Jacob Elordi’s “Priscilla” to Have North American Premiere at This Year’s New York Film Festival

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Jacob Elordi is bringing his blue suede shoes to the Big Apple…

Film at Lincoln Center has set Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, starring the 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor as Elvis Presley, as the Centerpiece selection for the 61st New York Film Festival.

The A24 film starring Cailee Spaeny as Elvis’ wife, Priscilla Beaulieu, will make its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on October 6.

The festival runs from September 29 to October 15, opening with Todd Haynes’ May December starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

Never has there been a more obsessed-over icon than Elvis Presley, yet no one knew him more tenderly than Priscilla, whose story as Elvis’s romantic partner and only wife has rarely been told from her perspective.

Coppola, who often depicts women living complicated lives behind closed doors, follows Priscilla’s love affair with Elvis, played by Elordi, from her early years as a teenage army brat in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland.

“I am honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with my new film and to be telling Priscilla Presley’s story, the unseen side of a great American myth,” said Coppola. Her screenplay was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me.

Coppola’s On the Rocks (2020) and Marie Antoinette (2006) were NYFF selections.

“Priscilla is a culminating triumph for Sofia Coppola, a filmmaker with a singular gift for illuminating the interior lives of her characters,” said Dennis Lim, the festival’s Artistic Director. “It’s a showcase for a pair of star-making performances and a work of tremendous empathy and emotional nuance. We are looking forward to welcoming Sofia back to the festival with one of her very best films.”

Coppola was the second woman to win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled (2017). Her other films include directorial debut The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003 Oscar, Best Original Screenplay), Somewhere (2010 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), The Bling Ring (2013) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015).

She served as producer on Fairyland (2023). She also directed a production of La Traviata at the Rome Opera House alongside Valentino and production designer Nathan Crowley.

Priscilla’s cinematography was handled by Philippe Le Sourd, with original music by Phoenix.

Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” to Have Red-Carpet Premiere at This Year’s AFI Fest

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Pedro Almodóvar is bringing his Mother(s) to this year’s AFI Fest.

After opening the Venice Film Festival and continuing on to the New York Film Festival, the 72-year-old Oscar-winning director’s latest film Parallel Mothers will have a red-carpet premiere at this year’s AFI Fest at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Saturday, November 13.

In the movie, two women, Janis and Ana, played by Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.

Cruz won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice. Parallel Mothers to date is 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In total, AFI Fest counts 115 titles (48 Features, 1 Episodic, 49 Short Films and 17 Conservatory Showcase Shorts) of which 51% are directed by women, 40% directed by BIPOC filmmakers and 13% are directed by LGBTQIA+ filmmakers. This year’s program represents 50 countries and includes six World Premieres. The festival runs from November 10-14.

“We are excited to celebrate AFI Fest 2021 in person at the historic TCL Chinese theater and showcase both master filmmakers and emerging voices,” said Sarah Harris, Director of Programming, AFI Festivals. “In a time when we need movies more than ever, we look forward to audiences being inspired by the best films from around the world screening at this year’s AFI Fest.”

Returning filmmakers to AFI Fest are Hany Abu-Assad (Huda’s Salon), Andrea Arnold (Cow), Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District), Sean Baker (Red Rocket), Michel Franco (Sundown), Miguel Gomes (The Sugua Diaries), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Lingui, The Sacret Bonds), Céline Sciamma (Petite Maman), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Memoria), and Zhang Yimou (One Second).

Netflix Releases Trailer for Tessa Thompson’s Black & White Drama “Passing”

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Tessa Thompson is passing the time…

Netflix has released the official trailer for Rebecca Hall’s period drama Passing, starring the 37-year-old Afro-Panamanian actress and producer and Ruth Negga.

Hall, making her directorial debut, adapted the film from the 1929 novel by Nella Larson.

Netflix is preparing for the film’s New York Film Festival premiere on October 3, after which it will get a theatrical release followed by a debut on the streaming service on November 10.

The film, shot it black and white, tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Negga), who can “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in late 1920s New York.

After a chance encounter, Irene reluctantly allows Clare into her home, where she ingratiates herself to Irene’s husband (André Holland) and family, and soon her larger social circle as well. Irene soon finds her once-steady existence upended by Clare, and the story becomes one of obsession, repression and the lies people tell themselves and others to protect their carefully constructed realities.

Bill Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and Alexander Skarsgard also star in the film, which is produced by Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Margot Hand and Hall.

Netflix competed in a field of five bidders to win rights to Passing in a $15 million deal during the Sundance Film Festival.

Its release is timed to the now-underway movie awards season.

Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Birdman” to Close the New York Film Festival

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Alejandro González Iñárritu is bringing his bird to the Big Apple…

Birdman, a dramedy co-written and directed by the 50-year-old Mexican filmmaker, has been selected as the closing night film at this year’s New York Film Festival on October 12, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, which is being distributed by Fox Searchlight and will be released in theaters on October 17, will have its world premiere on the opening night of the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 27.

