The filmmaker Josh Safdie has made his first print, and it began as a simple exercise that got out of hand. Asked to name his ten favourite films set in New York, he kept going until the list reached 115 titles, and that list has now become a silkscreen print, Top 10 NYC Films, published by Two Palms.

The print turns a cinephile's list into a visual object, setting out the films Safdie returns to most often, from the classics of New York cinema to less obvious favourites. It is, in effect, a portrait of the city through one director's viewing habits, and a document of the films that shaped the way he shoots his own work. The joke in the title is the point: ten was never going to be enough for a filmmaker whose sense of the city is built from what he has watched.

The edition is limited to 50 impressions, priced at $6,500 each. Proceeds from sales will go to the IFPDA Foundation, the charitable arm of the International Fine Print Dealers Association, which supports printmaking and print education. Two Palms, the New York print publisher behind the edition, has a long history of working with artists and filmmakers on ambitious print projects.

For Safdie, best known as a director of films including Uncut Gems and Good Time, the print is a sideways step into another medium, and a chance to publish a piece of his own taste in a form collectors can own. For buyers, it is a rare chance to own a work by a filmmaker whose name rarely appears in the print market, and one whose list will be argued over by New York film lovers for some time to come.