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What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? and Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy
Ahed's Knee
(Country: France, Israel; Year: 2021; Director: Nadav Lapid; Writer: Nadav Lapid; Stars: Nur Fibak, Avshalom Pollak)
An Israeli filmmaker throws himself in the midst of two battles doomed to fail: one against the death of freedom, the other against the death of a mother.
US premiere
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc)
(Country: Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Jude; Writer: Radu Jude; Stars: Tudorel Filimon, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Malai, Ilinca Manolache, Daniela Ionita Marcu, Katia Pascariu, Alexandru Potocean, Nicodim Ungureanu, Andi Vasluianu, Dana Voicu)
Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet.
US premiere
Benedetta
(Country: France, Netherlands; Year: 2021; Director: Paul Verhoeven; Writer: David Birke and Paul Verhoeven, based on he book by Judoth C Brown; Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Virginie Efira, Daphne Patakia, Olivier Rabourdin)
A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.
North American premiere
Bergman Island
(Country: France, Sweden, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Mia Hansen-Løve; Writer: Mia Hansen-Løve; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Tim Roth, Vicky Krieps, Anders Danielsen Lie, Joel Spira)
An American filmmaking couple retreat to the island for the summer to write screenplays for their upcoming films in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired Bergman. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur against the backdrop of the island's wild landscape.
A Chiara
(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Carpignano; Writer: Jonas Carpignano; Stars: Grecia Rotolo, Swamy Rotolo, Silvana Palumbo, Rosa Caccamo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmelo Rotolo)
The Guerrasio family and their friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 16-year-old sister Chiara, as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family is in top form. However, everything changes the next day when Claudio disappears...
The Velvet Underground and The Souvenir: Part II
Drive My Car (Doraibu Mai Kâ)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and takamasa Oe, based on the book by Haruki Murakami; Stars: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, Tôko Miura)
Nishijima Hidetoshi as a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife. Then one day the wife disappears.
US premiere
The First 54 Years - An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
(Country: Israel, France, Finland, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Avi Mograbi; Writer: Avi Mograbi; Stars: Zvi Barel, Shlomo Gazit, Avi Mograbi)
The Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories has lasted 54 years, and there is seemingly no end in sight. Working with testimonies given by soldiers in the Israeli army, Avi Mograbi provides insights on how a colonialist occupation functions.
Flee
(Country: Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen; Writer: Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built.
France (On A Half Clear Morning)
(Country: France, Italy, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Bruno Dumont; Writer: Bruno Dumont; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, Gaëtan Amiel, Jewad Zemmar, Marc Bettinelli)
A TV journalist's career, home life, and psychological stability are shaken after a driving accident.
US premiere
Futura
(Country: Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)
A portrait of Italy observed through the eyes of teenagers who talk about the places they live in and imagine themselves, torn between the opportunities that surround them, the dream of what they want to become, the fear of failing, the trials they hope to overcome.
US premiere
Bergman Island and Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn
The Girl And The Spider (Das Mädchen und die Spinne)
(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; Writer: Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; Stars: Henriette Confurius, André Hennicke, Sabine Timoteo, Ursina Lardi, Liliane Amuat, Birte Schnöink, Dorian Heiniger, Dagna Litzenberger-Vinet, Flurin Giger, Ivan Georgiev, Lea Draeger, Margherita Schoch, Ella Gfeller, Yuna Andres, Philippe Schuler)
Tensions ebb and flow as a young woman moves apartment.
US premiere
Hit The Road
(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Panah Panahi; Writer: Panah Panahi; Stars: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar)
Drama based around a road trip in a borrowed car.
US premiere
Il Buco
(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Michelangelo Frammartino; Writer: Michelangelo Frammartino, Giovanna Giuliani; Stars: Paolo Cossi, Jacopo Elia, Denise Trombin, Mila Costi, Carlos José Crespo, Leonardo Larocca, Angelo Spadaro, Nicola Lanza, Antonio Lanza, Claudia Candusso)
Drama based on the true adventures of a group of young speleologists who in 1961 descended into a hole in the mountains of Calabria to explore what was then the third-deepest known cave on Earth.
Introduction (Inteurodeoksyeon)
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2021; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Shin Seokho, Park Miso, Kim Minhee)
North American premiere
A young man tries to find his way in the world in the face of his parents' desires.
In Front Of Your Face
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2021; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Cho Yunhee, Lee Hye-yeong, Kwon Hae-hyo)
North American premiere
After years of living abroad, a middle-aged former actress returns to South Korea to reconnect with her past.
