Museum of the Moving Image is set into motion after expensive and lengthy renovations

$67 million and a three-year facelift later, the Museum of the Moving Image is finally re-open for business. And with the museum’s monumental expansion—nearly doubling its size and radically diversifying its schedule of exhibits—it’s almost easier to see it as a brand new entity than to compare it to its former self.

Architect Thomas Leeser’s work on the building has achieved an air of glamour for the museum’s exterior equal to that of its subject. David Schwartz, chief curator since 1985, likened the museum’s need to constantly modernize to the ever-changing nature of the moving image itself.

“We’re all about the art form that changes most quickly,” Schwartz said, “and we’ve got to respond to that.”

Crowds have already been seen pouring into the museum since its opening a few days ago on Jan. 15. Its attractions appeal to more than just the hardcore cinephile, according to Schwartz, which makes the museum a must-see for a broader category of New Yorkers.

“It sounds cliché, but really, we’ve got something for everyone,” Schwartz said, “There were too many art forms we wanted to display but couldn’t, so we had to expand. We even had school groups that we were turning away because we didn’t have room.”

Babysitting? Attend the convenient family matinee screenings of “Coraline,” “Oliver Twist,” and more. Aspiring tyrant? Check out the newly released film “Dolls vs. Dictators” for inspiration or dissuasion, playing continuously through April 10.

Plagued by the original question of whether anything is real? Trip through “Real Virtuality.” The exhibit’s six installations range in subject matter from Chinese capitalism to dreams to forest landscapes, which are controlled by the viewer’s own movements.

To start its reopening off with a bang, the museum played host to the fourth annual Cinema Eye Honors on Jan.18. The night’s reception had an audience as varied as the exhibits themselves but united by its zeal for documentary filmmaking. The Cinema Eye was created to celebrate the tradition of documentaries, which are admittedly under-appreciated by mainstream awards, and to distinguish the most innovative, progressive pieces of the year.

The ceremony’s spillover into a three-hour ordeal seemed to concern no one—a good sign of an enraptured audience. Throughout the night, celebrated film persons presented the Cinema Eye award (a comically heavy metal eyeball with 10 spiky lashes) to winners in fourteen different categories.

Among the presenters were indie filmmakers the Ross brothers, John Flansburgh from “They Might Be Giants,” experimental animator Emily Hubley, Academy Award-winning director Ross Kauffman, and Harry Shearer of “The Simpsons” and “Spinal Tap.”

Interspersed with segments from the films, commemorations to beloved film heroes, and awkward jokes provided possibly more excitement than the award announcements themselves. “Last Train Home” stole the show, winning three awards, with “Exit Through the Gift Shop” directly behind it, winning two.

The ceremony’s most controversial category, the Heterodox Award, went to “Putty Hill,” for its brave sallying forth from the conventional confines of the documentary genre. On the opposite end, the Legacy Award was given to Albert Maysles’ “Grey Gardens,” and upon accepting it, Maysles pointedly declared his belief in the veracity of documentaries above all else.

Everyone laughed, but was clearly on the same page at some level. Shearer summed hinted at the continuing relevance of documentaries: “We’re in a culture where the entire concept of reality has been turned into a combination of a joke and a fraud.” Those putting themselves on the line and behind the camera for documentaries are trying to bring reality back and that seems to warrant celebration. Even at a museum that highlights an ever-broader stretch of cinematic styles.