Get ready for the walls of the Alice Tully Hall to reverberate with one plaintive cry in the coming weeks: “Bruuuuuuuucee!”
Film at Lincoln Center has today announced that Scott Cooper’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” will celebrate its premiere (though, crucially in the wide world of fall festivals, it’s unclear which premiere it will be and where else the film might be screening) as the Spotlight Gala selection of the 63rd New York Film Festival. The film will make its debut on Sunday, September 28, Cooper and cast members Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, and Odessa Young will be in attendance, along with Bruce Springsteen.
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The much-anticipated feature stars White during a formative period in The Boss’ life, as he set out to make the intensely personal album “Nebraska” while also dealing with his tremendous rising fame and starting to craft what would become the life-changing album “Born in the U.S.A.” Cooper himself adapted Warren Zanes’ 2023 best-selling book of the same name for the film’s script. 20th Century Studios will release the film in theaters on Friday, October 24.
Per today’s NYFF announcement, “Jeremy Allen White inhabits a legend and lays bare his beating heart in this graceful, exceptionally moving film about a very specific part of peerless American rock icon Bruce Springsteen’s life. … This biographical drama focuses with gratifying specificity on the nitty-gritty of Springsteen’s songwriting, while never shying away from the realities of his familial traumas and personal depression. It’s more than just a tour de force for its incandescent star — it’s a reminder that the reason we love this seemingly larger-than-life hero is because he’s always been palpably human.”
The film features an enviable supporting cast, including Jeremy Strong (as Springsteen’s longtime manager and co-producer Jon Landau), Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffmann (as Bruce’s parents), Paul Walter Hauser, David Krumholtz, and Odessa Young. The film is produced by Cooper, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, and Scott Stuber. Tracey Landon and Zanes executive produce.
“The New York Film Festival has always felt like a spiritual home for the kind of cinema I believe in,” said Cooper in an official statement. “To now arrive with a film about Bruce Springsteen — an artist whose music shaped not just a country but my own sense of storytelling — is something I could never have imagined. Getting to know Bruce, to explore his world and his spirit, has been one of the most profound creative experiences of my life. To share that experience with New York audiences, in a city that defines artistic possibility, is both an honor and a responsibility I hold with deep gratitude.”
Added Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival, “Taking its cue from the stark majesty of Bruce Springsteen’s classic album ‘Nebraska,’ Scott Cooper’s ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere‘ has an intimacy and immediacy that eludes most film biographies. Anchored by Jeremy Allen White’s revelatory performance, this year’s Spotlight Gala selection is a fitting tribute to a living legend.”
As previously announced, the Opening Night selection is the North American premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt”; the North American premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” is the Centerpiece selection; and the world premiere of Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?” is the Closing Night selection. Last week, NYFF announced both its heavy-hitting main slate and its always compelling Currents section. The rest of the Spotlight slate, plus the Revivals lineup and Talks sections will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 2025 New York Film Festival will run from September 26 – October 13.
The NYFF Main Slate and Spotlight selection committee is chaired by Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director, and includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen. Violeta Bava, Michelle Carey, Leo Goldsmith, and Antoine Thirion are NYFF program advisors.
