By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Films by Greta Gerwig, Sean Baker and Agnes Varda are headed to the 55th New York Film Festival. The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the selections of 25 films for its main slate on Tuesday, including eight directed by women.
The festival, held annually at Lincoln Center, is one of the most prestigious of the fall season. Among the films selected are Baker's acclaimed Cannes entry "The Florida Project," the 89-year-old Varda's "Faces Places" and Gerwig's directorial debut "Lady Bird." Gerwig's frequent collaborator and romantic partner Noah Baumbach will also return to the festival with his Netflix release "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)."
Many of the selections, as usual, include previous festival standouts. Luca Guadagnino's "Call Me by Your Name" and Dee Rees' "Mudbound" will come to the festival after lauded debuts at Sundance. Other Cannes hits include Ruben Ostlund's Palme d'Or winning comedy "The Square" and Robin Campillo's AIDS activist drama "BPM (Beats Per Minute)."
The festival previously announced its three galas, all of which happen to be Amazon Studios releases. Richard Linklater's "Last Flag Flying," a kind of sequel to Hal Ashby's "The Last Detail," will open the festival. Todd Haynes' Brian Selznick adaptation "Wonderstruck" is the centerpiece, and Woody Allen's 1950s Coney Island tale "Wonder Wheel" will close.
The New York Film Festival runs Sept. 28 to Oct. 15.
The 55th New York Film Festival Main Slate
Opening Night
Last Flag Flying
Dir. Richard Linklater
Centerpiece
Wonderstruck
Dir. Todd Haynes
Closing Night
Wonder Wheel
Dir. Woody Allen
Before We Vanish
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
BPM (Beats Per Minute)/120 battements par minute
Dir. Robin Campillo
Bright Sunshine In/Un beau soleil intérieur
Dir. Claire Denis
Call Me by Your Name
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
The Day After
Dir. Hong Sang-soo
Faces Places/Visages villages
Dir. Agnès Varda & JR
Félicité
Dir. Alain Gomis
The Florida Project
Dir. Sean Baker
Ismael’s Ghosts/Les fantômes d’Ismaël
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Lady Bird
Dir. Greta Gerwig
Lover for a Day/L’Amant d’un jour
Dir. Philippe Garrel
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Mrs. Hyde/Madame Hyde
Dir. Serge Bozon
Mudbound
Dir. Dee Rees
On the Beach at Night Alone
Dir. Hong Sang-soo
The Other Side of Hope/Toivon tuolla puolen
Dir. Aki Kaurismäki
The Rider
Dir. Chloé Zhao
Spoor/Pokot
Dir. Agnieszka Holland, in cooperation with Kasia Adamik
The Square
Dir. Ruben Östlund
Thelma
Dir. Joachim Trier
Western
Dir. Valeska Grisebach
Zama
Dir. Lucrecia Martel
NYFF Special Events, Spotlight on Documentary, Revivals, Convergence, and Projections sections, as well as filmmaker conversations and panels, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More