Alexander Payne’s THE DESCENDANTS will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). NYFF also released the main slate of 27 feature films as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.
In his first film since the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, writer-director Alexander Payne once again proves himself a master of the kind of smart, sharp, deeply felt comedy that was once the hallmark of Billy Wilder and Jean Renoir. Based on the bestselling novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, THE DESCENDANTS stars George Clooney as ‘Matt King’, the heir of a prominent Hawaiian land-owning family whose life is turned upside-down when his wife is critically injured in a boating accident. Accustomed to being “the back-up parent,” King suddenly finds himself center stage in the lives of his two young daughters (excellent newcomers Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller), while at the same time being forced to decide the fate of a vast plot of unspoiled land his family has owned since the 1860s. Rooted in Clooney’s beautifully understated performance, Payne’s film is an uncommonly perceptive portrait of marriage, family and community, suffused with humor and tragedy and wrapped in a warm human glow.
Screening at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday, October 16, Alexander Payne’s THE DESCENDANTS marks the filmmakers 3rd visit to the New York Film Festival; previous titles presented were ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS. Fox Searchlight is releasing the film on November 23, 2011.
The 49th New York Film Festival main-slate:
Opening Night Gala Selection
CARNAGE
Director: Roman Polanski
Country: France/Germany/Poland
Centerpiece Gala Selection
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
Director: Simon Curtis
Country: UK
Special Gala Presentations
A DANGEROUS METHOD
Director: David Cronenberg
Country: UK/Canada/Germany
THE SKIN I LIVE IN
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Closing Night Gala Selection
THE DESCENDANTS
Director: Alexander Payne
Country: USA
4:44: LAST DAY ON EARTH
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA
THE ARTIST
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Country: France
CORPO CELESTE
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Country: Italy/Switzerland/France
FOOTNOTE
Director: Joseph Cedar
Country: Israel
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
Director: Martin Scorsese
Country: USA
GOODBYE FIRST LOVE
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Country: France/Germany
THE KID WITH A BIKE
Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Country: Belgium/France
LE HAVRE
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Country: Finland/France/Germany
THE LONELIEST PLANET
Director: Julia Loktev
Country: USA/Germany
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Director: Sean Durkin
Country: USA
MELANCHOLIA
Director: Lars von Trier
Country: Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany/Italy
MISS BALA
Director: Gerardo Naranjo
Country: Mexico
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Country: Turkey
PINA
Director: Wim Wenders
Country: Germany/France/UK
PLAY
Director: Ruben Östlund
Country: Sweden/France/Denmark
POLICEMAN
Director: Nadav Lapid
Country: Israel/France
A SEPARATION
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Country: Iran
SHAME
Director: Steve McQueen
Country: UK
SLEEPING SICKNESS
Director: Ulrich Köhler
Country: Germany/France/Netherlands
THE STUDENT
Director: Santiago Mitre
Country: Argentina
THIS IS NOT A FILM
Director: Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Country: Iran
THE TURIN HORSE
Director: Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky
Country: Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA