{"id":31604,"date":"2025-09-23T22:19:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T02:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31604"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:56:03","slug":"63rd-new-york-film-festival-curtain-raiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31604","title":{"rendered":"An Extensive Look at Film at Lincoln Center\u2019s 63rd New York Film Festival\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now in its 63rd year, <\/span>Film at Lincoln Center\u2019s New York Film Festival<\/span><\/a> (aka NYFF) can boast proudly about being one of the longest-running film festivals within the United States and even North America. When it began in 1963, it was looking to Europe, where film festivals like Cannes, Berlin (Berlinale), and Venice (Bienalle) were thriving, introducing the world to many great filmmaking legends. The first New York Film Festival launched with Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s <\/span>Exterminating Angels<\/i><\/b>, and for over a decade, European filmmakers would tend to get the Opening Night slot.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly the case this year, as the whole shebang kicks off on Friday, September 26 with the North American premiere of Italian master Luca Guadagnino\u2019s <\/span>After the Hunt<\/i><\/b><\/a>, starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri from <\/span>The Bear<\/i><\/b>. In the film, Roberts plays philosophy professor, Dr. Imhoff, who gets caught up in a scandal at her college when her prot\u00e9g\u00e9e Maggie (Edebiri) accuses her friend and colleague Hank (Garfield) of sexual assault. This film debuted last month at the Venice Film Festival (aka Bienalle), so NYFF will be its North American premiere, but it\u2019s Guadagnino\u2019s second year in a row with a film at the fest.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A scene from Father Mother Sister Brother (Courtesy of MUBI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another Biennalle debut, Jim Jarmusch\u2019s latest, <\/span>Father Mother Sister Brother<\/i><\/b><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>had the honor of being this year\u2019s recipient of the Golden Lion for best film, and the frequent NYFF attendee\u2019s film is receiving the prestigious Centrepiece slot on October 3 with Jarmusch on-hand for a QnA and intro. Despite the title, the cast is mostly made up of women, but the cast includes Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, and Sarah Greene, as it looks at the story of estranged siblings, who are reunited to face their relationships with their parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bradley Cooper\u2019s previous film, <\/span>Maestro<\/i><\/b>, received a major boost from its debut at NYFF, so it makes sense for him to bring its follow-up, <\/span>Is This Thing On?<\/i><\/b><\/a>, to Lincoln Center, this time as the Closing Night film, and as one of the festival\u2019s World Premieres ahead of its December 19 release by Searchlight Studios. The movie stars Will Arnett as Alex, a middled-aged stand-up comic whose being divorced by his wife Tess, played by Laura Dern.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jeremy Allen White in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (photo courtesy 20th Century)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere<\/i><\/b><\/a>, Scott Cooper\u2019s biopic starring <\/span>The Bear\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Jeremy Allen White as the film\u2019s titular Jersey rock icon, will be receiving its New York premiere as a Spotlight Gala, the movie having only played at the Telluride Film Festival so far. White is already being heralded as a potential Oscar frontrunner for his performance, which shouldn\u2019t be surprising, since Jeff Bridges won the Oscar after starring in Cooper\u2019s <\/span>Crazy Heart<\/i><\/b>. White is joined by recent Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Jeremy Strong as Springsteen\u2019s manager Jon Landau, Emmy winners Stephen Graham and Paul Walter Hauser, Gaby Hoffman, David Krumholtz, and Odessa Young.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sean Bean and Daniel Day-Lewis in Anemone (photo courtesy Focus Features)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The New York Film Festival isn\u2019t generally known for having many World Premieres, since it falls so much later than Venice, Telluride, and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). There are definitely exceptions and besides Bradley Cooper\u2019s film, this year\u2019s World Premieres are a veritable family affair, including <\/span>Anemone<\/i><\/b>, the directorial debut by Ronan Day-Lewis, starring his father Daniel Day-Lewis, who has been such a regular staple at Lincoln Center from Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s <\/span>There Will Be Blood <\/i><\/b>and<\/span> Phantom Thread<\/i><\/b> \u2013 neither which were at NYFF but premiered at Lincoln Center \u2013 as well as Spielberg\u2019s <\/span>Lincoln<\/i><\/b>, which did premiere at NYFF.