NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (US): It’s sometimes been difficult to keep track of a cinematic year full of fits, starts, delays, and reversals. Knowing where and how to premiere a new movie has become a sport of its own. Even for those who follow the new movies closely, it has been a sometimes exhilarating, sometimes bewildering, half-hypothetical, half-character year of cinema.
But at the 59th New York Film Festival, which begins Friday, the abnormal film year has come into sharp focus. The New York Film Festival, held by a film company in Lincoln Center, isn’t a total of all-to-see in 2021, but it’s as close as it gets to most festivals. The Associated Press reports that over the next two weeks, 32 feature films will be featured on New York’s main slate, along with accompanying, tribute, and tribute sections.
“The festival’s mandate has always been to assess the year in cinema,” says Dennis Lim, director of programming for the festival. “Besides being a weird year, I think it’s also been a really strong year.”
The premiere of Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, kicks off the festival Friday at Alice Tully Hall. The film, which will hit theaters a24 on December 25 and on Apple TV+ on January 14, is the festival’s biggest event, adding to the growing boom in the arts in New York. In recent weeks on the Lincoln Center campus, the Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet have all returned to their indoor theaters. Down the street, the best of Broadway shows are back.
After the pandemic forced last year’s New York Film Festival to host virtual screenings and visits across the city, the annual screening of top international filmmakers and some of the year’s most popular films will return to Lincoln Center.
“There was this turmoil that happened. We all came back from that,” says Eugene Hernandez, festival director. “For us, as a festival, we decided to prioritize personal experience.”
While some films, like “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” will make their debuts, the New York Film Festival is a highly curated collection of films that have been prominent at other festivals this year. This includes Jane Campion’s western gothic “The Power of a Dog”; Pedro Almodóvar’s Tale of Kind Motherhood “Parallel Mothers”; Joanna Hogg’s Fantastic Memory Piece “The Memorabilia Part Two”; laureate of the explosive Palme d’Or “Titane” from French director Julia Ducornau; An insightful personal study by Norwegian director Joachim Trier entitled “The Worst Person in the World”; “Memoria” is a contemplative film by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul with Tilda Swinton; Berlin Golden Bear winner “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” from Romanian director Radu Jude; And Ryusuke Hamaguchi is adapted from Haruki Murakami “Drive My Car”.
Part of what makes the New York Film Festival special is that while there are red carpets and a standing ovation, the Upper West Side gathering always puts a sober reflection above the scene. For the festival organizers, the discussions and conversations that revolve around the cinema screens are, after all, the goal of the festival.
“We agree that festivals are about the big screen experience,” Lim says. “Last year, moving to a virtual world has been a necessary and important thing for me to do. But it’s a different time and a different climate, and we need to respond accordingly.”
Some performances became unexpectedly timely. A few days after the death of pioneering director Melvin Van Peebles, a new restoration of his landmark 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasss” will be shown on Sunday to coincide with its 50th anniversary. Van Peebles’ death Tuesday at the age of 89 prompted expressions of appreciation for the pioneering independent director.
Proof of vaccination will be required for all festival attendees, and there will be no waivers. Hernandez said the biggest hurdle associated with COVID-19 is sorting out travel restrictions for filmmakers and actors. Who can attend and who cannot attend still changes daily.
The show will not only be at Lincoln Center. To help promote the wider resurgence of cinema in New York, screenings will also take place in the Arts House theaters in Brooklyn, Harlem and East Village.
But at Lincoln Center, Hernandez said, “It feels like a different place than it has been for a long time.”
RAE