The 64th New York Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious cinema events, opens Friday with the first of more than 70 fiction features and documentaries making their world or U.S.premieres, starring such luminaries as Pedro Pascal, Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, and Godzilla.
This year's festival, which runs through October 12, showcases short film programs, revivals, and filmmaker talks, in screenings held in all five of the city's boroughs.The following are some of the most notable and intriguing films making their bows before opening in theaters or streaming in the coming months. Documentaries This year's lineup includes non-fiction films with a lot of buzz.
In "You Can See Everything," whose world premiere was a surprise at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this month, Nathan Fielder ("Nathan for You," "The Rehearsal") moved into the home of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her partner in the days prior to the start of Holmes' 11-year prison sentence for fraud.With co-director Lance Oppenheim, Fielder engaged in conversations with Holmes aimed at revealing her motivations.
(N.Y.premiere; Sept.
30).Julia Loktev's "My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile," a sequel to her acclaimed 2024 fly-on-the-wall account of independent media in Moscow reporting on the Putin regime, follows journalists as they are forced into exile after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin's ramped-up censorship and arrests over reporting on the war.
(N.Y.premiere; Sept.
27.) Among the most anticipated is "NAZA," (North American premiere; Sept.26, 27) in which its directors said they spoke with dozens of sources inside the Israeli military and intelligence services who allege that the systematic use of AI-powered targeting contributed to potential human rights abuses against Palestinians in Gaza.
"NAZA," whose title refers to collateral damage, was directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (whose previous film "N...