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Film at Lincoln Center, the nonprofit organization that programs the New York Film Festival, has named the British movie executive Daniel Battsek its next president.
From 2016 until early 2024, Battsek, 66, was chairman of the British production company Film4, overseeing the financing of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) and “The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022), among other releases.
Battsek will succeed Lesli Klainberg, who had led Film at Lincoln Center since 2014 before stepping down last year.
In an interview, Battsek, who will take over in May, said the centrality of film in the New York City cultural landscape had always appealed to him.
“Film is much further down the culture ladder than it is here,” said Battsek, who was based in New York as president of Miramax Films before joining Film4. “I love that cinema is seen as being on a level with opera and ballet and theater.”
Battsek’s appointment comes amid an industrywide downturn as movie theaters struggle to attract an audience that has yet to return to prepandemic numbers and are increasingly contending with competition from streaming services.
While he acknowledged those pressures, he also sounded a note of optimism: There’s been rising interest in independent films, Battsek said.
“If you look at the independent releases like ‘Anora’ that have really, really done well both theatrically and on streaming, all of that builds toward the potential to capture a growing audience, as opposed to trying desperately to hold onto a shrinking audience,” he said, referring to this year’s best picture winner at the Oscars.
Founded in 1969, Film at Lincoln Center operates on an annual budget of $15.5 million with 85 employees, and has more than 5,300 members.
It is perhaps best known for the New York Film Festival, where “Anora,” the Sean Baker sex worker dramedy, played last fall along with “The Brutalist” and “Nickel Boys.”
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