NYFF Main Slate Commentary

NYFF MAIN SLATE COMMENTARY

By Joshua Handler

This year's NYFF main slate has very few surprises, though I'm extremely excited to dig into this year's selection.  For those of you who haven't seen the main slate, here it is:

Opening Night Gala Selection
GONE GIRL
Director: David Fincher

Centerpiece Gala Selection
INHERENT VICE
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Closing Night Gala Selection
BIRDMAN OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE 
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

BELOVED SISTERS (Die geliebten Schwestern)
Director: Dominik Graf

THE BLUE ROOM (La chambre bleue)
Director: Mathieu Amalric

CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
Director: Olivier Assayas

EDEN
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve

FOXCATCHER
Director: Bennett Miller

GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (Adieu au langage)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT
Directors: Josh & Benny Safdie

HILL OF FREEDOM (Jayuui Eondeok)
Director: Hong Sang-soo

HORSE MONEY (Cavalo Dinheiro)
Director: Pedro Costa

JAUJA
Director: Lisandro Alonso

LIFE OF RILEY (Aimer, boire et chanter)
Director: Alain Resnais

LISTEN UP PHILIP
Director: Alex Ross Perry

MAPS TO THE STARS
Director: David Cronenberg

MISUNDERSTOOD (Incompresa)
Director: Asia Argento

MR. TURNER
Director: Mike Leigh

PASOLINI
Director: Abel Ferrara

THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE (La Princesa de Francia)
Director: Matías Piñeiro

SAINT LAURENT
Director: Bertrand Bonello

LA SAPIENZA
Director: Eugène Green

’71
Director: Yann Demange

TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER
Director: Nick Broomfield

TIMBUKTU
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako

TIME OUT OF MIND
Director: Oren Moverman

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Deux jours, une nuit)
Directors: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

TWO SHOTS FIRED (Dos Disparos)
Director: Martín Rejtman

WHIPLASH
Director: Damien Chazelle

THE WONDERS (Le meraviglie)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher

I'm extremely surprised and disappointed that this year's Palme d'Or-winner, Winter Sleep, wasn't included in the line-up as well as Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan, Xavier Dolan's Mommy, and Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure.  However, I'm very, very excited to see Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Two Days, One Night, Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria, Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu, Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders, Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher, Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner, David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, Yann Demange's '71, Damien Chazelle's Whiplash, and Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip, along with the big three premieres of Gone Girl, Inherent Vice, and Birdman.  Frankly, I'm excited to see just about everything playing at this year's fest, but the above films hold the most appeal for me.

It's very surprising and exciting to see two well-loved Sundance titles (Whiplash - winner of the fest's Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award - and Listen Up Philip).  The past two years were very light on Sundance titles (if they had any at all), so it's nice to see some included here.  I'm also excited to see what films I'll see on a whim and end up loving.  Last year had a few of those like Gloria and Le Week-End.  There are quite a few films in this year's lineup that I haven't heard of yet (quite a few are premiering now in Locarno), so it will be an adventure going into many of these films with no previous knowledge about them.

Another interesting observation is that the running times on this group of NYFF films is noticeably shorter than last year's group.  Last year had five films clocking in at 3 to 4 hours in length.  This year's longest film is 170 minutes.  

Overall, I'm looking forward to this NYFF.  While I'm very disappointed to see Winter Sleep and Leviathan left out, I'm overall very satisfied. I'll be publishing more NYFF news in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.