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IFF Boston announced the lineup for the first part of the festival (Oct 9-12 at the Brattle):

AFTER THE HUNT
BLUE MOON
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
THE MASTERMIND
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY

It's pretty amazing how the economics of the NYFF has changed so much albeit very gradually over the past 15 years. It was reportedly coming up short financially speaking at the end of the '00s, so the first noticeable changes were probably done to address that. In previous years, they seemed to make a genuine attempt to fill very seat via rush tickets and they even tried extensive last-minute free ticket giveaways in 2010. (IIRC, there was a long tradition of making every Main Slate film accessible to, say, poor film students by making at least fifty rush tickets available to all of them.) But beginning in 2011, they started cutting back on rush tickets, and empty seats became noticeable at screenings where they weren't offered. On top of that, prices have steadily increased - understandable, but it's actually outpaced even the sharp inflation rates of recent years- $20 was the standard general public ticket price in 2009, equal to $30 today when you punch it in an inflation calculator, but this year that price is now $35.

And yet they're having a much easier time selling out screenings than ever before - pretty much everything I wanted to get into were already gone by the time they got to the final member pre-sales, never mind the general public sale. Given the increase in demand, it's not too surprising that they've also done away with most of their free talks - they still have a lot of panels, but most of them now require paid admission, about the same you'd pay for the revival screenings.

As mentioned earlier, some of the welcome but admittedly esoteric retrospectives held this year weren't exactly well-attended, so I wonder if Lincoln Center has become more reliant on the NYFF for generating revenue. If it works, it works, but the upside-down pyramid model can be perilous in the long run.

hearthesilence wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 12:59 amAnd yet they're having a much easier time selling out screenings than ever before - pretty much everything I wanted to get into were already gone by the time they got to the final member pre-sales, never mind the general public sale. Given the increase in demand, it's not too surprising that they've also done away with most of their free talks - they still have a lot of panels, but most of them now require paid admission, about the same you'd pay for the revival screenings.

It's completely nuts. Most of the Currents screenings sold out before people could generally access them, though I assume they'll be staggering a few ticket drops between now and the festival start. And I got the 12-pass this year, so it was actually easier for me to get into the ultra-high-demand showings of Anemone and Jay Kelly and No Other Choice than a bunch of the Currents ones. I feel bad saying this, because they're a fine venue and there's nothing FLC can do about it, but if NYFF is going to be bankrolling them to a greater and greater degree, Francesca Beale and Howard Gilman are way too small to accommodate the needs of the fest, which is already tiny compared to something like TIFF. They need to work with their partner venues more

The expansion into MoMI, Maysles, BAM et al turned out to be a wiser idea than many probably realized, but they need to ramp that up to accommodate unmet demand.

There's even a screening of the Baumbach this year that's just at a random AMC, because they couldn't find an extra slot for it anywhere and so many people wanted to see it

IFF Boston Full Schedule

Tickets on sale to general public tomorrow

I haven’t gone to anything at the NYFF yet, but judging by the news coverage, this may be the most glamorous movie star-driven NYFF in decades: Julia Roberts! Daniel Day-Lewis! George Clooney! Adam Sandler! Laura Dern! Even Bruce Springsteen for crying out loud. (And this is merely the first three days - Ben Stiller, Jodie Foster and more are coming up.) Again, a stark contrast to the more esoteric festival I knew when I first moved here. Nothing wrong with movie stars (or now the annual presence of actual rock stars) - I think they’ve all had films here before, just in different years - but conversely it’s emphasized the mixed to negative reaction these higher profile films have been getting. One film I was really looking forward to was House of Dynamite which had been well-received at Venice but the mixed reaction by some attendees here left me a bit wary. (To be honest, as much as I like Bigelow as a director, many of her films have been marred by flawed scripts IMHO, and this seems to be the take of one friend who attended.) Not surprisingly Kelly Reichardt’s film has gone over really well, but that opens at Lincoln Center immediately after the festival so I didn’t mind waiting a couple of weeks to see it.

hearthesilence wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:09 am I haven’t gone to anything at the NYFF yet, but judging by the news coverage, this may be the most glamorous movie star-driven NYFF in decades: Julia Roberts! Daniel Day-Lewis! George Clooney! Adam Sandler! Laura Dern! Even Bruce Springsteen for crying out loud. (And this is merely the first three days - Ben Stiller, Jodie Foster and more are coming up.) Again, a stark contrast to the more esoteric festival I knew when I first moved here. Nothing wrong with movie stars (or now the annual presence of actual rock stars) - I think they’ve all had films here before, just in different years - but conversely it’s emphasized the mixed to negative reaction these higher profile films have been getting. One film I was really looking forward to was House of Dynamite which had been well-received at Venice but the mixed reaction by some attendees here left me a bit wary. (To be honest, as much as I like Bigelow as a director, many of her films have been marred by flawed scripts IMHO, and this seems to be the take of one friend who attended.) Not surprisingly Kelly Reichardt’s film has gone over really well, but that opens at Lincoln Center immediately after the festival so I didn’t mind waiting a couple of weeks to see it.

I agree with you that it's been very weirdly glam, especially for a festival that I normally associate with having the guts to place kind of strange and alienating movies in the Main Slate selection next to the big awards season titles. But I did get to talk to Wallace Shawn after a movie, so there are silver linings in all clouds

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:22 amBut I did get to talk to Wallace Shawn after a movie, so there are silver linings in all clouds

(as in seriously, what did you talk about?)

hearthesilence wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:40 am

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 4:22 amBut I did get to talk to Wallace Shawn after a movie, so there are silver linings in all clouds

(as in seriously, what did you talk about?)

