NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The on Tuesday unveiled the main slate for its 62nd edition, with selections including Pedro Almod贸var's 鈥淭he Room Next Door鈥� and Mati Diop's 鈥淒ahomey.鈥�
Thirty-three features will make up the central lineup of the annual festival presented by Film at Lincoln Center. The main slate is particularly international this year, with films hailing from 24 countries, and including 19 directors making their debut in the festival's most prestigious section.
The festival, will kick off Sept. 27 with RaMell Ross' 鈥淣ickel Boys,鈥� an adaptation of Colson Whitehead鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel. Almod贸var, making his 15th appearance in New York's main slate, will present 鈥淭he Room Next Door,鈥� starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, as the festival centerpiece. Steve McQueen's 鈥淏litz," about the bombing of London in World War II, will be the closing night film.
A number of prize-winners from will be making their U.S. or North American premieres. Along with 鈥淎nora,鈥� that includes 鈥淕rand Tour,鈥� by Miguel Gomes, winner of Cannes' best director; Payal Kapadia's 鈥淎ll We Imagine as Light,鈥� winner of the Grand Prix; Rungano Nyoni's 鈥淥n Becoming a Guinea Fowl,鈥� a standout from Un Certain Regard; and 鈥淭he Seed of the Sacred Fig,鈥� from the dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof
鈥淭he festival鈥檚 ambition is to reflect the state of cinema in a given year, which often means also reflecting the state of the world,鈥� said Dennis Lim, the festival's artistic director, in a statement. 鈥淭he most notable thing about the films in the main slate 鈥� and in the other sections that we will announce in the coming weeks 鈥� is the degree to which they emphasize cinema鈥檚 relationship to reality. They are reminders that, in the hands of its most vital practitioners, film has the capacity to reckon with, intervene in, and reimagine the world.鈥�
Also are tap are with Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi, Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke's 鈥淐aught by the Tides鈥� and David Cronenberg's 鈥淭he Shrouds," as well as a pair of highlights from Cannes sidebars: Roberto Minervini's American Civil War drama 鈥淭he Damned鈥� and Carson Lund's baseball elegy 鈥淓ephus.鈥�
Also coming to New York: Mike Leigh's 鈥淗ard Truths," Brady Corbet's 鈥淭he Brutalist,鈥� starring Adrien Brody as an architect and Holocaust survivor, and the world premiere of Julia Loktev鈥檚 鈥淢y Undesirable Friends: Part I 鈥� Last Air in Moscow,鈥� a documentary about independent journalism in Putin鈥檚 Russia.
Two filmmakers have a pair of films in the main slate. Both 鈥淏y the Stream鈥� and 鈥淎 Traveler's Needs鈥� from the South Korean director Hong Sangsoo will debut at the festival, while the Chinese documentarian Wang Bing will present the second and third entries in his 鈥淵outh鈥� trilogy: 鈥淵outh (Hard Times鈥�) and 鈥淵outh (鈥滺omecoming").
The , running Sept. 27 to Oct. 14, takes place at Lincoln Center and a handful of other venues around the city.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
