New York Film Festival 2016 lineup announced

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.