Aviva Press

By Maria Esteves - August 14, 2009

The  47th New York Film Festival (NYFF) will be held at Lincoln Center, Friday, September 25 - Sunday, October 11, 2009. The festival presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, annually showcase the best in American and International cinema. This year's festival showcasing 29 feature films from 17 countries includes Special Events, HBO Films Dialogues, Avant-Garde, and Oshima.

HBO Films Dialogues with directors Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Darren Aronofsky and Arnaud Desplechin focusing on their entire body of work into the filmmaking process will be held in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, The Rose Building. 

NYFF09 Official Lineup:

OPENING NIGHT A Sony Pictures Classics release, WILD GRASS (Les Herbes Folles), directed by Alain Resnais The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France's - and our - favorite actors: Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. France | 2009 | 113m

CENTERPIECE A Lionsgate release, PRECIOUS (based on the Novel Push by Sapphire), directed by Lee Daniels. Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel's audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. USA | 2009| 109m

CLOSING NIGHT A Sony Pictures Classics release, BROKEN EMBRACES (Los Abrazos Rotos), directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Almodóvar's newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penélope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. Spain | 2009 | 128m

6 Views of Saint-Loup Peak (36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup), directed by Jacques Rivette. The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus. France |  2009 |  84m

Antichrist, directed by Lars von Trier. Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release. Denmark | 2009 | 109m

The Art of the Steal, directed by Don Argott. Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private "ownership" of art. USA | 2009 | 101m

Bluebeard (La Barbe Bleue), directed by Catherine Breillat. Two sisters reading Charles Perrault's 17th century tale of perhaps the first "serial killer" becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character that has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films. France | 2009 | 78m

Crossroads of Youth (Cheongchun's Sipjaro), directed by An Jong-hwa. The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).  Korea | 1934 | 73m

Eccentricities of a Blonde, directed by Manoel de Olivera. One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eça de Queiroz. Portugal/France | 2009 | 64m

Everyone Else (Alle Anderen), directed by Maren Ade. The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provides the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling. Germany | 2009 | 119m

Ghost Town, directed by Zhao Dayong. A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants. China | 2008 | 180m

Hadewijch, directed by Bruno Dumont. A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith-and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her. France | 2009 | 105m

Independencia, directed by Raya Martin. Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands. Philippines | 2009 | 77m

Inferno (L'Enfer), directed by Serge Bromberg. A film buff's delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot's aborted, experimental film L'Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema's great "what ifs." France | 2009 | 100m

Kanikosen, directed by Sabu. Kaniskosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity. Japan | 2009 | 109m

Lebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz. Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israel | 2009 | 92m

Life During Wartime, directed by Todd Solondz. Preparing for his bar mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother's prospective fiancé as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead. USA | 2009 | 96m

Min Yé, directed by Souleymane Cissé. A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse's first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage. Mali/France | 2009 | 135m

Mother (Maedo), directed by Bong Joon-ho. Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year. South Korea | 2009 | 128m

Ne Change Rien, directed by Pedro Costa. A shimmering valentine, Costa's latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar. France/Portugal | 2009 | 103m

Police Adjective (Politist, adj.), directed by Corneliu Porumboiu. Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release. Romania | 2009 | 115m

Room and a Half (Poltory Komnaty Ili Sentimentalnoe Puteshtvie Na Rodinu), directed by Andrey Khrzhanovsky. Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release. Russia | 2009 | 131m

Sweetgrass, directed by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market. USA | 2009 | 105m

Sweet Rush (Tatarak), directed by Andrzej Wajda. Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor's wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband. Poland/France | 2009 | 85m

To Die Like a Man (Morrer Como Um Homen), directed by Joao Pedro Rodrigues. This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend's demands that she undergo a sex change. Portugal | 2009 |138m

Vincere, directed by Marco Bellocchio. Mussolini's secret; marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release. Italy | 2009 | 129m

White Material, directed by Claire Denis. A handful of Europeans try to make sense of and survive the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war. France | 2009 | 100m

The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band), directed by Michael Haneke. The Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence-physical, emotional, spiritual-in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Austria/France | 2009 | 144m

The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming. The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release. 1939 | USA | 103m