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Festival coverage

New York Film Festival

17 September – 11 October 2020

The festival ran from from September 17 to October 11. The 58th edition opened with Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock and had Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland as its centrepiece gala. Due to the pandemic, its focus was on outdoor and virtual screenings.

Other years (18)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • The Inheritance
    Review preview for The Inheritance

    If you have a passion for architecture - and especially for interiors - you'll find that sufficient reason to watch this in itself.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A woman's inheritance leads her to Eastern Europe to uncover a dark and disturbing family secret.
  • City Hall
    Review preview for City Hall

    Wiseman has stuck around to the point where people forget that he's there, so we see people as they habitually present themselves to one another, rather than more self-conscious performances.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A look at Boston's city government, covering racial justice, housing, climate action, and more.
  • Time
    Review preview for Time

    Bradley’s direction emphasises the beauty of the Rich family’s resilience and humanity, with shots that carry the panoramic vistas of French New Wave and the hypnotic tones of underground cinema.

    Stephanie Brown · 4 out of 5
    Fox Rich fights for her husband’s release from jail, after he is sentenced to 60 years of incarceration for a bank robbery, a crime she also served time for in the Nineties.
  • Night Of The Kings
    Review preview for Night Of The Kings

    Everything here is wrapped in layers of fiction.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A young man is sent to La Maca, a prison of Ivory Coast in the middle of the forest ruled by its prisoners. With the red moon rising, he is designated by the Boss to be the new Roman and must tell a story to the other prisoners.
  • MLK/FBI
    Review preview for MLK/FBI

    Pollard casts fresh light on the Bureau’s attempts to discredit King as a threat to the American social order as well as the organisation’s inner workings.

    Sunil Chauhan · 4 out of 5
    Based on newly declassified files, Sam Pollard's documentary explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • All In: The Fight For Democracy
    Review preview for All In: The Fight For Democracy

    If you've been confused by what you've seen of US politics recently and are looking to learn more about it, this is a great place to start.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A documentary about the history of voter suppression in the United States.
  • David Byrne's American Utopia
    Review preview for David Byrne's American Utopia

    Lee is inventive in his shooting - particularly in his use of an aerial camera above the stage and another that lurks at the back at barefoot level, both capturing elements of the performance that an audience on the night would not be able to see.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A film of Byrne's acclaimed Broadway show.
  • French Exit
    Review preview for French Exit

    Pfeiffer’s delivery is fantastically inscrutable.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
    A Manhattan socialite whose inheritance is running out moves to a borrowed apartment in Paris with her son and cat.
  • Beginning
    Review preview for Beginning

    The lengths of time the shots last and the camera angles that hide more context than they reveal are what formally is most striking about Beginning. But it is the story that sticks with you.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
    In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah Witness community is attacked by an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict, the familiar world of Yana, the wife of the community leader, slowly crumbles.
  • Undine
    Review preview for Undine

    When Petzold shows the broken mending again, the magic of cinema becomes the subject

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
    Undine is a city historian on urban development in a Berlin museum, the 'place by the swamp'. When her boyfriend leaves her, she vows to kill the faithless man but soon meets another.

A–Z of New York Film Festival 2020 reviews

Features

  • The imposter
    Marie-Claude Treilhou on a scene with Ingrid Bourgoin and Michel Delahaye in Simone Barbès Or Virtue
  • Holding onto the moment
    Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges on a scene in Azazel Jacobs’ French Exit
  • Two different eyes
    Christian Petzold and Heinz Emigholz on German fairy tales
  • An act of love
    Gianfranco Rosi on editing Notturno
  • A woman in the moment
    Dea Kulumbegashvili on the international collaboration behind Beginning
  • Having a mission
    Steve McQueen and Shabier Kirchner on working together in Mangrove
  • Sniffing out secrets
    Directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw chat about their documentary The Truffle Hunters
  • Scoring Nomadland
    Chloé Zhao on singer/songwriter Cat Clifford and the music of Ludovico Einaudi
  • On the threshold
    Laura Dern, Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk
  • Guessing game
    Guy Maddin on Mr. Memory, Daniil Kharms and Stump The Guesser
  • Dressing the part
    Steve McQueen, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Micheal Ward on the costumes in Lovers Rock

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