Pedro Almodóvar, Bong Joon-ho, and Kelly Reichardt are some of the auteurs hitting the Big Apple to screen their latest works at this year’s New York Film Festival.
Now in its 57th year, the gathering for cinephiles has become a key stop for moviemakers hoping to propel their films into the awards race. To that end, Almodóvar and Bong will bring “Pain and Glory” and “Parasite,” two movies that earned rave reviews out of Cannes and that look to be major contenders for this year’s foreign language Oscar. Reichardt, an indie maverick who has previously scored with the likes of “Meeks Crossing” and “Night Moves,” will screen “First Cow,” a drama that unfolds in the old West.
Their movies are among the 29 films screening as part of the festival’s main slate. Other films that will get splashy premieres at Alice Tully Hall include Olivier Assayas’ “Wasp Network,” a spy drama with Penélope Cruz and Gael García Bernal; Arnaud Desplechin’s “Oh Mercy!,” a police procedural about a murder investigation; and Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” a look at art and forbidden romance that ignited Cannes when it screened at the seaside festival. This year’s slate showcases films from 17 different countries.
“Cinema is the domain of freedom, and it’s an ongoing struggle to maintain that freedom,” NYFF director and selection committee chair Kent Jones said in a statement. “It’s getting harder and harder for anyone to make films of real ambition anywhere in this world. Each and every movie in this lineup, big or small, whether it’s made in Italy or Senegal or New York City, is the result of artists behind the camera fighting on multiple fronts to realize a vision and create something new in the world.”
The festival previously announced that Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” will be the opening selection, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is its centerpiece feature, and Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn” will be its closing film. Film at Lincoln Center produces the 17-day event.
The 57th New York Film Festival Main Slate
Opening Night
The Irishman
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Centerpiece
Marriage Story
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Closing Night
Motherless Brooklyn
Dir. Edward Norton
Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story
Dir. Mati Diop
Bacurau
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
Beanpole
Dir. Kantemir Balagov
Fire Will Come
Dir. Oliver Laxe
First Cow
Dir. Kelly Reichardt
A Girl Missing
Dir. Koji Fukada
I Was at Home, But…
Dir. Angela Schanelec
Liberté
Dir. Albert Serra
Martin Eden
Dir. Pietro Marcello
The Moneychanger
Dir. Federico Veiroj
Oh Mercy!
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Pain and Glory
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Parasite
Dir. Bong Joon-ho
Film Comment Presents
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Dir. Céline Sciamma
Saturday Fiction
Dir. Lou Ye
Sibyl
Dir. Justine Triet
Synonyms
Dir. Nadav Lapid
To the Ends of the Earth
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Traitor
Dir. Marco Bellocchio
Varda by Agnès
Dir. Agnès Varda
Vitalina Varela
Dir. Pedro Costa
Wasp Network
Dir. Olivier Assayas
The Whistlers
Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
The Wild Goose Lake
Dir. Diao Yinan
Young Ahmed
Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Zombi Child
Dir. Bertrand Bonello