Vortex and France
Memoria
(Country: Colombia, Mexico, France, UK, Thailand, Germany, China, Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Writer: Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Stars: Tilda Swinton, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego, Daniel Toro)
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance.
US premiere
Neptune Frost
(Country: US, France, Rwanda; Year: 2021; Director: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; Writer: Saul Williams; Stars: Eliane Umuhire, Eliane Umuhire)
The love story between an African intersex runaway and a coltan miner, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union.
US premiere
Întregalde
(Country: Romania; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Muntean; Writer: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu; Stars: Maria Popistasu, Ilona Brezoianu, Alex Bogdan)
A group of people on a humanitarian mission arrive in a remote area of Transylvania to offer the inhabitants various goods, but when they try to help a disorientated local, things take a turn for the worse.
US premiere
Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2021; Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Writer: Pedro Almodóvar; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Rossy de Palma, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Daniela Santiago, Milena Smit, Julieta Serrano, Israel Elejalde, Adelfa Calvo, Inma Ochoa, José Javier Domínguez, Carmen Flores, Trinidad Iglesias)
Two women, a generation apart, find themselves inextricably linked by their brief time together in a maternity ward, bound by a secret with ties to a deep trauma in Spanish history.
North American premiere. Closing gala
Passing
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Rebecca Hall; Writer: Rebecca Hall, Nella Larsen; Stars: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp)
Two African-American women who can "pass" as white choose to live on opposite sides of the colour line in 1929 New York in an exploration of racial and gender identity, performance, obsession and repression.
Parallel Mothers and The Worst Person In The World
Petite Maman
(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Céline Sciamma; Writer: Céline Sciamma; Stars: Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margot Abascal,)
Something magical happens to a young girl after the death of her grandma.
The Power Of The Dog
(Country: UK, Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand; Year: 2021; Director: Jane Campion; Writer: Jane Campion, Thomas Savage; Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy,)
A widow and her son are tormented by her new husband’s sullen and bullying brother.
Centrepiece gala
Prayers For The Stolen (Noche De Fuego)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2021; Director: Tatiana Huezo; Writer: Tatiana Huezo; Stars: Mayra Batalla, Norma Pablo, Olivia Lagunas)
Life in a town at war seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence.
The Souvenir: Part II
(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Harris Dickinson, Jack McMullen, Richard Ayoade, Joe Alwyn, Charlie Heaton, Ariane Labed, Alice McMillan, Amber Anderson, Tosin Cole, Frankie Wilson, Jaygann Ayeh, Gala Botero, Grace Hancock)
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
North American premiere
Titane
(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Julia Ducournau; Writer: Julia Ducournau; Stars: Vincent Lindon, Nathalie Boyer, Dominique Frot, Anaïs Fabre)
A dancer becomes pregnant after having sex with a car.
US premiere
Il Buco and Neptune Frost
The Tragedy Of Macbeth
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Joel Coen; Writer: Joel Coen, William Shakespeare; Stars: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Brian Thompson, Ralph Ineson)
World premiere. Opening gala
Shakespearean tragedy of a man and his wife who are undone by ambition.
Unclenching The Fists
(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Kira Kovalenko)
A young woman struggles to break free from her over-controlling father in a mining town in the mountains.
The Velvet Underground
(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Todd Haynes; Writer: Todd Haynes; Stars: Lou Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison)
Cinematic collage that is as much about New York of the period as it is about the rise and fall of the seminal band.
Vortex
(Country: France, Belgium, Monaco; Year: 2021; Director: Gaspar Noé; Writer: Gaspar Noé; Stars: Dario Argento, Alex Lutz, Françoise Lebrun)
Drama focused on a handful of dark days in the lives of an elderly couple in Paris.
What Do We See When We Look At The Sky? (Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt?)
(Country: Germany, Georgia; Year: 2021; Director: Aleksandre Koberidze; Stars: Irina Chelidze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Ani Karseladze, Giorgi Ambroladze)
A couple who fall in love at first sight, wake the next day with different appearances and struggle to find one another.
North American premiere
Memoria and Prayers For The Stolen
Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Stars: Kotone Furukawa, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Fusako Urabe)
An unexpected love triangle, a failed honey trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
US premiere
The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)
(Country: Norway, France, Sweden; Year: 2021; Director: Joachim Trier; Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Renate Reinsve, Herbert Nordrum)
Four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.
US premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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