The 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival announced its main slate on Tuesday, featuring films like Sean Baker’s “Anora,” Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” and Mati Diop’s “Dahomey.” The central lineup includes 33 features from 24 countries, with 19 directors marking their debut in this prestigious section.
The festival will commence on Sept. 27 with RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Almodóvar will present “The Room Next Door” as the festival centerpiece, and Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” will close the event, focusing on the bombing of London during World War II.
Several Cannes Film Festival winners will have their U.S. or North American premieres at the event, including films like “Anora,” “Grand Tour,” “All We Imagine as Light,” “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.
Dennis Lim, the festival’s artistic director, expressed the festival’s aim to reflect the world through cinema, highlighting the importance of films in capturing and reimagining reality.
The main slate will also feature works from Paul Schrader, Jia Zhangke, and David Cronenberg, as well as selections from Cannes sidebars like Roberto Minervini’s “The Damned” and Carson Lund’s “Eephus.”
Other anticipated films include Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” and the world premiere of Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,” focusing on independent journalism in Russia.
Notable directors with multiple entries in the main slate are South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo and Chinese documentarian Wang Bing with their respective works. The festival, taking place from Sept. 27 to Oct. 14 at Lincoln Center and various locations in the city, promises an array of international cinema showcasing diverse perspectives and storytelling.
