The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced that Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). NYFF’s main slate of 27 feature films was also announced as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.
The 2011 edition of NYFF will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: the Masterworks programs, additional titles added to the previously announced “Ben-Hur,” Nicholas Ray’s “We Can’t Go Home Again” and “Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial”, as well as “Views from the Avant-Garde,” and several special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.
“In many of the films in this year’s Festival, characters pass from recognition of a problem or situation to actual resistance,” says Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, “This confrontational attitude is perhaps a sign of our increasingly polarized times.”
The 49th New York Film Festival main-slate:
Opening Night Gala Selection
“CARNAGE”
Director: Roman Polanski
Country: France/Germany/Poland
Centerpiece Gala Selection
“MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”
Director: Simon Curtis
Country: UK
Special Gala Presentations
“A DANGEROUS METHOD”
Director: David Cronenberg
Country: UK/Canada/Germany
“THE SKIN I LIVE IN”
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Closing Night Gala Selection
“THE DESCENDANTS”
Director: Alexander Payne
Country: USA
“4:44: LAST DAY ON EARTH”
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA
“THE ARTIST”
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Country: France
“CORPO CELESTE”
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Country: Italy/Switzerland/France
“FOOTNOTE”
Director: Joseph Cedar
Country: Israel
“GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD”
Director: Martin Scorsese
Country: USA
“GOODBYE FIRST LOVE”
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Country: France/Germany
THE KID WITH A BIKE
Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Country: Belgium/France
“LE HAVRE”
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Country: Finland/France/Germany
“THE LONELIEST PLANET”
Director: Julia Loktev
Country: USA/Germany
“MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE”
Director: Sean Durkin
Country: USA
“MELANCHOLIA”
Director: Lars von Trier
Country: Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany/Italy
“MISS BALA”
Director: Gerardo Naranjo
Country: Mexico
“ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA”
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey
“PINA”
Director: Wim Wenders
Country: Germany/France/UK
“PLAY”
Director: Ruben Östlund
Country: Sweden/France/Denmark
“POLICEMAN”
Director: Nadav Lapid
Country: Israel/France
“A SEPARATION”
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Country: Iran
“SHAME”
Director: Steve McQueen
Country: UK
“SLEEPING SICKNESS”
Director: Ulrich Köhler
Country: Germany/France/Netherlands
“THE STUDENT”
Director: Santiago Mitre
Country: Argentina
“THIS IS NOT A FILM”
Director: Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Country: Iran
“THE TURIN HORSE”
Director: Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky
Country: Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA
