Films this week 11/21/2025 to 11/27/2025
by Gary Palmucci | 21st November 2025 | Gary's Corner
A raft of special guests will be joining New Plaza Cinema’s lineup over the next five days. Our bi-monthly event, NYC Short Film Showcase – always a sellout – will occupy its usual Friday evening slot, with most or all of the filmmakers sticking around for a joint Q&A session.
Next Tuesday night at 630 pm, we’ll present another special weeknight screening, this time of Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, hosted by director Oren Rudavsky and co-producer/film historian Annette Insdorf. We’re very pleased that John Turturro (making his second visit to New Plaza Cinema) will join us to introduce the screening; coincidentally, he portrayed author Primo Levi, a later-in-life close friend of Elie Wiesel, in the film The Truce from the great Italian director Francesco Rosi.
A block of tickets at regular prices has been reserved for this event for New Plaza Cinema patrons…proceed accordingly.
Another singular screening this weekend is the recent documentary Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse, from filmmakers Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin, whose earlier standout work includes portraits of Rosamond Purcell and the late Ricky Jay. Spiegelman’s two volume graphic novel Maus, awarded a special Pulitzer Prize citation in the early 90s, remains iconic for its singular depiction of the Holocaust and – along with The Diary of Anne Frank – is still banned in some American school districts.
Check out the website falloffreedom.com for further info on a nationwide weekend of events in many of the arts, of which this film is a participant, screening in its original, uncensored version. Mr. Dolin will join us for a Q&A.
Shttl continues its run of packed screenings this weekend. Saturday’s matinee is part of a response to our outer-borough patrons who’ve requested a daytime screening; next month we’ll also be scheduling a Sunday afternoon show. This weekend, Shttl’s tireless leading man Moshe Lobel will again be with us, and Sunday night his co-star Saul Rubinek, currently performing the one-man show Playing Shylock in Brooklyn, will return to join Moshe in an after-discussion.
Fresh from its downtown premiere, the French drama Auction was praised by the NY Times’ Manohla Dargis: “The stakes and the haul aren’t as spectacularly high as those in the recent Louvre jewelry heist. Even so, there is much on the line in this smart, digressive, agreeably sardonic drama set in the art world, which tracks what happens after a decades-lost painting by Egon Schiele resurfaces…Pascal Bonitzer, film critic turned writer-director, has writen scripts for the likes of Jacques Rivette, Andre Techine and Raoul Peck (the recent Orwell).”
Several patrons have also asked if we would reprise Roman Polanski’s riveting period drama An Officer and a Spy – yes, on Saturday evening. Also continuing this weekend: Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon and June Squibb in Eleanor the Great.
Saturday , November 29 at Noon – George Stevens’ Giant, from Edna Ferber’s novel, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, with an eclectic, after-discussion guest list.
Palestine 36 – November 29 at 5 pm, a special ‘sneak preview’ of Palestine’s submission to the 2026 Academy Awards for Best International Feature, recounting the 1936-39 Arab revolt against British colonial rule during the Mandate period. Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbass and Saleh Bakri head the large cast.
Rebel With a Clause – Gerund-phile grammarians Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson are back in town, hosting encore screenings on Sunday November 30 at 445 pm, and Sunday December 7 at 6 pm…with more to come!
Saturday, December 6 at 6 pm – Roman Polanski’s ‘haunted Dakota’ classic, Rosemary’s Baby with Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon.
Saturday, December 13 at 1215 pm – The Nutcracker at Wethersfield, a unique production of this holiday classic. Check our website for a full description.