<\/span><\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t enough, Ronan\u2019s mother, Rebecca Miller, will be world premiering the entirety of her doc mini-series, <\/span>Mr. Scorsese<\/i><\/b><\/a>, on October 4, about another one of\u00a0 New York\u2019s luminaries ahead of its debut on Apple TV+. Ben Stiller takes the familial connections even further by using the NYFF for the World Premire of his doc <\/span>Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost<\/i><\/b><\/a> on October 5, about his beloved comedian parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, which will also be on Apple TV+.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rebecca Ferguson in A House of Dynamite (photo courtesy Netflix\/FilmLinc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oscar-winning <\/span>The Hurt Locker <\/i><\/b>filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow returns with her latest film, <\/span>A House of Dynamite<\/i><\/b><\/a>, her first feature film in eight years, this one for Netflix and written by Noah Oppenheim. With an ensemble cast that includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts, it\u2019s a political thriller involving a military outpost that detects an unidentified incoming missile. It\u2019s Bigelow\u2019s return to NYFF for the first time in thirty years, when her film <\/span>Strange Days<\/i><\/b> was the festival\u2019s Centrepiece. (A House of Dynamite\u00a0<\/em>review by Adriano Ercolani)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is such a NYFF regular that his last two movies, <\/span>Marriage Story<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>White Noise<\/i><\/b>, were the Centrepiece and Opening Night galas respectively, so it\u2019s little surprise that his latest,\u00a0<\/span>Jay Kelly<\/i><\/b><\/a>, will have its New York premiere on Monday, September 29. Baumbach\u2019s new movie for Netflix stars George Clooney as the title character, the last great movie star who is going through a crisis, and it reunites Baumbach with Adam Sandler, who plays Kelly\u2019s long-time manager. (Jay Kelly\u00a0<\/em>review<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon (photo courtesy Sony Pictures Classics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Richard Linklater has not one but two movies at this year\u2019s NYFF, not too long after his film <\/span>Last Flag Flying<\/i><\/b> was the Opening Night film at NYFF55. <\/span>Blue Moon<\/i><\/b><\/a> reunites Linklater with his long-time collaborator, Ethan Hawke, playing lyricist Lorenz Hart, whose collaborations with Richard Rodgers contributed greatly to the Great American Songbook. To be released by Sony Pictures Classics in October, the film co-stars Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, and Bobby Cannacale. Literally a day later, Linklater\u2019s black-and-white <\/span>Nouvelle Vague<\/i><\/b><\/a> will get its New York premiere, this one looking at the making of Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s <\/span>Breathless <\/i><\/b>with French actor Guillaume Marbeck playing Godard and Zoey Deutch playing Jean Seberg. This one will be released by Netflix and will actually get a one-week run at Film at Lincoln Center starting October 31, screening in 35mm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Linklater isn\u2019t the only American filmmaker turning to France as Rebecca Zlotowski\u2019s <\/span>A Private Life<\/i><\/b><\/a> stars Jodie Foster in what NYFF is calling her \u201cfirst French-language performance\u201d \u2013 wasn\u2019t she in Jeunet\u2019s <\/span>A Very Long Engagement<\/i><\/b>? <\/span><\/i>(I honestly can\u2019t remember if she spoke English in that one). The crime-thriller has Ms. Foster playing neurotic American\u00a0 psychoanalyst, Dr. Lilian Steiner, whose patient commits suicide in a suspicious manner. Also starring NYFF regular Mathieur Amalric, it plays on October 5 and 6 at Lincoln Center following its Venice debut. Sony Pictures Classics will release that movie on November 26.<\/span><\/p>\n

