Who says you can’t travel to foreign places without ever leaving the five boroughs? New Yorkers who long to escape icy sidewalks and winter wind this January need travel no further than Queens to attend the Museum of the Moving Image’s annual international film showcase, First Look. This two-weekend series highlights for New York audiences the best and most inventive films spanning the globe for 2013.

With selections from established directors such as Bruno Dumont and Nicolás Pereda and from exciting emerging filmmakers, this 26-film line-up of full length features and shorts offers a a welcome refuge from the hectic build up to and hullabaloo surrounding awards season. This year’s First Look series focuses on journeys—both geographical and emotional—a theme that should appeal to New York cinephiles eager to escape the winter landscape. Programmed by Moving Image Source editor Dennis Lim and MOMI’s team of curators, the second annual First Look series celebrates genre-defying international works remarkable for their creativity and ingenuity.

Most of the films being shown are making their New York premieres. If audiences need any more incentive to attend, some of the filmmakers behind these films will be in attendance as well. The series will open with Outside Satan (Hors Satan) by Bruno Dumont (L’humanite), followed by an opening reception sponsored by Beyond Kombucha and the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in the United States. This beautiful film, photographed in CinemaScope, follows a nameless drifter (David Dewaele) whose mysterious powers transcend ordinary concepts of good and evil.

From Easy Rider (an experimental re-imagining of the seminal 1969 film) to Winter Go Away! (a collaboration between 10 young Russian filmmakers), the MOMI’s First Look series should appeal to every type of international film lover.

To get ticket information and see the complete line up of films, visit the MOMI website.

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