NYFF 63: Guadagnino opens, Cooper closes, DDL returns

by Cláudio Alves

As the summer's end comes ever closer, it's that time of the year when cinephiles worldwide vibrate with anticipation and ready themselves for what's to come – the fall festival season. Venice is almost here, TIFF comes after, and the NYFF after that, world premieres as far as the eye can see. And for those who concern themselves with awards, this is the point when the race starts to take some definite shape after months of amorphous speculation. Here, at The Film Experience, we'll be covering all these incredible events, one way or another, with countless reviews coming your way. With that in mind, let's consider some of the festival selections that have been announced lately. Just earlier today, Toronto and New York closed their programs, and there's much to discuss.

Starting with Luca Guadagnino's latest star-studded creation blessing the 63rd NYFF with glamour, provocation, maybe even some controversy…

OPENING FILM

AFTER THE HUNT, Luca Guadagnino

While it's undoubtedly exciting to see Julia Roberts tackle some juicy drama for the first time in ages, I'll have to be honest. The most interesting part of After the Hunt is its DP, the formidable Malik Hassan Sayeed, who spent the 1990s filming some of the coolest images in American cinema and has dedicated the past few decades to a mixture of music videos and documentary work. After the Hunt marks his comeback to narrative movies, the Oscar race, the Hollywood mainstream, and whatnot. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to gaze upon the images he and Guadagnino conjured around a most enticing collection of actors. Beauty is the name of the game and, if the cast and DP weren't enough, the costumes are credited to Giulia Piersanti, reuniting with the director after he spent 2024 under J.W. Anderson's sartorial spell.

MAIN SLATE

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, Kathryn Bigelow
BELOW THE CLOUDS, Gianfranco Rosi
BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS, Kahil Joseph
COVER-UP, Laura Poitras & Mark Obenhaus
DUSE, Pietro Marcello
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER, Jim Jarmusch
GAVAGAI, Ulrich Köhler
IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU, Mary Bronstein
I ONLY REST IN THE STORM, Pedro Pinho
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, Jafar Panahi
JAY KELLY, Noah Baumbach
KONTINENTAL '25, Radu Jude
LANDMARKS, Lucrecia Martel
LATE FAME, Kent Jones
MAGELLAN, Lav Diaz
MIROIRS NO. 3, Christian Petzold
NO OTHER CHOICE, Park Chan-wook
PETER HUJAR'S DAY, Ira Sachs
RESURRECTION, Bi Gan
ROMERIA, Carla Somón
ROSE OF NEVADA, Mark Jenkin
SENTIMENTAL VALUE, Joachim Trier
SIRAT, Oliver Laxe
SOUND OF FALLING, Mascha Schilinski
THE CURRENTS, Milagros Mumenthaler
THE FENCE, Claire Denis
THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD, Francesco Sossai
THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, Hlynur Pálmason
THE MASTERMIND, Kelly Reichardt
THE SECRET AGENT, Kleber Mendonça Filho
TWO PROSECUTORS, Sergei Loznitsa
WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU, Hong Sang-soo 

Lots of titles from Cannes, as one has come to expect, plus some buzzy Berlinale titles and Venice selections nobody's yet seen. I won't bother you too much with the films that will screen first at TIFF before bowing at the Lincoln Center, since I need something to comment on for that coming article. Instead, notice titles like Resurrection, my most anticipated film of the year, Kathryn Bigelow's latest, and a new bit of insanity by Romanian auteur Radu Jude.

I've been lucky enough to see a couple of these films already, and, for starters, I can't recommend I Only Rest in the Storm enough. The international co-production helmed by Portuguese director Pedro Pinho is a strange, sensuous reckoning with colonial pasts and their contemporary permutations, the guilt of the privileged and the vitality of those pushed aside by Western force. Cleo Diára won a prize at Cannes for her performance, a beguiling mix of movie star charisma and slippery mutability, hinting at a life lived beyond the narrative, and maybe even some cinematic realities too. Watch her glow with incandescent outrage in a memorable monologue or model a new wig in each scene, like some Afro-centric reimagining of those Old Hollywood sirens who modelled different glamorous looks every time they entered the frame.

And then there's BLKNWS, an experimental multimedia hallucination that started its life as a video installation by prolific music video artist Kahil Joseph. If you've missed the beauty of Bradford Young's cinematography on your screens, then this is the title for you. Though large portions of the picture re-appropriate documents and old footage, his visions of a sci-fi vessel floating across the Atlantic make for some of the most stunning tableaux in his filmography. A conversation by moonlight with strange shadows flowing velvety over the actors is especially memorable.

SPOTLIGHT - FEATURES

ANEMONE, Ronan Day-Lewis
A PRIVATE LIFE, Rebecca Zlotowski
BLUE MOON, Richard Linklater
GRACE, Paolo Sorrentino
MR. SCORSESE, Rebecca Miller
NOUVELLE VAGUE, Richard Linklater
THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR, Geeta Gandbhir
PILLION, HARRY LIGHTON
PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK, Sepideh Farsi
SCARLET, Mamoru Hosoda
SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, Scott Cooper
STILLER & MEARA: NOTHING IS LOST, Ben Stiller

Daniel Day-Lewis will be busy this September. Or, at least, his household will be. His son, Ronan, will present his feature debut, Anemone, bringing the old man back to the spotlight after the three-time Oscar winner had declared himself retired after Phantom Thread. And, then, there's Lady Day-Lewis, Rebecca Miller, who'll show a multi-part documentary series on Martin Scorsese.

