Purple over orange is always a good color choice, regal and elegant. The Film Society of Lincoln Center has had a makeover; Film at Lincoln Center reflects a shift in name and logo hue. Celebrating its 50th birthday this week, the yearly gala honored, not one career as in its traditional Chaplin Awards, but rather its decades long life; the former “society’ screened clips of its five decades as a premiere film venue. Feting the art of filmmaking, they introduced the work of such mega talents as Bunuel, Bertolucci, Truffaut, Varda, Denis, Kurasawa, among many other directors. Personal tributes from a film world elite including Tilda Swinton, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, and many others who had shown work there, illustrated how Lincoln Center broke boundaries, crossing geography, gender, and generations. In a backhanded compliment, contrarian John Waters said, at Lincoln Center, if you don’t see the films they anoint into their canon, the films they want you to see, you will go to film Hell. With his signature smirk, he walked off the stage. Funny how breaking barriers can go mainstream.

Another contrarian, Michael Moore recounted his tale of acceptance for “Roger & Me,” how he schlepped his film cans from Flint, Michigan, dropped them off at the office, and caught “Sex, lies, and videotapes” nearby while the review committee screened his work. Returning in an hour or two, he was invited into the prestigious New York Film Festival, simple as that.

Still, “Mudbound” director Dee Rees talked about another kind of color choice, speaking up about continued discrimination for black filmmakers and film audiences. Noting that her father had to sit in spilled popcorn balconies because the segregated seats were not maintained, and how the box offices worked to redirect audiences, a kind of cultural gerrymandering to show that black movies/ filmmakers don’t sell. This system may be rigged, but not at Film at Lincoln Center, “an institution that shows us the power of multiple perspectives.”