Jacqueline Lentzou returns to the big New York film scene , confirming her steadily rising international trajectory. The Greek director will present her second feature film, “A Day in the Life of Jo: Phaedra Chapter,” at Currents of the 64th New York International Film Festival (NYFF) , where the film will make its North American premiere , once again bringing contemporary Greek cinema to the center of a leading international event.
The Greek director’s new work will have its North American premiere there, as part of the event that will take place from September 25 to October 12, 2026 , once again bringing contemporary Greek cinema to one of the most important film audiences in the United States.
Lentzo’s presence takes on special significance, as Currents is one of the most distinctive sections of the festival. It is the space where Film at Lincoln Center brings together creators who seek new ways of cinematic storytelling, test the limits of the image, and attempt to speak differently about man and the world around him.
This year’s event features 15 feature-length and 28 short films , with entries from 24 countries and regions. Among them are works by important creators of international cinema, which makes the Greek presence with Jacqueline Lentzou’s film even more noteworthy.
For her, New York is no stranger to the city. Her first feature film, “Moon, 66 Questions,” premiered in 2021 at New Directors/New Films, a joint event between Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. Five years later, she returns to the American metropolis, this time as part of the official NYFF program and with a work deeply tied to contemporary Athens and the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood .
At the center of the film is 15-year-old Jo and a day that is about to change her life.
The story unfolds in the suburbs of Athens. At first, everything seems to move within the familiar rhythms of a teenager: the tensions with her mother, the complicated relationship with her divorced father, school, the quests of adulthood and the sudden attraction she feels for her new friend, Phaedra .
In this seemingly ordinary everyday life, however, an unexpected and violent incident comes to turn everything upside down. The day that began like any other turns into a turning point for Jo and the film gradually abandons the familiar paths of a conventional coming-of-age story.
Lentzou uses her heroine’s personal experience to move towards deeper questions about life, loss, human connection, transience, and those moments that can abruptly change our perception of the world .
This is precisely what seems to have distinguished Film at Lincoln Center. The film is described as a work in which the everyday meets the mundane, and the utterly personal gradually opens up to larger, existential questions.
Athens doesn’t just function as a setting. It becomes part of the narrative. The suburbs, family relationships, small conflicts and insecurities of adolescence form a recognizable world, within which the director places a heroine who is right on the border between childhood and adulthood.
“A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra” is 90 minutes long, is in Greek and will be screened in New York with English subtitles.
Its participation in the NYFF takes on even greater weight when one considers the international environment it is part of. This year’s Currents hosts creations from different film schools and cultures, with a common characteristic being the attempt to escape conventional forms.
Among the works that stand out is Tala Hadid’s “Bardi,” which will have its world premiere in New York, documenting a group of horsemen in central Morocco and the tradition of Tbourida.
Also on the program is “Heil Jupiter!” by Carlos Reygadas , while Ana Vaz, with “Hanabi,” turns her gaze to modern Japan, having as its historical and social background the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Mariano Llinás, for his part, is attempting a 330-minute cinematic portrait of Jorge Luis Borges , using archival material, manuscripts, poems and private collections, while Éric Baudelaire is collaborating with students from the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, attempting to approach the very concept of the cinematic image differently.
Greek film also finds itself within this demanding international environment. And perhaps this is the greatest significance of its choice.
Jacqueline Lentzou does not attempt to present a touristy or embellished image of Greece . She takes a very specific corner of modern Athens, a family, a fifteen-year-old girl and a single day, and transforms them into the material of a story that can communicate with viewers far beyond the Greek borders.
This is, after all, one of the great bets of cinema: to start from something deeply local and personal and end up speaking a universal language .
The selection of “A Day in the Life of Jo: Phaedra Chapter” at the 64th New York International Film Festival thus constitutes another important moment for the international presence of Greek filmmakers. And for Jacqueline Lentzou, it marks another step in a path that, from Athens, continues to find its way to the world’s major film festivals.
