Filmmaker Statement

New Year’s Eve symbolizes change and rebirth and is a frequent backdrop for fictional characters to evolve. When I realized that many of my favorite movies had pivotal New Year’s Eve scenes, I thought it would be interesting to organize filmic representations of the New Year in chronological order of depiction. Films like Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Waiting To Exhale (1995), and others were excluded because while the New Year is an inciting incident, it’s not directly shown on screen. Others, like Pollock (2000) and Fruitvale Station (2008) weren’t included because their New Year’s Eve scenes were depictions of real-life events that happened to occur during New Year's Eve. Many others were excluded because I simply ran out of time, or because – in the case of 200 Cigarettes (1999) – they are nearly impossible to get a copy of (a DVD of that film retails for a baffling $95 on Amazon). If you have a suggestion of a NYE scene I’ve missed, please sound off in the comments.