New York Film Festival Names 32 Films for 64th Main Slate

The New York Film Festival has announced the main slate of its 64th edition, a 32-film lineup that includes new work from James Gray, Ava DuVernay and Tony Gilroy.

Organizers at Film at Lincoln Center made the announcement Wednesday. All 32 titles will play at the festival, which runs Sept. 25 through Oct. 12.

Opening the festival is Gray's "Paper Tiger," a Queens-set crime drama starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller. Few of the selections are world premieres, but one exception is Gilroy's "Behemoth!," starring Pedro Pascal as a cellist, which the festival has named its centerpiece gala.

Also premiering in New York is DuVernay's "14th," a documentary about the much-contested constitutional amendment and a kind of sequel to her earlier film "13th." It will close the festival.

The slate leans heavily on filmmakers who have brought work to the NYFF before, among them Pedro Almodovar ("Bitter Christmas"), Ryusuke Hamaguchi ("All of a Sudden"), Andrew Haigh ("A Long Winter"), Radu Jude ("The Diary of a Chambermaid"), Lee Chang-dong ("Possible Love"), Mike Leigh ("Tender Loving Care"), Pawel Pawlikowski ("Fatherland") and Ira Sachs ("The Man I Love").

Other selections include Chris Rock's "Misty Green," which will premiere first at the Toronto International Film Festival; William and David Greaves' documentary "Once Upon a Time in Harlem"; and Julia Loktev's "My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile," the continuation of the Russian filmmaker's sprawling documentary on modern-day dissent in Russia.

"It's hard to recall a prior main slate program in which the state of the world has been as urgently reflected in so many creative ways," Dennis Lim, the festival's artistic director, said in a statement. "You could take any cross section of this lineup and come away with a vivid picture of what our present looks, sounds, and feels like."

Lim said he was "deeply encouraged" to introduce New York audiences to "so many fearless, imaginative directors whose artistry has been inspired by the shared realities of our world."

The festival said Tuesday that Takashi Yamazaki's "Godzilla Minus Zero," his sequel to 2023's "Godzilla Minus One," will have its world premiere at the NYFF on Sept. 26.