The Film Club event that all Bucknell film enthusiasts look forward to occurred earlier this fall. For the past few years, a handful of lucky students have had the amazing opportunity of attending the New York Film Festival (NYFF) for one weekend, experiencing a wide range of cinematic voices. The NYFF is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the United States, featuring a small, yet highly selective, plate of films from around the world.
The 63rd edition of the NYFF welcomed our group with films from established directors such as Claire Denis, Joachim Trier, James Benning and Masao Adachi, as well as more recent talents including Hlynur Pálmason and Oliver Laxe. Academic Film Programmer and Lecturer Rebecca Meyers, who is the film programmer for Bucknell screenings at the Campus Theatre and who also chose the screenings we would attend, explained that she wished for students to have the “eye opening” experience of realizing that “a community of film lovers like those who attend NYFF” exists, bridging the “undeniable disconnect between the diversity, aesthetics and aspirations of films that screen at NYFF, and the movies that usually take up space at multiplexes, on Netflix, in social media conversations about popular culture, etc.”
Indeed, seeing a film in a festival setting is a different experience than simply seeing it at home on your laptop before bed. One film club member that joined our trip, Carmen Bonner ’29, explained that “seeing these films in the festival felt like going to a museum. It was an art exhibit viewed alongside others with a similar passion for this art.” We really were at a crossroad between academia and fun, where, as Meyers put it, “Films are introduced by experts, by programmers and film critics and sometimes the directors themselves– people who were involved in selecting the film, who can contextualize its place in international, contemporary and historical film culture.”
And the relatively small scale of the NYFF had its merits, too. “Watching something so subtle and intimate in a smaller theater was entirely different. You could feel the attention of everyone watching. It made the whole experience more personal, like you were part of something being shared rather than just shown,” described Shaheryar Asghar ’28.
All in all, there was a film for everyone. I got to watch Radu Jude’s latest work, “Kontinental ’25,” which dealt with the many socioeconomic issues plaguing my home country of Romania. Others cherished the new experimental film of James Benning, “Little Boy,” whose structured form, focusing on otherwise invisible elements, made it Maria Aguilar Marquez’s ’27 favorite film of the festival. She “enjoyed how we got to hear speeches from different time periods and movements in the US,” in a movie “less action packed, so listening was the main focus of the film, which is not something we see often in films.”
Yet both students and professors came to an unspoken consensus on the most loved film we watched. “My favorite film was Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value.” It was such a moving and masterful piece of art with astounding performances and an incisive script. I can’t wait to see it again,” said Associate Professor of English – Film/Media Studies & Creative Writing Brian Hauser, who was our chaperone for the trip. Cecilia Hoogstra ’29 described it as “my absolute favorite because the entire film felt as though I grew up alongside the characters and experienced their lives alongside them. I felt so close to each of the characters and the ending was incredibly fulfilling.” And Asghar said of “Sentimental Value” that “It felt like breathing through someone else’s memories, tender and deeply human. What made it stand out wasn’t the story itself but how it let silence, glances and stillness carry the emotion. It didn’t tell you what to feel; it let you arrive there on your own.”
But it’s not just the films that make the experience so memorable, it’s also getting to spend a weekend in New York City surrounded by people that have the same interests as you! “I enjoyed getting food and walking around Times Square in the few hours of free time that we had, even though we got a little rained on,” said Bonner. Far from the busy Times Square, Marquez recalls how she wandered through Central Park and took many pictures despite the somewhat rainy weather. And if you can’t get enough films in one weekend, Professor Hauser told me he was also able to “take in screenings at the 2025 Greek Film Expo put on by the Hellenic Film Society, as well as a Chantal Akerman screening at “Moma,” all in just two days!”
Coming back from the trip, we’re all left with a different perspective on film than when we set out. Hoogstra explains that defining a film is more challenging now, as “the criteria is much more wide ranging than I initially thought.” I felt similarly last year, when my understanding of experimental cinema drastically expanded upon seeing the short film screenings; I was left just wanting to learn more. But when all is said and done, it’s probably Hauser who put it best, “The most important thing I hope students have learned from the trip is to take advantage of the many amazing opportunities that Bucknell University makes available to students every year!” Hence, if you want a glimpse of what a film festival feels like, in terms of variety of screenings and discussions, check out Bucknell’s Campus Theater screenings, which are often free and curated by Bucknell’s amazing professors!