This year, the New York Film Festival — which runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 14 — will celebrate its 62nd anniversary. With the festival’s Main Slate featuring films from 24 countries, NYFF is continuing its legacy as a celebration of international film.
Led by artistic director Dennis Lim, the NYFF selection committee curated a lineup that aims to resonate with viewers by reflecting the world we live in. Most of the screenings are at Lincoln Center, but this year, NYFF is partnering with venues across the city’s five boroughs for select films.
WSN has compiled a list of noteworthy films to keep an eye across the festival’s main categories — Main Slate, Spotlight, Currents and Revival.
Main Slate
Main Slate is the primary section of NYFF, highlighting exceptional feature-length films from all around the world. Ranging from studio releases to independent films, Main Slate reflects both the state of film and the world it exists in.
“Nickel Boys”
RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, was selected to open NYFF this year. Taking place in Jim Crow-era Florida, the film follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two African American boys sent to the Nickel Academy — a juvenile reformatory. Inspired by the real-life Dozier School for Boys, which was notorious for its history of racially motivated abuse by staff members, “Nickel Boys” confronts the cruelties of 20th century racism and corruption. Together, Elwood and Turner navigate violence and segregation — the audience experiencing it all through a heart-wrenching first-person point of view.
“Anora”
Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, “Anora” is an English and Russian-language film by American director Sean Baker. Mikey Madison plays Anora, a Brooklyn sex worker tasked with entertaining Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. Along the way, she’s offered money to be his girlfriend, and a whirlwind romance begins, closing with a Vegas chapel wedding. But Anora’s Cinderella story is jeopardized when Vanya’s parents arrive in New York to annul their son’s marriage. Called “rambunctious” and a “pure shot of frenetic pleasure” in a NYFF press release, “Anora” exists somewhere between a romantic-comedy and a dramatic exploration of class, cultural differences and sex.
“No Other Land”
A directorial and autobiographical debut of two Palestinian and two Israeli directors, “No Other Land” is a documentary on the Israeli military’s gradual destruction of the Masafer Yatta region in the occupied West Bank. Director and Palestinian activist Basel Adra — committed to resisting the forced displacement in his homeland — bonds with Israeli journalist and co-director Yuval Abraham, aligning themselves despite their drastic circumstantial differences. Facing a difficult filming process, with Adra’s equipment being confiscated twice by the Israeli military, “No Other Land” is a collection of archival and on-the-ground footage documenting 20 years of systematic onslaught.
Spotlight
The Spotlight section comprises highly anticipated films from the year that are expected to garner mainstream popularity.
“Queer”
First on the list is the U.S. premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.” The adaptation of William S. Burrough’s 1985 gay novel is set in Mexico City post-World War II, where his alter ego — heroin-user William Lee (Daniel Craig) — hopelessly pursues the young expatriate Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) at a time when homosexuality is viewed as emasculating. The love affair coincides with William’s quest to scour the jungles of Ecuador for ayahuasca, a plant thought to have telepathic qualities. “Queer” is critically acclaimed for honoring Burrough’s surreal, erotic and vulnerable work.
“Pavements”
You’ve probably heard of the band Pavement from its iconic hit “Harness Your Hopes.” But Alex Ross Perry’s hybrid biopic and concert film promises a new way of chronicling the ’90s alt-rock band’s career. “Pavements” brings together archival footage, clips from the band’s most recent tour in 2022, scripted scenes and moments from its jukebox musical to capture the eccentricities of the music group. Joe Keery, Fred Hechinger, Logan Miller, Griffin Newman, Jason Schwartzman and Nat Wolff all star in Perry’s love letter to Pavement and its works, which have garnered a cult following since its beginnings in the underground.
Currents
Currents highlights innovative, contemporary films and represents new voices within the industry, including both feature-length and short films.
“The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire”
First-time feature director Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s biopic, “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire,” centers on an actress (Zita Hanrot) as she prepares to play the role of Césaire — a Caribbean surrealist writer and member of the Négritude movement — in a film. The actress and crew balance investigating Césaire’s life and staging scenes that confront her legacy. Hunt-Ehrlich takes inspiration from Césaire’s works by mixing both conventional narrative form and deconstructed, experimental scenes, reckoning with Césaire’s legacy and her husband Aimé’s, whose achievements as a poet and politician eclipsed her own.
Revivals
Revivals are restorations, preservations or digital remasters of important works from renowned filmmakers.
“Camp de Thiaroye”
The restoration of the 1988 Senegalese film “Camp de Thiaroye” is part of the African Film Heritage Project — a collaboration between the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO — which aims to “locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema,” according to a NYFF press release. The film is based on the 1944 Thiaroye Massacre, when the French military murdered hundreds of West African soldiers who had insisted on receiving the wages and benefits they were promised after returning from service in World War II. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1988 Venice Film Festival and was banned in France for over a decade, is a depiction of the colonial racism that defines part of France’s history.
“The Sealed Soil”
Marva Nabili’s 1977 directorial debut, “The Sealed Soil,” is the earliest surviving Iranian woman-directed film. The film focuses on Roo-Bekheir, a woman living in pre-revolution Iran during a time of political subjugation. Throughout “The Sealed Soil,” Roo-Bekheir moves through life in her rural village, rebelling against the restrictions placed upon women of marrying age as those around her relocate for a government-mandated construction project. As Roo-Bekheir yearns for independence, her family questions her resistance and deems it demonic possession.
Tickets are available to the general public for purchase on the NYFF website starting Sept. 17 at noon.
Contact Dani Biondi at [email protected].
