New York Film Festival - Main Slate

NYFF just dropped its main slate.

Here’s a breakdown, including the majority of the Cannes and Berlin winners plus David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds; Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, and Brady Corbet’s 70mm Adrien Brody film The Brutalist:

• All We Imagine as Light

  • Cannes: Grand Prize

  • Dir: Payal Kapadia

  • Distributor: Janus Films

Synopsis:

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend.

Trailer. First Indian film in 30 years to compete at Cannes.

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• Anora 

  • Dir: Sean Baker (Red Rocket, The Florida Project)

  • Cannes: Palme d’Or

  • Distributor: Neon

Synopsis:

Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Trailer.

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• The Shrouds

  • Cannes: Official Selection

  • Dir: David Cronenberg (The Fly, Crash)

  • Cast: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and Guy Pearce

Synopsis:

​Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.

​Cronenberg has stated that the film is inspired by the passing of his wife, Carolyn Cronenberg, who worked as his frequent collaborator.​

Check out the teaser.

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• The Damned

  • Cannes: Best Director, Un Certain Regard

  • Dir: Roberto Minervini

Synopsis:

In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the uncharted Western territories.

Trailer.

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• Grand Tour

  • Dir: Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights: Volume 1 - 3)

  • Cannes: Best Director

  • Distributor: Mubi

Synopsis:

Edward, civil servant, flees fiancee Molly on their wedding day in Rangoon, 1917. His travels replace panic with melancholy. Molly, set on marriage, amused by his escape, trails him across Asia.

Trailer.

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• On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

  • Dir: Rungano Nyoni

  • Cannes: Best Director, Un Certain Regard

  • Distributor: A24

Synopsis:

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.

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• The Seed of the Sacred Fig

  • Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof

  • Cannes: Special Prize

  • Distributor: Neon

Synopsis:

Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.

Rasoulof fled Iran to make the premiere of his film.

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• Dahomey

  • Dir: Mati Diop (story: Simon Killer)

  • Berlin: Golden Bear

  • Distributor: Mubi

Synopsis:

The journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation's demands.

Trailer.

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• A Traveler’s Needs 

  • Dir: Hong Sangsoo

  • Berlin: Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize

Synopsis:

A French woman drinks makgeolli in Korea after losing her means of income, then teaches French to two Korean women.

Clip.

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