New York Film Festival

Latest reviews

• Happyend

  Review preview for Happyend

  A thoughtful, shrewd examination of the impact of rapidly developing technologies.

  Best friends Yuta and Kou are on the brink of graduating from high school in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake casts a shadow over daily life.
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  The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

  Review preview for The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

  The word ballad is a good choice in the title because Hunt-Ehrlich’s film is a rhythms and muse affair.

  Hybrid biopic about the Martinican writer and activist.
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  Harvest

  Review preview for Harvest

  At times the discomfort that Harvest causes is not from dirt or despair but the room it leaves for interpretation.

  Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears.
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  April

  Review preview for April

  It’s not unusual to say that something cuts through the silence but in Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April it’s the silence that cuts through us.

  After a newborn dies during delivery, the morals and professionalism of an ob-gyn, Nina, come under scrutiny amid rumors that she performs illegal abortions for those in need.
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  The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

  Review preview for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

  Grittily compelling

  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.
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  Maria

  Review preview for Maria

  It is gorgeous, both to look at and to listen to. It's perhaps Larrain's most accessible film, though that's as much to do with its star as its subject.

  Dramatisation of the life of the opera singer Maria Callas.
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  Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr

  Review preview for Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr

  With a focus on moments of joy, Reed subverts the familiar melancholy of trans narratives and presents an optimistic tale about making inroads as an outsider, with much wider relevance.

  A short documentary goes behind the scenes with the state representative from Montana as she makes international news fighting for trans medical care - and making a momentous decision in her own life.
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  A Real Pain

  Review preview for A Real Pain

  Eisenberg takes us through the entire journey in a brisk 90 minutes, but the film never feels rushed.

  Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
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  Nickel Boys

  Review preview for Nickel Boys

  Nickel Boys is a tremendously daring film.

  The tale of two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory.
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  Queer

  Review preview for Queer

  There’s also an emperor’s new clothes feeling to the general style, look closely and there's very little there.

  A louche older man pursues a younger boy toy in Mexico City before the pair go on the hunt for psychedelics in Ecuador.

A–Z of New York Film Festival 2024 reviews →

Features

• Bingo
  David Siegel and Scott McGehee on Naomi Watts, Bing, Sigrid Nunez and The Friend
• Taking the plunge as 'angel and devil'
  French actor Félix Kysyl on his first lead role in Misericordia
• 'There is a bit of me in lots of the characters I create'
  Misericordia director Guiraudie on his tale of the unexpected
• The main dish
  Philippe Lesage with Ed Bahlman on Rock Lobster and Who By Fire
• 'There's a certain pleasure to cinematic artifice'
  Matthew Rankin on world-building and catharsis in Universal Language
• Looking back
  RaMell Ross on basketball, filmmaking, overcoming objectification and Nickel Boys
• 'I think there is a wisdom to children that adults lose sight of'
  Matthew Rankin on liminal spaces and child's play in Universal Language
• A little unpredictability
  Payal Kapadia on cinematic inspirations and All We Imagine As Light
• Hooked on fairy tales
  Sigrid Nunez on Bing, fairy tales and the adaptation of her novel The Friend
• Art, friendship and nature
  Tilda Swinton on dressing for Pedro Almodóvar, and The Room Next Door
• 62nd New York Film Festival early bird highlights
  The Brutalist, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, April, By The Stream and A Traveler’s Needs
• An epic work of art
  Alessandro Nivola on Brady Corbet and The Brutalist
• A stylised world
  Alessandro Nivola on Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door
• Audiard on a crazy musical spree in Mexico
  Director on changing identity, democracy and drug cartels
• 'I start working from a very intellectual perspective, but then it's a lot of intuition'
  Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias on experimentation and storytelling in Pepe
• A hell of a ride
  Stuart Conran looks back at Hellraiser and the start of his special effects career

News

• Pedro Almodóvar to receive Chaplin Award
  Film at Lincoln Center praises The Room Next Door
• David Byrne designs 62nd NYFF poster
  Iconic image captures the cinema experience
• New York Film Festival announces main slate
  Two documentary world premieres among films
• Queer is NYFF Spotlight Gala selection
  Director Guadagnino "privileged and elated"
• NYFF announces Pedro Almodóvar Centrepiece
  The Room Next Door stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton
• Blitz to close New York Film Festival
  Steve McQueen delighted to be back
• Nickel Boys to open New York Film Festival
  Dennis Lim praises Colson Whitehead adaptation