EUROPEAN EXPOSURE
The roster includes Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner Amour starring veteran French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. It's one of a group of the most talked about films from Cannes heading to NYFF.
Other films that caused a stir in Cannes include Romanian Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills (Dupa Dealuri) and Noemie Lvovsky's French film Camille Rewinds (Camille Redouble), Critics Week Grand Prize winner Here and There by Spanish director Antonio Mendez Esparza (Aquí y Allá), famed French filmmaker Leos Carax's Holy Motors, Iranian Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone In Love, Chilean Pablo Larrain's Director's Fortnight prizewinner No and Alain Resnais's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
At 90 years old, Resnais will become teh only fillmmaker with works that bookend the festival's 50 years. His Muriel, Or The Time Of Return screened at the very first festivall in 1963.
Films from other top European festivals will join in the festivites. Among them are Berlinale Golden Bear winner Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire) directed by Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani -- as well as Miguel Gomes' Tabu from Berlin. Christian Petzold's Barbara, also originates from Berlin where the filmmaker won the best director prize. Song Fang's Memories Look At Me, winner of the best first feature prize at the recent Locarno Film Festival. Other Locarno entries include The Last Time I Saw Macao directed by João Pedro Rodrigues and Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel's documentary Leviathan.
"The films making up the main slate of this year's NYFF have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works," said Film Society of Lincoln Center director Richard Peña, who will be leaving his programming post at the end of the year. "These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go."
Peña was joined on the selection committee this year by Village Voice contributor Melissa Anderson, Film Society of Lincoln Center associate program director Scott Foundas, The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic Todd McCarthy, and the newly-appointed Amy Taubin, a contributing editor at Film Comment and Sight and Sound magazines.
WORLD PREMIERES
The festival will also include a large amount of world premieres, including Alan Berliner's new essay film First Cousin, Once Removed, as well as the three previously-announced gala titles. Ang Lee's Life of Pi will open the festival on Friday, Sept. 28 while David Chase's Not Fade Away is in the centerpiece slot on Saturday, Oct. 6, and Robert Zemeckis's Flight will close the 50th NYFF on Sunday, Oct. 14.
Other new films that will debut at various festivals this season before making the trip to Manhattan include Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha starring Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the script; Dror Moreh's documentary The Gatekeepers in which six former heads of Israel's Secret Service discuss their nation's past; Sally Potter'sGinger and Rosa starring Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning, and Annette Bening; Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson starring Bill Murray as FDR as seen through the eyes of his distant cousin Daisy, played by Laura Linney; and Brian DePalma's Passion, his first fiction feature since Femme Fatale, which stars Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams.
The complete screening schedule for this year's festival will be announced soon. Additionally, in the coming days and weeks the Film Society of Lincoln Center will round out the festival roster with the lineup for the NYFF's Masterwork programs, a number of sidebar screenings, as well as tributes, talks and a new convergence program. Also on tap is the 15th edition of "Views from the Avant-Garde" -- a type of festival within the festival devoted to experimental filmmaking, which take place annually at the midpoint of NYFF. This year, main slate filmmakers João Pedro Rodrigues and Raul Ruiz will be among the filmmakers on that lineup when it is announced.
MAIN SLATE RUNDOWN
Here is the list of featured film's in this year's festival:
- Amour (Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany): Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner of Cannes 2012 is a merciless and compassionate masterpiece about an elderly couple dealing with the ravages of old age. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
- Araf—Somewhere In Between (Yesim Ustaoglu, Turkey/France/Germany): Director Yesim Ustaoglu depicts with empathy and uncompromising honesty the fate of a teenaged girl when she becomes sexually obsessed with a long-distance trucker and the promise of freedom that he embodies.
- Barbara (Christian Petzold, Germany): Christian Petzold's perfectly calibrated Cold War thriller features the incomparable Nina Hoss as a physician planning to defect while exiled to a small town in East Germany. An Adopt Films release.
- Beyond the Hills/Dupa dealuri (Cristian Mungiu, Romania): 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days director Cristian Mungiu returns with a harrowing, visually stunning drama set in a remote Romanian monastery. Winner, Best Actress and Best Screenplay, 2012 Cannes Film Festival. A Sundance Selects release.
- Bwakaw (Jun Robles Lana, The Philippines): A moving and funny surprise from the Philippines starring the great Eddie Garcia—and a truly unforgettable dog—in the story of an elderly loner going where he's never dared venture before.
- Camille Rewinds/Camille Redouble (Noémie Lvovsky, France): Noemie Lvovsky directs and stars in an ebullient comedy of remarriage that gives Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married a sophisticated, personal, and decidedly French twist.
- Caesar Must Die/Cesare deve morire (Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, Italy): Convicted felons stage a production of Julius Caesar in this surprising new triumph for the Taviani Brothers, winner of the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival. An Adopt Films release.
- The Dead Man and Being Happy/El muerto y ser feliz (Javier Rebollo, Spain/Argentina): A dying hitman and a mysterious femme fatale set off on an oddball journey through Argentina's interior in this playful and unexpectedly moving reverie on love, death and the open road.
- Fill the Void/Lemale et ha'chalal (Rama Burshtein, Israel): With her first dramatic feature, writer-director Rama Burshtein has made a compelling, disconcerting view of Israel's orthodox Hassidic community from the inside.
