Anthem Magazine

Since its inaugural fest half a century ago, Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival has distinctively expanded in breadth with its 52nd edition, offering the closest it’s come to a-little-something-for-everyone extravagance. Among the bevy of sidebars alone are “Spotlight on Documentary” (15 films, including Joshua Oppenheimer’s explosive companion piece to The Act of Killing), “Projections” (an international selection of artists’ work that expands upon our notions of what the moving image can do), “Revivals” (8 little-screened repertory picks, including Alain Resnais’ 1959 debut feature Hiroshima Mon Amour), plus the return of “Convergence” (showcasing innovative filmmakers creating stories that span multiple platforms).

Largely plucked off the prestigious vines of Cannes, Venice, Locarno and Berlin, many of this year’s 31 main slate titles represent new work from returning filmmakers such as David Cronenberg (Maps to the Stars), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Two Days, One Night), Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner), and more. It’s a sucker’s game to find rhyming themes among this wisely curated lot of formalist documentaries, provocative thrillers, period dramas, and genre-benders. With an unsurprisingly measured ratio of challenging slow-burners to red carpet-friendly crowd-pleasers, it’s business as usual—just more so. The action kicks off September 26 with the world premiere of Gone Girl, David Fincher’s take on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel.

The 52nd New York Film Festival runs from September 26 to October 12.

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Sienna Miller from FOXCATCHER. Photo by Lindsey Seïde (@filmgeek15) #NYFF #siennamiller #foxcatcher #FilmLivesHere

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[Editor’s Note: The following list reflects available press screenings at this year’s festival. The full lineup of films after the jump.]

OPENING FILM
Gone Girl by David Fincher ****/*****

CENTERPIECE
Inherent Vice by Paul Thomas Anderson ****/*****

CLOSING FILM
Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance by Alejandro G. Iñárritu *****/*****

MAIN SLATE
’71 by Yann Demange ***/*****
Beloved Sisters by Dominik Graf ***/*****
The Blue Room by Mathieu Amalric **/*****
Citizenfour by Laura Poitras *****/*****
Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas *****/*****
Eden by Mia Hansen-Løve ***/*****
Foxcatcher by Bennett Miller ****/*****
Goodbye to Language by Jean-Luc Godard */*****
Heaven Knows What by Josh & Benny Safdie *****/*****
Hill of Freedom by Hong Sang-soo **/*****
Horse Money by Pedro Costa ***/*****
Jauja by Lisandro Alonso ***/*****
Life of Riley by Alain Resnais **/*****
Listen Up Philip by Alex Ross Perry ***/*****
Maps to the Stars by David Cronenberg ***/*****
Misunderstood by Asia Argento **/*****
Mr. Turner by Mike Leigh *****/*****
Pasolini by Abel Ferrara **/*****
The Princess of France by Matías Piñeiro */*****
Saint Laurent by Bertrand Bonello ****/*****
La Sapienza by Eugène Green */*****
Tales of the Grim Sleeper by Nick Broomfield ****/*****
Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako ****/*****
Time Out of Mind by Oren Moverman ***/*****
Two Days, One Night by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne ****/*****
Two Shots Fired by Martín Rejtman **/*****
Whiplash by Damien Chazelle *****/*****
The Wonders by Alice Rohrwacher ****/*****

SPOTLIGHT ON DOCUMENTARY
Iris by Albert Maysles ***/*****
The Look of Silence by Joshua Oppenheimer *****/*****
Merchants of Doubt by Robert Kenner ****/*****
National Gallery by Frederick Wiseman ****/*****
Red Army by Gabe Polsky ***/*****
Seymour: An Introduction by Ethan Hawke ***/*****
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait by Ossama Mohammed */*****
Stray Dog by Debra Granik ****/*****
Sunshine Superman by Marah Strauch ***/*****

CONVERGENCE
Last Hijack by Tommy Pallotta **/*****

SPECIAL EVENTS
The King and the Mockingbird by Paul Grimault (1952/1980) ***/*****

REVIVALS
The Color of Pomegranates (1968) by Sergei Parajanov ****/*****
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) by Alain Resnais *****/*****