Adrienne Mancia Obituary, Death – We regret to tell you of the demise of Adrienne Mancia, who was one of the most renowned programmers and curators in our industry. She served as the former curator of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art. It is with great regret that we must inform you of the passing of Adrienne Mancia on December 11, 2022 at the age of 95.
Ms. Mancia was the former Curator of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), one of the most renowned programmers and curators in the field of film heritage, and a mentor to a large number of programmers of subsequent generations. Her passing comes as a great loss to all of us. Adrienne Mancia began her career at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964, when she was hired on as the Secretary to Richard Griffith, the Curator of the Film Department. Within the space of a year, she was promoted to the position of Curatorial Assistant and given full control over all film displays.
She brought innovations to the Museum’s auditorium exhibition programme, finding the right balance between programmes of classics and the more neglected contemporary works, with the encouragement of Willard Van Dyke, the new Director of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), who supported her efforts. She was responsible for introducing audiences in the United States to new cinemas from Latin America and Europe.
During the 1970s, she was an active participant in the process of choosing films to screen at the inaugural ‘New Directors/New Films’ festival, which was co-organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. She was given the position of Curator in the MoMA Department of Film in 1977, and she remained in that position until the year 1998.