Steve Sterner’s job as a pianist playing music for silent movies started on a whim about four decades ago.

He was at a friend’s party and decided to tinkle the ivories while a silent cartoon played. Impressed with the performance, his friend, who worked at the Thalia, a now-closed theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, invited him to play along to a full-length feature silent film at the theater.

This fall, Mr. Sterner, 67 years old, is celebrating his 35th anniversary as a piano accompanist at the Film Forum by playing 12 silent movies of his choice at the theater in Greenwich Village. He has picked movies starring Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and ones directed by Frank Borzage. The series started in August and goes until early November.

“All these films are wonderful,” said Mr. Sterner, who is also an actor and a singer. “People might not’ve heard of or seen them, but they are little gems waiting to be discovered.”

The silent film era peaked almost a century ago and fizzled out with the advent of the talkies, or movies with synchronized sound. But now the films are making a comeback in New York City, with increasing popularity among young people.

Film Forum, a nonprofit, puts on two to three silent movies with live accompanying music every quarter, including at least one silent comedy for its junior audience. These showings are always popular and often sold out, with at least 100 people typically attending each screening, according to its repertory program director Bruce Goldstein.

Steve Sterner rehearses the music for the 1920 silent film ‘Humoresque’ at Film Forum on Thursday. Photo: Steve Remich for The Wall Street Journal

Over the past three decades, he said he has seen more people, especially younger audiences, coming to see silent films.

“For many years people didn’t pay attention to silent films,” Mr. Goldstein said. “But now people discover that silent films are the roots for movies.”

One example is the stunts in silent films, which actors performed without special effects. Mr. Goldstein said action movies still imitate those stunts today.

Shane Fleming, 14, of the East Village, is among the young fans driving the silent film renaissance. He started watching silent movies when he was 7. When he was 8, he saw Mr. Sterner perform live at the Film Forum.

“‘Metropolis’ from 1927, that’s one of my favorites,” Shane said. “My other candidates are ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ from 1946, and ‘City Lights,’ Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece.”

Ben Model, one of the founders of the Silent Clowns Film Series, saw the popularity of silent films growing over the years. The series, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, has been showing 10 silent film programs each year for free at the New York Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.

He said they usually get a full house of 180 to 200 people, with newer and younger fans coming to the shows. He credited the internet for the change, as video sites like YouTube have made it easier for people to discover silent films.

Mr. Model, who is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art, is also helping program a fall silent film series at the museum. MoMA has been collecting, preserving, restoring and showing silent films since 1935, according to its film curator, Dave Kehr.

The series, called Silent Comedy International, runs from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2 and features 10 programs of rare silent comedy films with live musical accompaniment. This includes films with Max Linder, Betty Balfour and the clown known as Grock.

“I feel like today because of smartphones and social media, our left brain is filled with information. Silent films, more than other forms of cinema, engage your right brain and use your imagination,” Mr. Model said.