Today’s announcement of the New York Film Festival main slate did not include Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” which has had some people worried about its status, especially since it hasn’t been announced at any other festival except for Venice.
I’m being told not to worry, “Queer” will added to both NYFF and TIFF lineups. So, at least there’s that. It won’t be included in NYFF’s main slate lineup, but will instead be part of the NYFF’s Spotlight section.
“Queer,” which is set to screen three weeks from now on the Lido, currently has no U.S. distributor. Same thing goes for Pablo Larrain’s “Maria.” Both films are supposed to have Oscar-worthy lead performances from Daniel Craig and Angelina Jolie.
It should be noted that TIFF is set to lock its lineup on August 13, which means they will be adding more than a few titles between now and then. Some of the rumored titles that might appear in Toronto include Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” and, maybe, unless it was dropped at the last minute, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.”
Based on William S. Burroughs’ controversial novel, Guadagnino’s film wrapped production last July and recently wrapped editing. The film stars Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Omar Appolo, Henrique Zaga, Andres Duprat, Ariel Shulman, Drew Droege, Colin Bates, and filmmakers Lisandro Alonso, David Lowery, and Michael Borremans.
The source material is loosely inspired by Burroughs’ own life, and his time spent in Mexico, surviving on the subsidies handed out by the US government following World War II, not to mention his struggles and dependence on heroin and romantic obsession with a young student named Eugene Allerton.