Film at Lincoln Center

Upper West Side & Central Park


Film at Lincoln Center is one of New York’s cinematic gems, providing an invaluable platform for a wide gamut of documentary, feature, independent, foreign and avant-garde art pictures. Films screen in one of two facilities at Lincoln Center: the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, a more intimate, experimental venue, or the Walter Reade Theater, with wonderfully wide, screening-room-style seats.

Every September/October both venues host the New York Film Festival, featuring plenty of New York and world premieres. In March/April you’ll find the New Directors/New Films series on view. It's highly recommended for cinephiles.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Upper West Side & Central Park attractions

1. Lincoln Center

This stark arrangement of gleaming modernist temples houses some of Manhattan’s most important performance companies: the New York Philharmonic, the New…

2. David Rubenstein Atrium

0.14 MILES

The David Rubenstein Atrium is a modern public space behind the Empire Hotel offering a lounge area (with free wi-fi), a cafe, and a TKTS booth selling…

3. American Folk Art Museum

0.16 MILES

This small institution offers rotating exhibitions in three small galleries. Past exhibits have included quilts made by 19th-century soldiers and…

4. Museum of Arts & Design

0.41 MILES

MAD offers four floors of superlative design and handicrafts, from blown glass and carved wood to elaborate metal jewelry. Temporary exhibitions are…

5. Hearst Tower

0.45 MILES

This 46-floor tower is one of NYC's most creative works of contemporary architecture, not to mention one of its greenest; around 90% of its structural…

6. Dakota Building

0.51 MILES

A turreted, gabled building described in 1884 as so far uptown it was in 'the Dakotas,' this sand-colored gem quickly became the epitome of cool, housing…

7. Strawberry Fields

0.57 MILES

Standing inside the park across from the famous Dakota Building, where John Lennon was fatally shot in 1980, is this poignant, tear-shaped garden – a…

8. The Mall

0.66 MILES

This Parisian-style promenade – allegedly the only straight line in Central Park – lined with rare North American elms, is flanked by statues of literati…