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Festival coverage

New York Film Festival

2008

Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler

Now in its 46th year, the New York Film Festival has a slightly different remit to many going on around the world. Rather than being a marketplace, it aims to be a showcase of talent, bringing together the best work from festivals around the world - from newcomers and established filmmakers.

Highlights this year include, Clint Eastwood's Changeling and Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler - fresh from scooping the Golden Lion at Venice (see our news story).

The festival also features a Views from the Avant-Garde section which premieres non-narrative, experimental film and video. This year's main slate features 28 films from 18 different countries.

This year's festival also featured a "near-complete retrospective" of Japanese fillmmaker Nagisa Oshima.

View complete schedule

Other years (18)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • The Headless Woman
    Review preview for The Headless Woman

    Martel expertly compounds ambiguities without ever abandoning the apparent naturalism of her presentation.

    Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
    A woman's life goes off the rails after a mysterious car accident.
  • I'm Gonna Explode
    Review preview for I'm Gonna Explode

    The issue of sex is carefully handled and the trajectory the pair take has a fumbling, teenage quality that makes it easy to believe.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A romance develops between two rebels without a cause.
  • Tony Manero
    Review preview for Tony Manero

    The nature of delusion and fixation has been explored many times in cinema, but rarely with such grim and gripping intensity.

    Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
    The story of a psychotic fiftysomething and his obssession with John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever.
  • Tulpan
    Review preview for Tulpan

    Dvortsevoy shows us the fragility of life, through the birth and death of lambs, while also touching on the innate stoicism of families who live in this toughest of environments.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A man dreams of becoming a shepherd in the Kazakhstan steppe, but is there room for such dreams in the modern world?
  • The Class
    Review preview for The Class

    Teachers everywhere will give a smile of recognition as an experienced teacher takes a new colleague through his class list – “nice, nice, not nice, not nice at all…”

    Val Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Quasi-documentary about a group of Parisian school kids.
  • Four Nights With Anna
    Review preview for Four Nights With Anna

    Shyness has rarely had such a threatening undercurrent.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A crematorium worker becomes obssessed with a beautiful nurse.
  • The Wrestler
    Review preview for The Wrestler

    Rourke brings a staggering amount of emotional weight to the role of Randy.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    An ageing wrestler tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, but can he get the ring out of his soul? Plus read what Aronofsky, Rourke and Tomei said about .
  • Wendy And Lucy
    Review preview for Wendy And Lucy

    This quiet, unfussy film feels more important than a whole host of glossy blockbusters.

    Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
    Drama about a young woman's attempts to find her lost dog.
  • Tokyo Sonata
    Review preview for Tokyo Sonata

    Considering each aspect individually, this is a picture of outstanding quality, from the strong cast to the photography and haunting soundtrack to the acute character studies.

    Emma Slawinski · 3.5 out of 5
    A Tokyo salaryman loses his job and tries to conceal it from his already dysfunctional family.
  • Che: Guerilla
    Review preview for Che: Guerilla

    Certainly Soderbergh gives you a sense of the boredom of war - as the days tick by on the screen, you feel your own will to live begin to falter.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
    Second episode in Soderbergh's meditation on the Argentine-born revolutionary, focussing on his time in Bolivia.

A–Z of New York Film Festival 2008 reviews

Features

  • Revolutionary life
    Director Steven Soderbergh on making his two-part epic about Che Guevara.
  • City of memories
    Director Jia Zhang-Ke talks about the inspiration behind his fact meets fiction look at the lives of factory workers.
  • Appetites of Hunger
    Director Steve McQueen talks about what drove him to make his Camera d'Or winning film about Bobby Sands' hunger strike.