\u00a9Courtesy of Neon<\/p>\n
The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), celebrating its landmark 25th edition, and Film at Lincoln Center will present the North American premiere of “HOPE<\/strong>“<\/span>, the final cut of the fourth feature from acclaimed South Korean director\u00a0Na Hong-Jin\u00a0(The Wailing, The Chaser, The Yellow Sea). Selected as the festival’s\u00a0Centerpiece\u00a0Film\u00a0presented by NEON,\u00a0the screening will take place on\u00a0Monday, July 20, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the SVA Theatre, as part of NYAFF 2026, which runs July 10\u201326 across five New York venues anchored by Film at Lincoln Center.\u00a0HOPE<\/span>\u00a0also caps off NYAFF’s complete Na Hong-Jin retrospective, a rare chance to see all four of the director’s features, every one of which premiered at Cannes.<\/p>\n Director Na Hong-Jin is also the recipient of the 2026\u00a0Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema. Named for Dan Craft, a founder of the festival and a die-hard fan of action cinema, who died in 2013, the award honors filmmakers working at the highest level of the form he loved.\u00a0HOPE<\/span>\u00a0is considered the largest and most relentless film of Director Na\u2019s career,\u00a0ten years after\u00a0The Wailing.\u00a0Previous recipients include Hong Kong action maestros Dante Lam (Operation Red Sea) and the legendary Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix, Blades of the Guardians).<\/p>\n <\/ins><\/p>\n Mixing sci-fi, action, mystery, and the director’s trademark dark humor, the film follows the residents of\u00a0Hope<\/span>\u00a0Harbor, from a weary police chief and his foul-mouthed sergeant to a ragtag group of hunters, as a mysterious presence emerges in the forests surrounding their quiet village. Like\u00a0The Wailing, the film wrestles with fear of the unknown, mistaken assumptions, and the violence that grows from misunderstanding. “Ultimately, what this film\u00a0hopes<\/span>\u00a0to explore and convey is the familiar adage that all the world’s tragedies stem from misunderstandings,” says Na. While audiences may come for the pulse-pounding genre spectacle, the director describes\u00a0HOPE<\/span>\u00a0simply as “a human drama.”<\/p>\n HOPE<\/span>\u00a0brings together a marquee Korean cast led by\u00a0Hwang Jung-min,\u00a0Zo In-sung, and\u00a0Squid Game\u00a0breakout\u00a0Hoyeon\u00a0in her feature film debut, alongside an international ensemble portraying the film’s mysterious visitors through performance capture: Academy Award nominee\u00a0Michael Fassbender, Academy Award winner\u00a0Alicia Vikander,\u00a0Taylor Russell\u00a0(Waves,\u00a0Bones and All), and\u00a0Cameron Britton\u00a0(Mindhunter,\u00a0Mickey 17). Shot across South Korea and the untouched wilderness of Romania’s Retezat National Park by cinematographer\u00a0Hong Kyung-pyo\u00a0(The Wailing, Parasite, Burning), the film is also scored by\u00a0Michael Abels\u00a0(Get Out, Nope). NEON will release\u00a0HOPE<\/span> in North America on Wednesday, September 9th.<\/p>\n <\/ins><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a9Courtesy of Neon The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), celebrating its landmark 25th edition, and Film at Lincoln Center will present the North American premiere of “HOPE“, the final cut of the fourth feature from acclaimed South Korean director\u00a0Na Hong-Jin\u00a0(The Wailing, The Chaser, The Yellow Sea). Selected as the festival’s\u00a0Centerpiece\u00a0Film\u00a0presented by NEON,\u00a0the screening will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20471,30],"tags":[1081,2307,2149,15088,9784,2106,30649,1593,2388,2389,17661],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n