The 56th New York Film Festival opened, last week, with Yorgos Lanthimos’ bold new film “The Favourite.” The festival—which runs until Oct. 14—will have 30 features, including new films from Olivier Assayas, Bi Gan, Richard Billingham, Joel and Ethan Coen, Paul Dano, Claire Denis, Louis Garrel, Jean-Luc Godard, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hong Sangsoo, Christophe Honoré, Barry Jenkins, Tamara Jenkins, Jia Zhangke, Ulrich Köhler, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lee Chang-dong, Mariano Llinás, Jafar Panahi, Paweł Pawlikowski, Alex Ross Perry, Christian Petzold, Alice Rohrwacher, Dominga Sotomayor, Frederick Wiseman and Ying Liang.
Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate” will close the festival.
The U.S. premiere of Main Slate selection “If Beale Street Could Talk” will take place at the world famous Apollo Theater, the first time that the festival will present a screening at the historic theater. The film was largely shot in New York City, including many Harlem locations.
In celebration of the vibrant community and their support of the film, Annapurna, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Apollo Theater will work together to present a host of outreach programs. Local students, as well as Harlem residents, will be among the first audiences invited to see the James Baldwin adaptation in the neighborhood that is home to its characters. The film will also screen on the Lincoln Center campus during the festival.
Writer-director Barry Jenkins said, “It’s been an honor working with the estate to bring this piece of James Baldwin’s legacy to the screen. From the birthplace of Baldwin to the streets and homes within which we made this film, the honor is doubly felt in the NYFF’s generous offer to widen its borders for our U.S. premiere: up on 125th Street, in the community Jimmy forever knew as home.”
It’s good to look back at cinema’s greats, and the retrospectives this year will pay tribute to late cinema luminaries Dan Talbot and Pierre Rissient and showcase 11 restorations of significant works from film history. NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones shared, “For Pierre and Dan, two genuine heroes, everything to do with cinema was urgent. This year’s retrospective section pays tribute to both men, who died within six months of each other.”
The Revivals section showcases important works from renowned filmmakers that have been digitally remastered, restored and preserved with the assistance of generous partners. Highlights this year include Edgar G. Ulmer’s noir road movie “Detour,” which gleams anew in this gorgeous restoration; Djibril Diop Mambéty’s neocolonialist satire “Hyenas,” the Senegalese auteur’s adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play “The Visit”; a 20th anniversary restoration of Alexei Guerman Khrustalyov’s “My Car!,” a nightmarish portrait of Stalin-era paranoia; and J.L. Anderson’s American independent curio “Spring Night, Summer Night,” which was disinvited from the fifth New York Film Festival but returns for its due more than
50 years later.
The Convergence section will take place Oct. 11 to Oct. 14, marking its seventh edition of the highly anticipated annual program that delves into innovative modes of storytelling via interactive experiences, featuring virtual reality, immersive cinema, AI and more.
The Special Events section for the festival will feature Orson Welles’s long-awaited “The Other Side of the Wind,” finally completed by his collaborators this year, which follows the last night in the life of a legendary Hollywood filmmaker as he completes his final film. The film will screen alongside Morgan Neville’s in-depth documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” which uncovers the fascinating story behind Welles’ last completed film, 50 years in the making. Rex Ingram’s World War I epic “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (1921) will screen on a beautiful 35mm print from Martin Scorsese’s collection, accompanied by the North American premiere of a new live score written and performed by a five-piece orchestra led by Matthew Nolan.
The sixth annual Film Comment Presents selections are Ali Abbasi’s “Border,” which won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award, and “The Wild Pear Tree.”
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