will premiere at the following edition.
- Kleber Mendonça Filho's "South of Tehran," an eight-minute documentary short about Jafar Panahi, is the inaugural Encounters film, shot at NYFF 2025.
- The film follows conversations between Panahi and Mendonça Filho throughout New York, filmed while both were screening features — "The Secret Agent" and "It Was Just an Accident," respectively.
- The project takes direct inspiration from Agnès Varda's 1967 short "Pier Paolo Pasolini — Agnès Varda — New York — 1967," made at the fourth NYFF.
- Dennis Lim, NYFF's artistic director, described the festival as "a place of encounter" and said the commissioned films could form "a historical archive as significant as our iconic poster collection."
- The 64th New York Film Festival runs September 25 through October 12.
Why it matters: The NYFF Encounters initiative creates a new annual commissioning pipeline that turns the festival into a production site, with the inaugural eight-minute film — shot while Mendonça Filho and Panahi were both screening features at NYFF 2025 — modeled on Varda's 1967 Pasolini portrait and intended to build a lasting festival archive.
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