The New York Film Festival has announced its full main slate of The 59th edition which runs September 24 – October 10. Barring any Covid-related surges, this year will see a return primarily to in person screenings at Lincoln Center (last year was virtual) and attendees will have to show proof of vaccination. Tickets go on sale to the general public on September 7 at Noon. The full slate is below.

Previously announced were the big events: this year’s Opening Night film, the World Premiere of The Tragedy of Macbeth, which was directed by Joel Coen (and not with his brother Ethan for the first time), shot in black and white, and starring his wife Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington; festival Centerpiece The Power of the Dog, which is filmmaker Jane Campion’s first feature in 12 years and her take on the American Western, adapted from Thomas Savage’s 1967 cult novel and starring Benedict Cumberbatch alongside real life husband and wife Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons and featuring a score composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood; and this year’s Closing Night film, the latest from Spanish master Pedro Almodovar, Parallel Mothers, starring Penelope Cruz and already generating some wickedness due to its striking poster (featuring a woman’s lactating nipple) being censored by Instagram and other social media.

With a truly stacked lineup, there are too many films to name them all, but here are a few other NYFF highlights:

• Cannes Palme D’Or winner, Titane, French director Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to her striking cannibal drama 2016’s Raw
• Israeli director Nadav Lapid, whose Synonyms was a hit at NYFF57, is back with Ahed’s Knee which won this years Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.
• Also straight from Cannes, the Jury Prize Winner from Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria with Tilda Swinton.
• Paul Verhoeven with his sure-to-outrage certain groups, wild erotic nun drama Benedetta
• Norway’s Joachim Trier ‘s The Worst Person in The World which won Best Actress award at Cannes for Renate Reinsve.
• Celine Sciamma, back after the phenomenal Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with Petite Maman.

Here are a couple of films that should be of particular interest to readers of this site. Saul Williams , along with Anisia Uzeyman’ co-directed Afrofuturist sci-fi punk musical Neptune Frost that “that takes place amidst the hilltops of Burundi, where a collective of computer hackers emerges from within a coltan mining community.”

There’s long awaited documentary The Velvet Underground, director Todd Haynes, sure to be unique, look at the seminal New York band that’s already generating some consternation among fans for its apparent lack of interest on the post John Cale period. If you can’t make the NYFF screening, it’ll be on AppleTV+ this fall.

Check out the full main slate lineup below.

The 59th New York Film Festival Main Slate

Opening Night
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Dir. Joel Coen)

Centerpiece
The Power of the Dog (Dir. Jane Campion)

Closing Night
Parallel Mothers (Dir. Pedro Almodóvar)

A Chiara (Dir. Jonas Carpignano)
Ahed’s Knee (Dir. Nadav Lapid)
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Dir. Radu Jude)
Benedetta (Dir. Paul Verhoeven)
Bergman Island (Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)
Il Buco (Dir. Michelangelo Frammartino)
Drive My Car (Dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
The First 54 Years (Dir. Avi Mograbi)
Flee (Dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
France (Dir. Bruno Dumont)
Futura (Dir. Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)
The Girl and the Spider (Dir. Ramon and Silvan Zürcher)
Hit the Road (Jadde Khaki) (Dir. Panah Panahi)
In Front of Your Face (Dir. Hong Sangsoo)
Întregalde (Dir. Radu Muntean)
Introduction (Dir. Hong Sangsoo)
Memoria (Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Neptune Frost (Dir. Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)
Passing (Dir. Rebecca Hall)
Petite Maman (Dir. Céline Sciamma)
Prayers for the Stolen (Dir. Tatiana Huezo)
The Souvenir Part II (Dir. Joanna Hogg)
Titane (Dir. Julia Ducournau)
Unclenching the Fists (Dir. Kira Kovalenko)
The Velvet Underground (Dir. Todd Haynes)
Vortex (Dir. Gaspar Noé)
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky (Dir. Alexandre Koberidze)
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
The Worst Person in the World (Dir. Joachim Trier)