Park Chan-wook\u2019s <\/span>No Other Choice<\/i><\/b><\/a> has already been playing a number of other festivals, but NYFF presents its U.S. Premiere of Director Park\u2019s follow-up to <\/span>Decision to Leave<\/i><\/b>, which played NYFF60. His new thriller stars Lee Byung-hun (<\/span>Squid Game<\/i><\/b>) as a middle-aged family man who has been laid off from his job at a paper manufacturing company, who goes far to win over a potential new employer. It\u2019s based on Donald E. Westlake\u2019s novel, <\/span>The Ax<\/i><\/b>, and NEON will release the movie later this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Josh O’Connor in The Mastermind (photo courtesy MUBI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kelly Reichardt returns to NYFF with <\/span>The Mastermind<\/i><\/b><\/a>, her follow-up to<\/span> Showing Up<\/i><\/b>, which also played at NYFF60. This one stars Josh O\u2019Connor as a family man living in \u201870s Framingham, Massachusetts, who decides to stage a heist of the local art museum. Also starring Bill Camp, Hope Davis, Gaby Hoffman, and John Magaro, this will also screen at FilmLinc via MUBI beginning October 17. Former NYFF director Kent Jones shifted over to filmmaking, and he\u2019s bringing his latest film <\/span>Late Fame<\/i><\/b><\/a> to this year\u2019s fest, working from a script by Samy Burch (who wrote last year\u2019s fest opener, <\/span>May December<\/i><\/b>) with Willem Dafoe playing a long-forgotten New York poet who has encounters with two young admirers, played by Edmundo Donova and Greta Lee (<\/span>Past Lives<\/i><\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura Poitras\u2019<\/span> documentary<\/span> All The Beauty and the Bloodshed <\/i><\/b>played at the NYFF a few years after she won the Oscar for <\/span>Citizenfour<\/i><\/b>, her Edward Snowden doc, which also premiered at NYFF. Co-directed with Mark Obenhaus, Poitras\u2019 new doc<\/span> Cover-Up<\/i><\/b><\/a> continues its festival run with its look at political journalist Seymour Hersh, whose reporting has shined a lot on constitutional wrongdoings and cover-ups from Vietnam to Abu Ghraib. Another doc to keep an eye out for come Oscar season is Geeta Gandbhir\u2019s <\/span>The Perfect Neighbor<\/i><\/b><\/a>, which premiered at Sundance and has been playing various festivals all year. <\/span>Ms. Gandbhir’s film is about a disagreement between two Florida neighbors that turns deadly due to the state\u2019s \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws. The New York Film Festival might be its last festival stop before streaming on Netflix starting October 17.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An image from Scarlet (courtesy Studio Chizu and FilmLinc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since <\/span>Cinema Daily US<\/span><\/i> is a Japanese-run movie site, I\u2019d be remiss not to mention some of the films from the land of the Rising Sun, which includes both animated and live action films. Anime filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda\u2019s <\/span>Belle <\/i><\/b>played at NYFF59, and he returns with the animated <\/span>Scarlet<\/i><\/b><\/a>, an animated fantasy epic that Sony Pictures Classics will release in December, following its opening in Japan. Mamoru Oshii\u2019s gorgeous 1985 animated film\u00a0 <\/span>Angel\u2019s Egg <\/i><\/b>will be receiving a 4k restoration re-release by GKIDS on November 19, but Filmlinc is including it as part of NYFF63\u2019s \u201cRevivals\u201d section. Also of interest, Masao Adach\u2019s <\/span>Escape<\/i><\/b><\/a>, plays as part of NYFF\u2019s \u201cCurrents\u201d section, as the filmmaker celebrates six decades of making movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New York Film Festival often showcases Cannes award winners and other festival favorites, many of which have been selected for their country\u2019s representation in the Oscars\u2019 International Feature category. That\u2019s the case with <\/span>The Secret Agent<\/i><\/b><\/a>, the latest film from Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho, whose film <\/span>Bacurau<\/i><\/b> played NYFF six years ago, with it being Brazil\u2019s selection following the country\u2019s first Oscar win earlier this year. The film stars Wagner Moura of last year\u2019s <\/span>Civil War<\/i><\/b>, who won a Best Actor award at Cannes, while Filho won Best Director.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wagner Maura in The Secret Agent (photo courtesy Neon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long in conflict with his home country, who once legit banned him from making films, Persian filmmaker Jafar Panahi\u2019s Cannes Palme d\u2019Or-winning film, <\/span>It Was Just an Accident<\/i><\/b><\/a>, will be submitted by France instead, and it\u2019s thought to have decent odds to win. Its biggest competition will be Joachim Trier\u2019s <\/span>Sentimental Value<\/i><\/b><\/a>, Norway\u2019s selection, which has also won some festival awards going back to the same Cannes. Working in its favor at the Oscars are its better-known Scandinavian stars, including Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd and Renate Reinsve from <\/span>The Worst Person in the World<\/i><\/b>, as well as American Elle Fanning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Philippines\u2019 selection is Lav Diaz\u2019s biopic <\/span>Magellan<\/i><\/b><\/a>, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as the famed Portugese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, following his 16th Century journey to Southeast Asia. Janus Films will release the movie eventually after its festival run. Another country whose submissions will play at this year\u2019s NYFF is Oliver Laxe\u2019s <\/span>Sir\u00e2t<\/i><\/b><\/a>, Spain\u2019s submission, which will also get a one-week run at Film at Lincoln Center, beginning November 14.