The New York Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the main slate for its 62nd edition. Thirty-three features will make up the central lineup of the annual festival presented by Film at Lincoln Center. This year’s main slate is particularly international, featuring films hailing from 24 countries and including 19 directors making their debut in the festival’s most prestigious section.
Kicking off on September 27, the festival will open with RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel. Famed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar will make his 15th appearance at the festival, presenting “The Room Next Door” with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as the centerpiece film. Closing the festival will be “Blitz” by Steve McQueen, a gripping narrative about the bombing of London during World War II.
Award-winning filmmakers from the Cannes Film Festival will also feature prominently in this year’s lineup, marking their U.S. or North American premieres. Among these, “Anora” stands out with Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” which earned him Cannes’ Best Director award. Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” winner of the Grand Prix, will also be showcased. Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” the latter of which comes from a dissident Iranian filmmaker who had to flee his home country to present his film, are set to impress audiences as well.
Dennis Lim, the festival’s artistic director, highlighted the festival’s central ambition in a recently released statement. “The festival’s ambition is to reflect the state of cinema in a given year, which often means also reflecting the state of the world,” said Lim.
. “The most notable thing about the films in the main slate — and in the other sections that we will announce in the coming weeks — is the degree to which they emphasize cinema’s relationship to reality. They are reminders that, in the hands of its most vital practitioners, film has the capacity to reckon with, intervene in, and reimagine the world.”
The lineup is further enriched by a variety of esteemed filmmakers and anticipated films. Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi, and Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides” promise to draw significant interest. Horror maestro David Cronenberg will present “The Shrouds,” and the festival will include notable entries from Cannes sidebars: Roberto Minervini’s “American Civil War drama The Damned” and Carson Lund’s “Eephus,” a touching elegy to baseball.
Other highlights include acclaimed British director Mike Leigh’s poignant “Hard Truths” and Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” which stars Adrien Brody as an architect and Holocaust survivor. The festival will also host the world premiere of Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,” a crucial documentary detailing the struggles of independent journalism in Putin’s Russia.
Adding to the festival’s dynamic range, two filmmakers will each showcase a pair of films in the main slate. South Korean director Hong Sangsoo will introduce audiences to “By the Stream” and “A Traveler’s Needs,” while Chinese documentarian Wang Bing will present the second and third parts of his trilogy: “Youth (Hard Times)” and “Youth (Homecoming).”
Running from September 27 to October 14, the New York Film Festival will be held at its traditional venue in Lincoln Center, with additional screenings and events at several other locations around the city. Film enthusiasts and industry professionals alike are expected to converge in New York City for this much-anticipated event, eager to experience a range of films that present innovative storytelling and invoke deep reflections on contemporary issues.
As always, the New York Film Festival promises to be a pivotal event for anyone passionate about cinema. With a breathtaking array of international films and a stellar lineup of accomplished directors and emerging talent, the festival continues to establish itself as a bastion of cinematic excellence. Viewers can expect not only to be entertained but also to be moved and provoked by a powerful selection of films that truly mirror the complexities and nuances of the world today.