In other news, more transplants from the big European fests, plus a newfangled Oscar hopeful in this year's answer to Bohemian Rhapsody and A Complete Unknown. This time, Bruce Springsteen is the one taking a hot leading man to the front of the Best Actor race. But will Jeremy Allen White be able to translate his popularity on TV with big screen success? And will Jeremy Strong ever get tired of biopics? Time will tell.

SPOTLIGHT - SHORTS

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF LOVE, Gabriel Abrantes
CAIRO STREETS, Abdellah Taia
CAROL & JOY, Nathan Silver
DOOMED AND FAMOUS, Bingham Bryant
FEBRUARY OMEN, Mary Rose McClain
FRAGMENTS FOR VENUS, Alice Diop
INDEX, Radu Muntean
NERVOUS ENERGY, Eve Liu
TURTLE SANDWICH, David Cardoza

It's relatively rare for a shorts program to include such big names as these, but I guess this is what one should expect from the New York Film Festival. Personally, I can't wait to see what new queer grotesquerie and dream-like reveries Gabriel Abrantes comes up with, or what Alice Diop is ready to present as her Saint Omer follow-up. Carol & Joy will follow Carol Kane and her mother, while Index is Radu Muntean's first project since the great Intregalde back in 2021.

CURRENTS - FEATURES

BACK HOME, Tsai Ming-liang
BARRIO TRISTE, Stillz
BOUCHRA, Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani
DRACULA, Radu Jude
DRUNKEN NOODLES, Lucio Castro
DRY LEAF, Alexandre Koberidze
ECCE MOLE, Heinz Emigholz
ESCAPE, Masao Adachi
EVIDENCE, Lee Anne Schmitt
HAIR, PAPER, WATER…, Minh Quy Truong & Nicolas Graux
LAST NIGHT I CONQUERED THE CITY OF THEBES, Gabriel Azorín
LEVERS, Rhayne Vermette
LITTLE BOY, James Benning
MARE'S NEST, Ben Rivers
PIN DE FARTIE, Alejo Moguillansky
WINDWARD, Sharon Lockhart
WITH HASAN IN GAZA, Kamal Aljafari

As far as I'm concerned, this is the NYFF's most interesting section, and this year's program only reinforces that notion. I'm especially interested in some of the titles jumping over from Locarno, like Dracula and Dry Leaf. Then, there's James Benning's new minimalist doc, Tsai Ming-liang blessing the silver screen again, Ben Rivers' latest creation in visually ravishing non-fiction, Kamal Aljafari's activist verve, and much more.

CURRENTS - SHORTS

09/05/1982, Jorge Caballero & Camilo Restrepo
ACETONE REALITY, Michael Bell-Smith & Sara Magenheimer
A METAMORPHOSIS, Lin Htet Aung
AND IF THE BODY, Toby Lee
ANOKA, Karthik Pandian
A REAL CHRISTMAS, Justin Jinsoo Kim
AS A TREE WALKS TO ITS FOREST, Jiayi Chen
AS TOLD BY A CORPSE, Yace Sula
DARIA'S NIGHT FLOWERS, Maryam Tafakory
DOONI, Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold
FELT, Blake Williams
FICTION CONTRACT, Carolyn Lazard
GIVE IT BACK: CRIMES AGAINST REALITY, New Red Order
JACOB'S HOUSE, Lucas Kane
KEYHOLE CONVERSATION, Peter Larsson
LOVER, LOVERS, LOVINGL, LOVE, Jodie Mack
MORNING CIRCLE, Basma al-Sharif
SLET 1988, Marta Popivoda
THEIR EYES, Nicolas Gourault
TIGERS CAN BE SEEN IN THE RAIN, Oscar Ruiz Navia
TIME LIFE VOLUME 15, MONUMENT TO A PERIOD OF TIME IN WHICH I LIVED, Mungo Thomson
TOWARD A FUNDAMENTAL THEORY OF PHYSICS, Victor Van Rossem
WATER SPORTS, Whammy Alcazaren

The shorts are just as exciting if less easy to anticipate as very little is known about the majority of them, even some of the filmmakers. One thing's for sure – some of the year's most audacious cinema will certainly play in the five collections in which the festival will screen these 24 miniatures.

CLOSING FILM

IS THIS THING ON?, Bradley Cooper

After Maestro, Cooper is back in the director's chair for a biopic of sorts. This time, he's taking inspiration from the life of John Bishop, a British comedian who once played professional soccer and might be familiar to international audiences for his appearances in Doctor Who and Ken Loach's Route Irish. Will Arnett takes center stage as a man turning to comedy in the aftermath of a broken marriage. The cast includes other names such as Laura Dern, Andra Day, Sean Hayes, Amy Sedaris, Ciarán Hinds, and Cooper himself.

Please share your top three most anticipated films from the NYFF selection. Sound off in the comments!