Film at Lincoln Center Announces SPOTLIGHT For 62ND NYFF

North American premieres are Leos Carax’s It’s Not Me, Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, and Andrei Ujică’s TWST / Things We Said Today

U.S. premiere of documentary Elton John: Never Too Late with an appearance by Elton John and directors R.J. Cutler and David Furnish

New works by Jacques Audiard; Petra Costa; Jesse Eisenberg; Jean-Luc Godard; Luca Guadagnino; Pablo Larraín; Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Jackson; Scott McGehee and David Siegel; Walter Salles; and Brett Story and Stephen Maing

[New York, NY — August 14, 2024] — Film at Lincoln Center announces Spotlight for the 62nd New York Film Festival (September 27-October 14), a showcase of the fall’s most notable films, featuring a selection of must-see literary adaptations, portraits of musical artists, Cannes award winners, works dealing with political and historical realities, and the final film of Jean-Luc Godard, screening alongside a documentary of the master at work. As previously announced, the NYFF62 Spotlight Gala will be the U.S. premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer on October 6 at Alice Tully Hall.

This year’s Spotlight features an imaginative range of portraits of musicians and performers, including Pablo Larraín’s Maria, with Angelina Jolie delivering a towering performance as legendary opera singer Maria Callas in her final days; the North American premieres of Pavements, Alex Ross Perry’s irreverent anti-biodoc about the influential indie rock band Pavement, and TWST/Things We Said Today, Andrei Ujică’s archival film about the Beatles’ descent on NYC for their sold-out 1965 Shea Stadium concert; and the U.S. premiere of Elton John: Never Too Late, directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, featuring never-before-seen concert footage from the past 50 years, with in-person appearances by Elton John and the directors. Music is also prominent in Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez, an audacious and genre-defying musical crime comedy that also received the Cannes Best Actress prize for its ensemble cast.

As in the Main Slate, filmmakers’ interest in sociopolitical issues and histories are present in several captivating selections. Brazilian politics are the focus of two films: Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics looks at the chilling rise of the far right in Brazil, and Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here, a richly realized political drama, tells the true story of a woman’s search for the truth about her husband’s kidnapping by the Brazilian government. Labor is the focus of Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s immersive documentary Union, which follows the day-to-day struggles of the Amazon Labor Union and the events that led to their historic 2022 vote. In Rumours, Guy Maddin and co-directors Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson create a sci-fi satire of world leaders at the annual G7 summit. In Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin star as cousins who attempt to reconnect on a pilgrimage to the Polish hometown of their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor.

Jean-Luc Godard continues to be a presence at NYFF two years after his death with the U.S. premiere of of one more “last film” by the New Wave master: Scénarios, a quintessential, complexly layered work that concludes with a poignant appearance by the filmmaker himself the day before his death, screens along with Exposé du film annonce du film “Scenario,” a documentary conceptualized by Godard and shot in 2021 by longtime collaborator Fabrice Aragno. French filmmaker Leos Carax pays playful homage to Godard and cinema itself in the North American premiere of It’s Not Me, with an in-depth conversation with Carax following the premiere screening.

The Friend, Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s warm and humane adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s beloved National Book Award winner, is the second film in the NYFF62 lineup based on the work of the acclaimed writer, whose novel What Are You Going Through was adapted by Pedro Almodóvar for Centerpiece selection The Room Next Door.

For the full program of films and ticket information, visit the festival website.

Originally published at http://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on August 14, 2024.