Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari’ to Close New York Film Festival

Film at Lincoln Center has announced that Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” has been selected as the closing night film of the 61st New York Film Festival.

Great news for Michael Mann. His $90 million. gamble “Ferrari,” acquired by Neon in July, will now be going to Venice and New York. It is skipping Toronto and Telluride.

Here’s the NYFF description of the film:

Michael Mann brings his astonishing command of technique and storytelling to bear on this emotional, elegantly crafted dramatization of the life of the legendary race car manufacturer and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari at a professional and personal fulcrum. It’s 1957, and the marriage of Enzo (Adam Driver, in an artfully internalized performance) and Laura (Penélope Cruz, a ferocious revelation) has begun to irrevocably fracture as a result of his philandering and the tragic recent death of their young son. Their unsettled domestic world is on a collision course with his work life as Enzo faces a pair of major turning points: financial pressure to increase productivity, which means going against his long-standing desire to only produce race cars, and preparations for the treacherous cross-country open-road Mille Miglia race. Dovetailing these narrative strands, Mann effortlessly shifts gears between elegiac and spectacular, climaxing in an exhilarating and terrifying race across the Northern Italian landscape—a visual and aural wonder of revving machinery against bucolic splendor—that ranks with the greatest set pieces of the director’s career. Aided by a magnificent cast, which also includes Shailene Woodley, Gabriel Leone, Patrick Dempsey, and Jack O’Connell, and glorious on-location shooting in Ferrari’s hometown of Modena, Mann has constructed a marvel of classical cinema.

“Ferrari” has been a decades-long passion project for Mann. He first started working on the film in 2000 with the late Sydney Pollack. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman had both been cast in the role that Driver plays here, in 2015 and then 2016. Both eventually dropped out.

The Mann-directed epic stars Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz and is expected to first world premiere in September at the Venice Film Festival. “Ferrari” is also set to be released in theaters on December 25th, 2023.

Mann is the visionary filmmaker behind “Heat,” “The Insider,” “Collateral,” and “Thief.” He’s been in a bit of an artistic rut of late with his last film failing critically (“Blackhat”) failing critically and commercially.

There are some who believe his last great film was 2004’s “Collateral.” I actually also really liked 2009’s “Public Enemies.” Then there’s the cult that abides by 2006’s “Miami Vice,” a film that has had a reappraisal, of sorts, in recent years. It even finished 38th in our critics poll for the best films of the 2000s.