The New York Film Festival never lacks for enticing selections, but if you love movies and the greatest filmmaking artists making them, it’d be hard to imagine a more enthralling lineup than the one assembled for the 56th annual edition, which opens Friday night.
Even Orson Welles — yes, that Orson Welles — has a new movie playing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center during the festival between this weekend and Oct. 14.
There are plenty of New York-centric movies, too.
“It’s the perfect film festival for a Bill Cunningham movie,” said Mark Bozek, the director of documentary “The Times of Bill Cunningham” about the famed fashion photographer.
Things commence with the new movie from the provocative Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite,” a comedy set in the early 18th century British Queen Anne’s court and starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman.
The centerpiece this year is Alfonso Cuarón’s semi-autobiographical “Roma,” inspired by his childhood in Mexico City.
The closing night movie comes from a big New York City name — Julian Schnabel, whose “At Eternity’s Gate” stars Willem Dafoe in a dramatization of the final days of Vincent van Gogh.
Other notables include the great French filmmaker Claire Denis, who is appearing at the festival with her sci-fi movie “High Life,” starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche.
The Coen Brothers, who have had movies play at the festival since their 1984 feature debut, “Blood Simple,” return with “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” an anthology Western that has an eclectic cast including Tyne Daly, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson.
There’s more: Barry Jenkins, fresh off his “Moonlight” Oscar win, is in the festival with his follow-up, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” a James Baldwin adaptation. Also: Paul Dano’s directorial debut “Wildlife,” Tamara Jenkins’ “Private Life,” with Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti, and Elizabeth Moss in “Her Smell.”
And then there’s Welles’ “The Other Side of the Wind,” finally completed nearly 50 years after the legend began making it and more than 30 years after his death.
For tickets, visit filmlinc.org/nyff2018.
