Ferrari director Michael Mann and cast members Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, and Gabriel Leone discuss diving deep into projects, the complexities of the Ferrari family, and competitive racing with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim at the Closing Night press conference. Michael Mann (The Insider) brings his astonishing command of technique and storytelling to bear on this emotional, elegantly crafted dramatization of the life of the legendary 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 Mann’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. A Neon release. NYFF61 Closing Night is presented by Campari.

Director Neo Sora discusses the personal nature of the film showcasing Ryuichi Sakamoto's final performance. The logistics of recording live music and Sakamoto's relationship with cinema are explored. The film captures intimate, melancholy, and achingly beautiful moments as Sakamoto plays haunting melodies on a Yamaha grand piano.

Director Bertrand Bonello discusses the timelessness of Léa Seydoux, slashers, and The Beast, a Main Slate selection in this year’s festival, with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. Using Henry James’s haunting 1903 short story “The Beast in the Jungle” as his film’s provocative inspiration, Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, Coma) has created a dynamic and disturbing parable that jumps between three different time periods (1910, 2014, and 2044) and tells the story of a young woman (Léa Seydoux) who undergoes a surgical process to have her DNA—and therefore memories of all her past lives—removed. A Sideshow/Janus Films release.

On today’s daily NYFF61 podcast, director Annie Baker and lead actresses Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler discuss Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Baker’s superb debut feature Janet Planet with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim.  It’s 1991 in rural Western Massachusetts, the summer before Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) starts sixth grade, and she is spending the lazy months with her acupuncturist mother, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), in their home in the woods. As the months drift by, the bespectacled, taciturn girl, fiercely observant, watches Janet and three enigmatic adults who drift in and out of their lives, whether romantic interests or reconnected friends. This work of surreal tranquility moves at a different, lost pace of life, and introduces Ziegler as an incredible new talent. An A24 release. Listen to the Q&A featuring Baker, Nicholson, and Ziegler as they discuss watching the film for the first time, resisting conventions, and the origins of Janet Planet.

Director Jonathan Glazer, stars Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller, sound designer Johnnie Burn, and producer James Wilson joined us at NYFF61 to discuss sound design, physicality, and the morality of portraying the Holocaust in The Zone of Interest, a Main Slate selection in this year’s festival, with FLC Senior Director of Programming Florence Almozini. In his chilling, oblique study of evil, British director Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin) situates the viewer at the center of frighteningly familiar banality: the domestic routine of a Nazi Commandant, his wife, and their kids, while death and violence occur against those imprisoned in Auschwitz over the wall from their idyllic house. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

Director Justine Triet, co-writer Arthur Harari & lead actress Sandra Hüller discuss Anatomy of a Fall, a Main Slate selection at NYFF. They talk about the complexities of human relationships in a murder trial, creating realistic cinema, embracing doubt and ambiguity in storytelling, exploring fears and symbolism, and their journey of working together on the film project.

On today’s daily NYFF61 edition of the FLC podcast, director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi joins us to discuss Evil Does Not Exist, a Main Slate selection in this year’s festival, with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. In his potent and foreboding new film, Oscar-winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) reconstitutes the boundaries of the ecopolitical thriller with the tale of a serene rural village that’s about to be disrupted by the construction of a glamping site for Tokyo tourists. A Sideshow/Janus Films release. Enjoy this discussion Hamaguchi and don’t forget to subscribe here for more filmmaker conversations. Evil Does Not Exist will be released by Sideshow and Janus Films. Tickets to the New York Film Festival are moving fast! Get up-to-date information on all available tickets on a daily basis by visiting filmlinc.org/tix.

At the North American premiere of Priscilla, our Centerpiece selection, actors Cailee Spaeny & Jacob Elordi, costumer designer Stacey Battat, production designer Tamara Deverell, and producer Youree Henley discussed the film with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. No one knew American pop icon Elvis Presley more tenderly during his superstar years than Priscilla Ann Wagner, whose own story as Elvis’s romantic partner and only wife has rarely been told. Director Sofia Coppola, who in her remarkable filmography has so often returned to intimate portraits of women living complicated lives behind closed doors, has found a subject exquisitely tailored to her interests. As portrayed with extraordinary poise and strength by Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla finally becomes the center of her narrative. Coppola follows her love affair with Elvis (an equally revelatory, larger-than-life Jacob Elordi), from her early years as a teenage army brat stationed in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland, which becomes both her home and prison. With her customarily precise attention to texture and detail, Coppola has created one of her most stirring, vivid films, a tribute to a woman who was living in the public eye before she had truly experienced the world. Don't forget to mark your calendars: Priscilla opens in theaters on November 3, courtesy of A24. Tickets to the New York Film Festival are moving fast! Get up-to-date information on all available tickets on a daily basis by visiting filmlinc.org/tix.

We recently welcomed actress Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos to the New York Film Festival for the U.S. premiere of Bleat, a Spotlight selection in this year’s festival, for a post-screening Q&A with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. Director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone have worked together before, but never in black-and-white on a remote Greek island with a herd of goats. In this entrancing, wordless collaboration, Stone gives a mesmerizing performance as a young widow who, along with her late husband (Damien Bonnard), embarks on a singularly unclassifiable journey through sex, death, and resurrection. Showing for the first time since its Athens premiere last year and designed never to be presented with a recorded soundtrack, this unique 35mm screening of the silent film featured live accompaniment by an ensemble of musicians and a choir, performing pieces by J.S. Bach, Knut Nystedt, and Toshio Hosokawa. Tickets to the New York Film Festival are moving fast! Get up-to-date information on all available tickets on a daily basis by visiting filmlinc.org/tix.

We recently welcomed back director Richard Linklater for the U.S. premiere of Hit Man, a Spotlight selection in this year’s festival, for a post-screening Q&A with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. Richard Linklater’s peppy sunlit neo-noir is a continually surprising delight. Glen Powell, in a wily and charismatic star turn, plays strait-laced philosophy professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as an undercover hitman for the New Orleans Police Department, inhabiting different guises and personalities to catch hapless criminals hoping to bump off their enemies. It’s based on an improbable true story, with a few wild embellishments. Tickets to the New York Film Festival are moving fast! Get up-to-date information on all available tickets on a daily basis by visiting filmlinc.org/tix.