Film Comment Magazine to Go on Hiatus as Film at Lincoln Center Lays Off Half of Staff

Many companies are being financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Film at Lincoln Center is the latest organization to have to lay off employees and pause some of their operations.

On Friday, executive director Lesli Klainberg released a memo announcing that the center had to furlough or lay off about half of its 50-person full-time staff and all of its part-time employees. She added that the company will continue to provide health insurance for the furloughed full-time staffers.

Additionally, the magazine’s May/June issue will only be released digitally, rather than in print. After that, the publication will be on an indefinite hiatus. On Twitter, the magazine’s account said, “We aim to be back delivering the best in film criticism soon.” The Film at Lincoln Center has published the cinema and arts magazine since 1962.

Film at Lincoln Center had already suspended its theater operations on March 12 due to recommendations from the Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control, but its programming had already been hit hard. The Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and Mapping Bacurau events had been cut short, and its New Directors/New Films series with the Museum of Modern Art was postponed. The center’s annual Chaplin Awards Gala fundraiser has also been postponed to the fall.