The New York Film Festival announced its main slate of movies for this year’s event, a lineup of 25 film that includes the top prize winners from the Cannes and Berlin film festivals.
Ken Loach’s drama about an unemployed man, I, Daniel Blake (Cannes’ Palme d’Or) and Gianfranco Rosi’s migrant crisis documentary Fire at Sea (Berlin’s Golden Bear) joined the already announced opening night gala selection, Selma director Ava DuVerney’s Netflix documentary The 13th (about the amendment which abolished slavery), plus the festival’s centerpiece film, Mike Mills’ 1979-set 20th Century Women, starring Annette Bening, and the closing night selection, James Gray’s Amazonian thriller The Lost City of Z, toplining Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson. All three gala presentations are world premieres.
Though there are two Kristen Stewart films in the lineup (Cannes provocateur Personal Shopper and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women), the festival slate is overall more auteur-driven and less star-studded than previous years. The 2015 edition featured titles by Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Robert Zemeckis.
“We’re not interested in selecting a movie just to put stars on the red carpet,” NYFF director Kent Jones said at a press event for the lineup unveiling. “I’m immensely proud that we’re showing all of these films. They’re all vital and important works. And none of our selections are made to satisfy a niche. Good filmmaking are by people who are going to drop dead if they don’t get their films made. That’s what all these films represent.”
Jones told EW that the selection committee casts a very wide net, considering hundreds of films for consideration every year. “Every year is different,” he said. “Last year, Spielberg happened to have made Bridge of Spies and Zemeckis happened to have made The Walk. Zemeckis, for example, is not ready this year with his new movie. But we have no shortage of great filmmakers to chose from.” Jones singled out the nearly three-hour German comedy Toni Erdmann, which Sony Pictures Classics will release on Christmas, as an example of one of the festival’s most exciting offerings.
Check out the short teaser video for the festival above (featuring a quote from EW’s own Jeff Labrecque) and stay tuned here for more updates on the event (running Sept. 30-Oct. 16) in the coming weeks.
Opening Night
The 13th
Directed by Ava DuVernay
Centerpiece
20th Century Women
Directed by Mike Mills
Closing Night
The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Gray
Main Slate
Aquarius
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Certain Women
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Elle
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Fire at Sea / Fuocoammare
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
Graduation / Bacalaureat
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Hermia and Helena
Directed by Matías Piñeiro
I, Daniel Blake
Directed by Ken Loach
Julieta
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Manchester by the Sea
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight
Directed by Barry Jenkins
My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Directed by Dash Shaw
Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Paterson
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Personal Shopper
Directed by Olivier Assayas
The Rehearsal
Directed by Alison Maclean
Sieranevada
Directed by Cristi Puiu
Son of Joseph / Le fils de Joseph
Directed by Eugène Green
Staying Vertical / Rester vertical
Directed by Alain Guiraudie
Things to Come / L’Avenir
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Toni Erdmann
Directed by Maren Ade
The Unknown Girl
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Yourself and Yours
Directed by Hong Sangsoo
For more on the New York Film Festival lineup, head to the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s festival website.
Comments