The New York Film Festival knows they have a big and historic edition on their hands this year — solely for the simple fact that they are premiering the most anticipated movie of the year, and maybe the decade: Martin Scorsese’s mob drama, “The Irishman.” In today’s press release of the full lineup, there was no runtime included for “The Irishman,” which begs us to ask the question: Are Scorsese and Schoonmaker still in the editing room?
Of course, there are plenty of other noteworthy selections again this year, as the NYFF, in conjunction with the Lincoln Center, have announced their full slate of 30+ films for this year’s edition. Only five of the 29 films selected are in English. Despite a total of nine titles helming from this past May’s Cannes Film Festival, Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life” Ken Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You,” Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables,” Elia Suleiman’s “It Must Be Heaven” and Jessica Hausner’s “Little Joe” did not make the final cut.
A big surprise is no “Uncut Gems” from New York’s very own Josh and Ben Safdie. What does that say about the movie itself? Who knows. It is set to premiere at Telluride and then Toronto. Are A24 just being cautious in their goal to get Adam Sandler that Oscar nomination? Wouldn’t that be something? But the fact that a heavily NYC-based movie isn’t at the biggest NYC film festival does make you wonder what happened…
Also not going to NYFF is more mainstream Hollywood fare such as “Jojo Rabbit,” “The Aeronauts,” “The Laundromat,” and “The Two Popes,” not to mention the three titles that the arthouse crowd was expecting at the festival (Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “The Truth,” Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness” and Pablo Larrain’s “Ema,”) So basically, the NYFF has decided that this year’s fall lineup of Hollywood films just isn't for them, with the exception of “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story” and “Motherless Brooklyn.” Good on them.
As reported by yours truly, Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” is not only going to be part of the NYFF but is also going to Telluride (based on its NYFF Premiere status). From what we can see, again based on Premiere status, Not going to Telluride are “Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story,” “Bacurau,” “Synonyms,” “Wasp Network,” “The Wild Goose Lake.” Telluride-bound will be films such as “Beanpole,” “Pain & Glory,” “Parasite,” “Portrait of A Lady on Fire,” and “Varda by Agnes.”
With Olivier Assayas “Wasp Network” not going to Telluride we now have only one movie that is likely to make all four of the major fall festivals (TIFF, Telluride, Venice and NYFF) and that is Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.”
The 2019 New York Film Festival begins on September 27.
The 57th New York Film Festival Main Slate
The Irishman
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Marriage Story
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Motherless Brooklyn
Dir. Edward Norton
Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story
Dir. Mati Diop
Bacurau
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
Beanpole
Dir. Kantemir Balagov
Fire Will Come
Dir. Oliver Laxe
First Cow
Dir. Kelly Reichardt
A Girl Missing
Dir. Koji Fukada
I Was at Home, But…
Dir. Angela Schanelec
Liberté
Dir. Albert Serra
Martin Eden
Dir. Pietro Marcello
The Moneychanger
Dir. Federico Veiroj
Oh Mercy!
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Pain and Glory
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Parasite
Dir. Bong Joon-ho
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Dir. Céline Sciamma
Saturday Fiction
Dir. Lou Ye
Sibyl
Dir. Justine Triet
Synonyms
Dir. Nadav Lapid
To the Ends of the Earth
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Traitor
Dir. Marco Bellocchio
Varda by Agnès
Dir. Agnès Varda
Vitalina Varela
Dir. Pedro Costa
Wasp Network
Dir. Olivier Assayas
The Whistlers
Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
The Wild Goose Lake
Dir. Diao Yinan
Young Ahmed
Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Zombi Child
Dir. Bertrand Bonello
A24 isn't being subtle. This Friday, "You Can See Everything" will expand to roughly 600 additional theaters, bringing it to 3,243 screens nationwide. That's a studio going after the top spot at the box office.