Not to be outdone by Venice and TIFF, this year’s New York Film Festival on Tuesday began rolling out its own lineup.
First up: opening night, which will be celebrated with the North American premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt.” The Opening Night gala of the 63rd New York Film Festival, presented in partnership with Rolex, will take place at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, September 26, with Guadagnino and members of the cast in attendance.
In today’s announcement, NYFF classifies the film as a “razor-sharp new drama” in which the filmmaker “plunges with refreshing abandon into the murky seas of contemporary morality — and gives Julia Roberts one of the most complex and gratifying starring roles of her career.” The film will have its world premiere out of competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival and will be released by Amazon MGM Studios in New York and LA theaters on Friday, October 10, with a national rollout on Friday, October 17.
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The film’s NYFF logline tells that “Roberts embodies chilly, seemingly self-assured Yale philosophy professor Alma Olsson, whose comfortable professional career and domestic life with her mercurial husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) are thrown into chaos after her PhD candidate protégée Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s longtime colleague and friend Henrik (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. As a result, the air of rarefied academic privilege on campus begins to dissolve, and Alma must navigate minefields of gender, sexuality, race, and institutional power, all while trying to reconcile her own difficult choices with the demons of her past. From a trenchant, tightly plotted script by Nora Garrett, and with the aid of a sensational cast (also including Chloë Sevigny as Kim, a colleague of Alma’s), Guadagnino teases out a genuine provocation with no easy answers, inquiring where our true selves lie when every decision we make is thrown into the court of public opinion.”
Added Guadagnino in his own statement, “I have always found the New York Film Festival to be an arbiter of global cinema. For over 60 years it has been a festival that makes audiences open their minds and hearts to the most daring and compelling global cinema from both established and emerging filmmakers. To be invited to open the 63rd edition is a tremendous responsibility and honor. I, alongside the incredible cast and crew and our companions at Amazon MGM Studios who made ‘After the Hunt‘ possible, am elated and thrilled to bring to New York our tale of morality and power. My most heartfelt thanks to Dennis Lim and the singular NYFF team.”
Guadagnino has previously brought a number of his films to NYFF, including “Call Me by Your Name” (NYFF55), “Bones and All” (NYFF60), and “Queer” (NYFF62 Spotlight Gala).
“We are excited to open this year’s festival with Luca Guadagnino’s latest, which confirms his status as one of the most versatile risk-takers working today,” said Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival. “Brilliantly acted and crafted, ‘After the Hunt’ is something rare in contemporary cinema: a complex, grown-up movie with a lot on its mind that also happens to be a deeply satisfying piece of entertainment.”
Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF63) will take place from September 26-October 13. The NYFF Main Slate selection committee, chaired by artistic director Dennis Lim, includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen. NYFF63 is generously supported by festival co-chairs Imelda and Peter Sobiloff and Nanna and Dan Stern; vice-chairs Susannah Gray and John Lyons; and supporters Hillary Koota Krevlin and Glenn Krevlin.
In the coming weeks, the festival will announce more lineup picks, including Main Slate, Spotlight, Currents, Revivals, and Talks.