- First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner, USA): Alan Berliner creates a compelling, heartfelt chronicle of poet and translator Edwin Honig's loss of memory, language and his past due to the onslaught of Alzheimer's. An HBO Documentary Films release. World Premiere.
- Flight (Robert Zemeckis, USA): Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis team on this tense dramatic thriller about an airline pilot who pulls off a miraculous crash landing...while flying under the influence. A Paramount Pictures release. Closing Night. World Premiere.
- Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, USA): Lightning-in-a-bottle, Noah Baumbach's love poem to his star and screenwriter Greta Gerwig recalls Godard's early celebrations of Anna Karina, but, as a New York movie, it's beautiful in a brand new way.
- The Gatekeepers/Shomerei Ha'saf (Dror Moreh, Israel/France/Germany/Belgium): Six former heads of Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet, discuss their nation's past, present and future, in what will surely be one of the most hotly discussed films of the year. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
- Ginger and Rosa (Sally Potter, UK): Sally Potter's riveting coming-of-age story, set in London in 1962, centers on two teenage best friends (played by the revelatory Elle Fanning and talented newcomer Alice Englert) who are driven apart by a scandalous betrayal.
- Here and There/Aquí y Allá (Antonio Méndez Esparza, Spain/US/Mexico): After years in the U.S., Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico, but the lure of the north remains as strong as ever. A most impressive feature debut by Antonio Mendez Esparza.
- Holy Motors (Léos Carax, France): Leos Carax's unclassifiable, breathtaking, expansive movie—his first in 13 years—stars the great Denis Lavant as a man named Oscar who inhabits 11 different identities over a single day in Paris. An Indomina Releasing release.
- Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, USA/UK): Bill Murray caps his career with a wily turn as FDR in this captivating comedy-drama about the President's relationship with his cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckley (Laura Linney). A Focus Features release.
- Kinshasa Kids (Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium/France): Perhaps the most ebullient "musical" you'll see this year, Marc-Henri Wajnberg's singular documentary/fiction hybrid follows a group of street children in the Congolese capital.
- The Last Time I Saw Macao/A Última Vez Que Vi Macau (João Pedro Rodrigues) : This stunning amalgam of film noir and Chris Marker cine-essay poetically explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony.
- Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, USA): NYFF alumni Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Sweetgrass) and Véréna Paravel (Foreign Parts) team for another singular anthropological excavation, this time set inside the commercial fishing industry.
- Life of Pi (Ang Lee, USA): Ang Lee's superb 3D adaptation of the great bestseller resembles no other film. A 20th Century Fox release. Opening Night. World Premiere.
- Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, Japan/Iran/France): Master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostmi ventures to Japan for this mysterious beautiful romantic drama about the brief encounter between an elderly professor and a young student. A Sundance Selects release.
- Lines of Wellington/Linhas de Wellington (Valeria Sarmiento, France/Portugal): Passionate romance, brutal treachery, and selfless nobility are set against the background of Napoleon's 1810 invasion of Portugal in Valeria Sarmiento's intimate epic.
- Memories Look at Me/Ji Yi Wang Zhe Wo (Song Fang, China): Song Fang's remarkable first feature, in which she travels from Beijing to Nanjing for a visit with her family, perfectly captures the rhythms of brief sojourns home.
- Night Across the Street/La Noche de enfrente (Raul Ruiz, Chile/France): A final masterpiece from one of the cinema's most magical artists, this chronicle of the final months of one Don Celso allows the late Raul Ruiz the chance to explore the thin line between fact and fiction, the living and the dead. A Cinema Guild release.
- No (Pablo Larrain, Chile/USA): Gael Garcia Bernal stars as a Chilean adman trying to organize a campaign to unseat Pinochet in Pablo Larrain's smart, engrossing political thriller. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
- Not Fade Away (David Chase, USA): The debut feature from The Sopranos creator David Chase is a wise, tender and richly atmospheric portrait of a group of friends trying to start a rock band in 1960s suburban New Jersey. A Paramount Vantage release. Centerpiece. World Premiere.
- Our Children/À perdre la raison (Joachim Lafosse, Belgium): Belgian director Joachim LaFosse turns a lurid European news story about a mad housewife into a classical tragedy. Émilie Dequenne more than fulfills the promise of her award-winning performance in Rosetta.
- Passion (Brian de Palma, France/Germany): Brian De Palma brings great panache and a diabolical mastery of surprise to a classic tale of female competition and revenge. Noomi Rapace and Rachel McAdams are super-cool and oh so mean.
- Something in the Air/Après Mai (Olivier Assayas, France): Too young to have been on the May '68 barricades, a group of young people explore their options for continuing the political struggle in Olivier Assayas' incisive portrait of a generation. A Sundance Selects release.
- Tabu (Miguel Gomes, Portugal): An exquisite, absurdist entry in the canon of surrealist cinema, Tabu is movie-as-dream—an evocation of irrational desires, extravagant coincidences, and cheesy nostalgia grounded in serious feeling and beliefs. An Adopt Films release.
- You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet/Vous n'avez encore rien vu (Alain Resnais, France): The latest from 90-year-old Alain Resnais is a wry, wistful and always surprising valentine to actors and the art of performance starring a who's-who of French acting royalty.