Birdman stars Michael Keaton as a washed-up movie star trying to revive his career on Broadway. The cast also includes Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, Merritt Wever, Edward Norton, Amy Ryan and Naomi Watts.

The film was lensed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity), reportedly in a way that gives the appearance that the entire film is one continuous shot.

A González Iñárritu film closed the NYFF once before: 21 Grams screened in that slot in 2003. (The director’s first trip to the fest, though, was in 2000, with Amores Perros.)

Isaac’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” to be Screened at the AFI Fest

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac will be the closing act at the AFI Fest…

The 33-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor’s latest film, the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, will be the screened during the AFI Fest’s Closing Night Gala on Thursday, November 14.

Isaac’s film, which co-stars Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund and Justin Timberlake, won the Grand Prix when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May.

The film follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.

Inside Llewyn Davis will also be screened at the New York Film Festival and be the center of a concert benefit later this year.

CBS Films will release the film in theaters starting December 6.

The Provincetown Film Festival to Premiere the Rapace-Starrer “Passion”

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Noomi Rapace is bringing a little passion to Provincetown this weekend…

The 15th Provincetown Film Festival has added Brian De Palma’s Passion to its line-up.

The erotic thriller, which stars the 33-year-old half-Spanish actress and Rachel McAdams, will be making its American premiere at the festival.

The film is described as a cat-and-mouse game of murderous personal and professional intrigue between a ruthless Berlin ad agency executive and her brilliant female assistant.

It bowed in competition at the Venice Film Festival last fall and segued directly to Toronto.

Its U.S. premiere was scheduled to take place at the New York Film Festival in October, but a glitch with the digital projection caused those screenings to be canceled.

Provincetown organizers confirmed Thursday that De Palma will fly in for Saturday’s showing of Passion. He is scheduled to participate in an audience Q&A after the film, which is a remake of French director Alain Corneau‘s 2010 noir, Love Crime.

Entertainment One will release Passion in the U.S. on August 30.

Rapace to Star in “Animal Rescue”

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Noomi Rapace may be coming to the rescue…

Fox Searchlight is reportedly offering the 32-year-old half-Spanish actress the female lead role in Animal Rescue, and is in final talks with Tom Hardy to co-star.

Scripted by Gone Baby Gone author Dennis Lehane from a short story first published in the collection Boston Noir, the drama focuses on a man who wants to shed his criminal past but managed to get mixed up in a bad heist and a killing resulting from a lost and contested pit bull.

Animal Rescue will be directed by Michael R. Roskam, whose breakout film Bullhead was an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language film last year.

Rapace – the original Girl With a Dragon Tattoo in the original Swedish version – most recently starred in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and she’ll return for the sequel to the sci-fi film.

She also starred in the Brian DePalma-directed Passion, which made its debut at the New York Film Festival.

Peña to Receive Gala Tribute at New York Film Festival

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

He’s been one of the masterminds behind retrospectives on artists like Michelangelo Antonioni and Sacha Guitry… And now Richard Peña is getting his own special tribute at the New York Film Festival.

The 59-year-old program director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, who has served as the director of the New York Film Festival since 1988, will be the subject of a gala tribute to be presented for the first time during the festival’s historic 50th edition.

At the Film Society, Peña has organized retrospectives of Robert Aldrich, Carlos Saura and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as major film series devoted to African, Israeli, Cuban, Polish, Hungarian, Arab, Korean, Swedish, Taiwanese and Argentine cinema.

In his tenure as the FSLC’s program director and selection committee chair of the New York Film Festival, Peña has upheld the organization’s gold standard for showcasing the best in world cinema, while dramatically expanding its horizons. From his encyclopedic surveys of Italian Neorealism and pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema, Peña’s knowledge and appetite for undiscovered cinematic territory have been an ongoing gift to New York moviegoers for the better part of three decades.

During that same time, he has overseen the Film Society’s expansion from an annual festival to a year-round film exhibitor with three screens and a rapidly expanding online presence.

In addition, he’s a Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in film theory and international cinema, and from 2006-2009 was a visiting professor in Spanish at Princeton University. He’s also currently serving as the co-host of WNET/Channel 13’s weekly Reel 13.

“It is very fitting that we celebrate the 50th birthday of the New York Film Festival by honoring the man who has guided the festival’s artistic vision for the last 25 years. Richard Pena helped us discover directors like Pedro Almodovar, Abbas Kiarostami, Olivier Assayas, Lars Von Trier and Hou Hsiao-hsien, making an indelible contribution to film culture in New York City and around the world,” said FSLC’s Executive Director Rose Kuo. “We hope that his friends and colleagues will join us for a special evening to celebrate his achievements.”

Peña’s gala tribute will take place on Wednesday, October 10.

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent.

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