New York Film Festival Announces Main Slate of Films

The NYFF celebrates its 50th Anniversary, just like the Mets (dear lord, hopefully not like the Mets...).

We’ve gotten some info about the New York Film Festival already, such as the announcements of prime spots for “Life of Pi” from Ang Lee and “Flight” from Robert Zemeckis. Now, though, we have the rest of the list of films for the main program of the festival. There are lots of familiar names here–David Chase, Michael Haneke, Brian DePalma, Olivier Assayas, Cristian Mungiu, Alain Resnais, Noah Baumbach, Sally Potter–as well as some films that have already played at Cannes and other festivals.

Out of all the prestigious names and titles, though, the one that intrigues me the most is one of the least-heralded: “Hyde Park on the Hudson,” the movie starring Bill Murray as Franklin Roosevelt and Laura Linney as his favorite cousin Daisy. Bill Murray as FDR? Who’d ever have thunk it? (Not to mention the pretty Olivia Williams as Eleanor Roosevelt; that will have to be one of the special effects make up jobs of the year. Come on, Eleanor herself had no trouble saying she wasn’t much of a looker.). This is probably going to be one of those nice little “slice of history” movies that tend to be just well made and nice, but like I said, Bill Murray as FDR? That’s what gets my attention.

Here is the press release from the Film Society of Lincoln Center:

NEW YORK, August 16, 2012 —The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the main slate of selections for the 50th New York Film Festival (September 28-October 14) including such notable directors as Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Leos Carax, Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Sally Potter, Alain Resnais, Raul Ruiz and Robert Zemeckis.

Regarding the line up of 32 films comprising the main slate for the 50th anniversary of NYFF Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, “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. 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.”

Award winners that will be presented for the first time for New York audiences include; the universally acclaimed winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, AMOUR, Michael Haneke’s portrait of a couple dealing with the ravages of old age, with Haneke returning to NYFF following the presentation of THE WHITE RIBBON in 2009; Christian Petzold’s Cold War thriller, BARBARA, a winner of the SIlver Bear for Best Director at this year’s Berlin Film Festival; Cristian Mungiu’s BEYOND THE HILLS, a portrait of dogma at odds with personal liberty in a society still emerging from the shadow of Communism, featuring screen newcomers Flutur and Stratan who shared the Best Actress prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Mungiu also received the Best Screenplay award. The presentation will also mark a return to the film festival by Mungiu (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, NYFF 2007).

Two debut features include Antonio Mendez Esparza’s film about the US/Mexican border experience, HERE AND THERE, the winner of the Grand Prize at this year’s Critics Week in Cannes, and Song Fang’s film about a woman that travels from Beijing to Nanjing for a visit with her family, MEMORIES LOOK AT ME, the winner of the Best First Feature prize at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Pablo Larrain’s engrossing political thriller NO, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, was the winner of the top prize in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, and Miguel Gomes’s surrealist drama TABU was the winner of the Alfred Bauer Prize (for a work of particular innovation) and FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

…

The 50th New York Film Festival main-slate:

Opening Night Gala Selection
LIFE OF PI
Director: Ang Lee

Centerpiece Gala Selection
NOT FADE AWAY
Director: David Chase

Closing Night Gala Selection
FLIGHT
Director: Robert Zemeckis

AMOUR
Director: Michael Haneke

ARAF – SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
Director: Ye?im Ustao?lu

BARBARA
Director: Christian Petzold

BEYOND THE HILLS (Dup? dealuri)
Director: Cristian Mungiu

BWAKAW
Director: Jun Robles Lana

CAESAR MUST DIE (Cesare deve morire)
Directors: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

CAMILLE REWINDS (Camille redouble)
Director: Noémie Lvovsky

THE DEAD MAN AND BEING HAPPY (El muerto y ser feliz)
Director: Javier Rebello

FILL THE VOID (Lemale et ha’halal)
Director: Rama Burshtein

FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED
Director: Alan Berliner

FRANCES HA
Director: Noah Baumbach

THE GATEKEEPERS (Shomerei Ha’saf)
Director: Dror Moreh

GINGER AND ROSA
Director: Sally Potter

HERE AND THERE (Aquí y Allá)
Director: Antonio Mendez Esparza

HOLY MOTORS
Director: Leos Carax

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON
Director: Roger Michell

KINSHASA KIDS
Director: Marc-Henri Wajnberg

THE LAST TIME I SAW MACAO (A Última Vez Que Vi Macau)
Director: João Pedro Rodrigues

LEVIATHAN
Directors: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE
Director: Abbas Kiarostami

LINES OF WELLINGTON (Linhas de Wellington)
Director: Valeria Sarmiento

MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (Ji Yi Wang Zhe Wo)
Director: Song Fang

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET (La Noche de enfrente)
Director: Raul Ruiz

NO
Director: Pablo Larrain

OUR CHILDREN (À perdre la raison)
Director: Joachim Lafosse

PASSION
Director: Brian De Palma

SOMETHING IN THE AIR (Après Mai)
Director: Olivier Assayas

TABU
Director: Miguel Gomes

YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET (Vous n’avez encore rien vu)
Director: Alain Resnais