Most avid filmgoers are critics-but there's nobody to sound off to. Imagine being in a theater after previewing a major new film, the lights go up, and in front of you are the creators of the film. Welcome to Ralph Appelbaum's Filmmakers Dialogue, New York's premier film preview series. Now celebrating its 32nd year.

Without waiting in line (except maybe for popcorn)-you can preview important new studio and independent releases and meet the films' actors, directors, writers and producers.

Since launching FILMMAKERS DIALOGUE in 1980, with a showing of The Elephant Man at the Library and Museum for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center to an audience of 100 New York film lovers and a post-screening discussion with director David Lynch, producer Jonathan Sanger and actor John Hurt, the series has been a special venue for previewing the best new films and discussing the creative process with the filmmakers themselves.

Our loyal film fans have been rewarded over the years with such important movies as 127 Hours, Win Win, Blue Valentine, Hereafter, Million Dollar Baby, The Sea Inside, Out of Africa, Terms of Endearment, Gorillas in the Mist, Field of Dreams, Scarface, In the Name of the Father, Sea of Love, Casino, The Crying Game, Tootsie, Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Traffic, Good Will Hunting, Platoon, Jerry Maguire, Pretty Woman, Schindler's List, Mystic River, Jarhead, American Splendor, Vera Drake and A Beautiful Mind.

FILMMAKERS DIALOGUE participants have met and spoken with more than 800 movie greats, including Joan Allen, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Maria Bello, Rebecca Miller, Jeff Bridges, James L. Brooks, Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Daniel Day-Lewis, Danny DeVito, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard, Anjelica Huston, Samuel L. Jackson, Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keanu Reeves, Charles Shyer, Robert Wise and Richard Zanuck.

Recent guests have included Susanne Bier (In A Better World); Neil Burger (Limitless); Andrew Jerecki (All Good Things); Peter Riegert, John Gray (White Irish Drinkers); Doug Liman (Fair Game); Nigel Cole (Made in Dagenham); Pamela Gray (Conviction); Roger Michell (Morning Glory); Lone Scherfig (An Education); Richard Linklater (Me and Orson Welles); Jim Sheridan (Brothers); Michael Hoffman (The Last Station); Juan Jose Campanella (The Secret in Their Eyes); John Patrick Shanley (Doubt); Tony Gilroy (Duplicity); Paul Schrader (Adam Resurrected); Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir); Peter Saraf (Sunshine Cleaning); Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal); Michael Apted (49 Up, Amazing Grace); Barry Levinson (Man of the Year).

For many studios, FILMMAKERS DIALOGUE has become a tradition to launch their latest films. For many New Yorkers, FILMMAKERS DIALOGUE is the most satisfying way to see movies.