Since its beginning in 1963, the New York Film Festival has grown into one of the more anticipated stops for film fans on the festival circuit, with the 2014 incarnation of the festival alone seeing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice and David Fincher’s Gone Girl make their world premiere at the event. As the festival’s importance has grown, the lineup presented has also piqued the interest of film fans. With the 2015 event set to run from September 25th to October 11th, a second wave of the lineup has now been announced to go with the previous Main Slate announcement.
The festival had previously announced that Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk would be the opening night film, making its World Premiere at the event, and the Don Cheadle film Miles Ahead would be the closing night feature, also making its World Premiere. The following films, with their official synopses, will also be playing at the event.
SPECIAL EVENTS
- Chevalier, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, making its US Premiere
Six men set out on the Aegean Sea aboard a yacht, and before long, male bonding and one-upmanship give way to a loosely defined yet hotly contested competition to determine which of them is “the best in general.” As the games and trials grow more elaborate and absurd—everything is up for judgment, from sleeping positions to cholesterol levels to furniture-assembly skills—insecurities emerge and power relations shift.
- De Palma, directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, making its North American Premiere
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s fleet and bountiful portrait covers the career of the number one iconoclast of American cinema, the man who gave us Carrie,Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, and Carlito’s Way. Their film moves at the speed of De Palma’s thought (and sometimes works in subtle, witty counterpoint) as he goes title by title, covering his life from science nerd to New Hollywood bad boy to grand old man, and describes his ever-shifting position in this thing we call the movie business.
- Heart of a Dog, directed by Laurie Anderson
In Laurie Anderson’s plainspoken all-American observational-autobiographical art, voices and harmonies and rhythms and images are juxtaposed and layered, metaphors are generated, and the mind of the viewer/listener is sent spinning into the stratosphere. It’s been nine years since her last film and almost 30 since her last feature. Heart of a Dog is her response to a commission from Arte, a work of braided joy and heartbreak and remembering and forgetting, at the heart of which is a lament for her late beloved piano-playing and finger-painting dog Lolabelle.
- Junun, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, making its World Premiere
Earlier this year, Paul Thomas Anderson joined his close friend and collaborator Jonny Greenwood on a trip to Rajasthan in northwest India, where they were hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhpur, and he brought his camera with him. Their destination was the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort, where Greenwood (with the help of Radiohead engineer Nigel Godrich) was recording an album with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and an amazing group of musicians: Aamir Bhiyani, Soheb Bhiyani, Ajaj Damami, Sabir Damami, Hazmat, and Bhanwaru Khan on brass; Ehtisham Khan Ajmeri, Nihal Khan, Nathu Lal Solanki, Narsi Lal Solanki, and Chugge Khan on percussion; Zaki Ali Qawwal, Zakir Ali Qawwal, Afshana Khan, Razia Sultan, Gufran Ali, and Shazib Ali on vocals; and Dara Khan and Asin Khan on strings.
- Son of Saul, directed by László Nemes
A film that looks into the abyss, this shattering portrait of the horror of Auschwitz follows Saul (Géza Röhrig), a Sonderkommando tasked with delivering his fellow Jews to the gas chamber. Determined to give a young boy a proper Jewish burial, Saul descends through the death camp’s circles of Hell, while a rebellion brews among the prisoners.
The festival organisers also announced the lineup for their Revivals screenings, which takes a look at old classics. The Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? will get a special screening for its 15 year anniversary, and the rest of the Revivals screening is as follows.
REVIVALS
- Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma, released in 1981
- Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa, released in 1985
- A Touch of Zen, directed by King Hu, released in 1971 and 1975
- Visit, or Memories and Confessions, directed by Manoel de Oliveira, made in 1982 and screened in public for the first time this year
- Black Girl/La Noire de…, directed by Ousmane Sembene, released in 1965
- The Boys from Fengkuei, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, released in 1983
- Heaven Can Wait, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, released in 1943
- Insiang, directed by Lino Brocka, released in 1976
- The Long Voyage Home, directed by John Ford, released in 1940
- The Memory of Justice, directed by Marcel Ophüls, releaed in 1976
- Rocco and His Brothers, directed by Luchino Visconti, released in 1960