New York Film Festival Announces 2012 Line-Up

Fest will present 32 films from filmmakers who include Brian De Palma, Michael Haneke and Alain Resnais, among others.

The 50th New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, will present 32 films in its main slate, representing the work of an international array of filmmakers ranging from Olivier Assayas to Robert Zemeckis. The festival, which runs from Sept. 28 through Oct. 14, will include four world premieres: Alan Berliner's First Cousin Once Removed, a documentary about how Alzheimer's disease affected poet and critic Edwin Honig, from HBO Documentary Films; Ang Lee's 3D fantasy film Life of Pi, the opening night film; David Chase's feature directorial debut, Not Fade Away, which will be featured as the centerpiece gala; and Robert Zemeckis' drama Flight, starringDenzel Washington, which will serve as the closing night film.  

The line-up, announced Thursday, includes a number of awards winners from the festival circuit:Michael Haneke's Amour, which won the Palm d'Or at this year Cannes Film Festival; Cristian Mungui's Beyond the Hills, starring Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Straten, who shared the best actress prize at Cannes, where Mungiu also took home the screenplay award; and Christian Petzold's Cold War thriller Barbara, which won the Silver Bear for best director at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.

Other prize-winners include Antonio Mendez Esparza's debut film Here and There, a film about the US/Mexican border experience that was the recipient of the Grand Prize at this year’s Critics Week in Cannes, and Song Fang’s debut film, Memories Look at Me, about a woman who travels from Beijing to Nanjing for a visit with her family, which was named the Best First Feature at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Pablo Larrain’s political thriller No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, won the top prize in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, and Miguel Gomes’ surrealist drama Tabu was the winner of the Alfred Bauer Prize (for a work of particular innovation) and FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The 90-year-old Alain Resnais, whose Muriel, or the Time of Return, screened at the very first New York Film Festival, returns with You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.  

Other stars whose work will be spotlighted at NYFF include Bill Murray, who plays Franklin D. Roosevelt in Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson; Greta Gerwig, playing an aspiring, if clumsy, dancer in Noah Baumbach's Frances; Elle Fanning in Sally Potter's coming-of-age tale Ginger and Rosa; John Malkovich, who plays Viscount Wellington in Valeria Sarmiento's Lines of Wellington (Linhas de Wellington), which also stars Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric; and Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace, who star in Brian De Palma's Passion, a remake ofAlain Corneau's 2010 Love Crime.

In terms of distributors, Sony Pictures Classics will be represented by three films -- Amour, No andDror Moreh's The Gatekeepers (Shomerei Ha'saf), from Israel. Sundance Selects is also fielding three films: Beyond the Hills, Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love, and Assayas' Something in the Air(Apres mai). Also repped by three films is the new distributor Adopt Films, which is bringing Barbara,Tabu, and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire).

“The films making up the main slate of this year's NYFF, have in common a general quality of fearlessness that unites otherwise very disparate works. These are films that go all the way, works willing to take the risk or chance that by doing so they may be bringing audiences to places they might rather not go," Richard Peña, selection committee chair and program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said.

Additional special events, sidebars, panels and first–time programs will be announced in subsequent weeks as well as additional programming to complement the main-slate of films, including NYFF’s Masterworks programs and Views from the Avant-Garde, which will include additional works by main slate filmmakers João Pedro Rodrigues and Raul Ruiz.

The main slate line-up follows:

Opening Night Gala Selection

LIFE OF PI

Director: Ang Lee

Centerpiece Gala Selection
NOT FADE AWAY
Director: David Chase

Closing Night Gala Selection
FLIGHT
Director: Robert Zemeckis

AMOUR
Director: Michael Haneke

ARAF – SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
Director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu

BARBARA
Director: Christian Petzold

BEYOND THE HILLS (După dealuri)
Director: Cristian Mungiu

BWAKAW
Director: Jun Robles Lana

CAESAR MUST DIE (Cesare deve morire)
Directors: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

CAMILLE REWINDS (Camille redouble)
Director: Noémie Lvovsky

THE DEAD MAN AND BEING HAPPY (El muerto y ser feliz)
Director: Javier Rebello

FILL THE VOID (Lemale et ha'halal)
Director: Rama Burshtein

FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED
Director: Alan Berliner

FRANCES HA
Director: Noah Baumbach

THE GATEKEEPERS (Shomerei Ha’saf)
Director: Dror Moreh

GINGER AND ROSA
Director: Sally Potter

HERE AND THERE (Aquí y Allá)
Director: Antonio Mendez Esparza

HOLY MOTORS
Director: Leos Carax

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON
Director: Roger Michell

KINSHASA KIDS
Director: Marc-Henri Wajnberg

THE LAST TIME I SAW MACAO (A Última Vez Que Vi Macau)
Director: João Pedro Rodrigues

LEVIATHAN
Directors: Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE
Director: Abbas Kiarostami

LINES OF WELLINGTON (Linhas de Wellington)
Director: Valeria Sarmiento

MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (Ji Yi Wang Zhe Wo)
Director: Song Fang

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET (La Noche de enfrente)
Director: Raul Ruiz

NO
Director: Pablo Larrain

OUR CHILDREN (À perdre la raison)
Director: Joachim Lafosse

PASSION
Director: Brian De Palma

SOMETHING IN THE AIR (Après Mai)
Director: Olivier Assayas

TABU
Director: Miguel Gomes

YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET (Vous n'avez encore rien vu)
Director: Alain Resnais