At Film Society, Two Programmers Will Take Over From Festival Veteran

September 13, 2012, 2:33 pm

By FELICIA R. LEE

Nearly a year after the longtime programming director of the New York Film Festival said he was stepping down, the organization that runs it has chosen not one but two replacements. The Film Society of Lincoln Center on Thursday announced the appointment of Kent Jones as director of programming for the festival and Robert Koehler as director of programming, year round.

They will take over at the end of 2012 from Richard Peña, who said last October that he planned to leave his dual posts as society programming director and chairman of the festival selection committee.

The new officials will be familiar to followers of the festival. Mr. Jones, 51, is a well-respected film programmer, writer and director who has a Guggenheim fellowship this year to work on a book about 20th century America as seen through a handful of films. He joined the society in 1998 as an associate director of programming. Among other roles, he served on the festival selection committee starting in 2002. But he was one of four employees who resigned in 2009, shortly after Mara Manus was brought in as executive director. (Ms. Manus made several controversial changes, including dismissing 7 of the society's 42 employees, and was herself replaced by Rose Kuo in July 2010.)

Mr. Koehler, 56, is a festival programmer and film critic who has written for several publications, including Variety and The Christian Science Monitor in the United States as well as Cahiers du Cinema in France and Spain. His column analyzing festivals can be read at Filmlinc.com, the Web site of the Film Society.

In an interview by phone, Mr. Jones cited the opening last year of the society's Elinor Bunin M onroe Film Center as an example of the new job's potential. “That's what I am interested in building on,” he said. “As I start working with my colleagues, things inevitably will be tweaked, changed, and moved but it's not something I can talk about now.”

Mr. Jones called the position an honor and declined comment on his decision to resign in 2009. After he left, he continued his longtime collaboration with Martin Scorsese, with whom he has worked on documentaries like “My Voyage to Italy” and “A Letter to Italy.”

Mr. Koehler said that he was “greatly moved” to be offered the post and said that it would in part be “a continuation of a relationship that Rose Kuo and I have had for the past eight years.”

The change in leadership comes just a few weeks before the 50th edition of the New York Film Festival begins, Sept. 28. The film society, founded in 1969, has had to become more competitive in recent years with the emergence of forei gn and independent cinemas at sites like the Tribeca Film Festival and the IFC Center, not to mention stalwarts like Film Forum and the Museum of Modern Art.

The society's expansion on the Lincoln Center campus, budgeted at more than $40 million, included two new theaters as well as offices and a restaurant-café. Both Alice Tully Hall and the Walter Reade Theater have been renovated in recent years to improve their acoustics for film screenings.

The two directors will also “develop new programming initiatives and film series including first runs, family films, new media, educational and artist development programs,” the society said in making the announcement. In a statement, Ms. Kuo, the executive director, added, “Kent Jones and Bob Koehler, whose thinking and writing about cinema I deeply respect, are the perfect team to build upon Richard's vision and carry it forward.”

Mr. Peña, the programming director for 25 years, will continue his involv ement by helping organize a new educational initiative, according to Thursday's announcement. Mr. Peña said last year that the 50th anniversary of the film festival this year and his 25th year as a director were “the perfect occasion to cut off” and do something different.