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oddly, Italy has not decided on its Oscar selection just yet, so Paolo Sorrentino\u2019s latest, <\/span>La Grazia<\/i><\/b><\/a>, which won a number of awards at Venice, may receive that honor, since Sorrentino\u2019s <\/span>The Great Beauty<\/i><\/b> won the Oscar for his country and another of his films received an Oscar nomination after that. Picking <\/span>La Grazia <\/span><\/i>makes sense, and MUBI will be releasing that movie as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A scene from Dracula (photo courtesy 1-2 Special)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following his two previous movies (<\/span>Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn<\/i><\/b>) screening at NYFF, Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude returns to NYFF with his nearly three-hour take on <\/span>Dracula<\/i><\/b><\/a>, who for those who don\u2019t know, was Romanian. This is not an adaptation of Bram Stoker\u2019s novel but more of a comedy with a few guest appearances, notably by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola. <\/span>Resurrection<\/i><\/b><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>the latest film from Bi Gan (<\/span>Long Day\u2019s Journey into Night<\/i><\/b>), has received quite a bit of praise since debuting at Cannes in May, said to be a love letter to cinema with an anthology of stories in different genres.<\/span><\/p>\n

French filmmaker Claire Denis is another decades-long FilmLinc staple, and her new film <\/span>The Fence<\/i><\/b><\/a>, which stars Isaach de Bankol\u00e9 from last year\u2019s <\/span>The Brutalist<\/i><\/b> as a West African whose brother was killed in a work accident at a white-run construction site, and he demands the body back from the site\u2019s foreman, played by Matt Dillon. Two other returning filmmakers to NYFF are Spanish filmmaker Carla Sim\u00f3n with <\/span>Romer\u00eda<\/i><\/b><\/a> and Argentina\u2019s Lucrecia Martel with <\/span>Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks)<\/i><\/b><\/a>, both which have reached much critical praise from their previous festival screenings.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall in Peter Hujars Day (photo courtesy Janus Films)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not often when movies that premiere at Sundance in January end up screening at NYFF, but filmmaker Ira Sachs (<\/span>Passages<\/i><\/b>) is a FilmLinc regular, and his new movie, <\/span>Peter Hujar\u2019s Day<\/i><\/b><\/a>, feels like such a New York City movie, it made perfect sense for it to be shown. It stars Ben Whishaw as photographer Hujar as he\u2019s being interviewed by Rebecca Hall\u2019s Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 for a book she\u2019d write, essentially covering a day in the life of the gay artist. (You can read <\/span>Cinema Daily US<\/span><\/i>\u2019 review from Sundance <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.) Another Sundance premiere at this year\u2019s NYFF is Mary Bronstein\u2019s <\/span>If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You<\/i><\/b>, which has been getting attention for Rose Byrne\u2019s appearance all year, and it will hit theaters on October 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

And of course, FilmLinc director Dennis Lim has programmed the latest film from South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, <\/span>What Does That Nature Say to You<\/i><\/b><\/a>, as part of this year\u2019s festival, because those two must have grown close during the book that Lim wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Note that many NYFF screenings have already sold out, but if you have the time and energy to stand in line, it\u2019s always good to get into the standby line early. Also, as in recent years, many of this year\u2019s NYFF films will be playing at <\/span>venues all over Manhattan and the other boroughs<\/span><\/a>, so sometimes a little travelling might pay off. Check out the respective film pages of any movies you\u2019re interested in seeing and be among the first New Yorkers to see many of these movies. And if you do miss any of the above, some of the movies will eventually be playing at Lincoln Center before year\u2019s end.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 63rd New York Film Festival<\/a> runs from Friday, September 26, until October 13. Look for more reviews and interviews over the coming weeks, and also, check out the trailer for the 63rd New York Film Festival below:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n