Oh, it was very brief. I told him that I think every day about something he wrote (a monologue in one of his plays about a certain book, a coat, and a magazine) and that it was politically inspiring to me. He said thank you and that he was surprised to have someone come up to him about it. That was about the substance of it.

My fiancée stayed at the same hotel as him a couple months ago and she said he and his wife were very nice to her in the elevator when she told him how much she loved Princess Bride (which he was probably not surprised to have someone mention)

In what's become a massive annoyance this year, quite a few events I looked forward to have been cancelled due to visa issues, and not surprisingly, this has now impacted Jafar Panahi for what would've been his first appearance at Lincoln Center in 25 years. This was easily at the top of my list of events I was looking forward to - given the current dumpster fire running this country and the troubles Panahi faced in his own country, it seemed like a small miracle that he would be appearing at the NYFF. Well, you can stop believing in miracles because if he ever does get his visa, it won't be in time to travel to the festival.

hearthesilence wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 8:38 pm In what's become a massive annoyance this year, quite a few events I looked forward to have been cancelled due to visa issues, and not surprisingly, this has now impacted Jafar Panahi for what would've been his first appearance at Lincoln Center in 25 years. This was easily at the top of my list of events I was looking forward to - given the current dumpster fire running this country and the troubles Panahi faced in his own country, it seemed like a small miracle that he would be appearing at the NYFF. Well, you can stop believing in miracles because if he ever does get his visa, it won't be in time to travel to the festival.

He’s still scheduled to appear at the American Cinematheque on October 8th

beamish14 wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 9:52 pm

hearthesilence wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 8:38 pm In what's become a massive annoyance this year, quite a few events I looked forward to have been cancelled due to visa issues, and not surprisingly, this has now impacted Jafar Panahi for what would've been his first appearance at Lincoln Center in 25 years. This was easily at the top of my list of events I was looking forward to - given the current dumpster fire running this country and the troubles Panahi faced in his own country, it seemed like a small miracle that he would be appearing at the NYFF. Well, you can stop believing in miracles because if he ever does get his visa, it won't be in time to travel to the festival.

He’s still scheduled to appear at the American Cinematheque on October 8th

Variety and the A.V. Club are reporting that the delay is from the government shutdown. He has other appearances scheduled elsewhere too - the Mill Valley and Middleburg film festivals - but I guess we'll see if they happen.

NYFF secret screening is happening! I got a ticket! The widespread rumor is that it's Marty Supreme. Reviews for whatever it is are embargoed to a date that has not been set, so I doubt it's anything that has played anywhere else before.

Nice! I think it's been a while since they've had a "secret screening." The only two that come to mind since 2009 are Spielberg's Lincoln (his very first film at the festival, with both Spielberg and Tony Kushner present to discuss it) and Scorsese's Hugo which wasn't even finished and I believe was a bit longer than the released version, so viewers got to see footage that was ultimately cut (albeit with VFX work that was noticeably unfinished). In both cases, there were strong rumors of what it might be, and in both cases those rumors proved correct.

Speaking of which, I see Scorsese and DeNiro made a surprise appearance at Rebecca Miller's documentary on Scorsese.

Apparently the secret screening might be for Song Sung Blue. If so, then that seems to be a downgrade from Marty Supreme.

EDIT: nevermind, it is for Marty Supreme

hearthesilence wrote: Thu Oct 02, 2025 9:59 pm Variety and the A.V. Club are reporting that the delay is from the government shutdown. He has other appearances scheduled elsewhere too - the Mill Valley and Middleburg film festivals - but I guess we'll see if they happen.

Looks like everything has worked out - he’s not only appearing tomorrow for a newly added screening, he is doing a ton of Q&A’s the weekend this opens at Lincoln Center, so many that you will likely get into at least one of them with little effort. He also had two appearances at Film Forum scheduled but those are already sold out.

zedz wrote: Thu Aug 14, 2025 3:41 am SOUND OF FALLING (Mascha Schilinski, Germany, 2025) – Formally dazzling, heterogenous, polyphonic multi-generational drama set in a house near the future / current / former internal German border. We experience life through the eyes (sometimes literally) and voices of various women as they enact and reenact themes of abuse and struggle. Several time periods are juggled, and various storylines are only filled out piece by piece, through stolen glimpses and snatches of narration, over the two and a half hours of the film. The film goes to some very dark places (we see characters’ fantasies of suicide played out, for instance, and there are plenty of deaths and mutilations), but the cinematic creativity on display is so impressive that the overall impression is one of elation rather than depression. I’m sure this film will attract more than a few comparisons with Mirror, but to me it was more like Heimat by way of Inland Empire. It’s one of many films this year that make spectacular use of Academy Ratio (three more are in my top ten, and three more are in the ten after that) which seems to be coming back as a “cinematic” (anti-television) visual format.

I loved this as well. It's especially talented at keeping us at a respectful remove from its various perspectives using elisions, while making us feel as close as we ‘should’ be able to get via the medium to these feelings and experiences. I don't know how else to really explain why a film like this is so successful, but it's exhilarating as the sum of its parts and features one of the most blissful scenes I've seen in a movie: An out-of-nowhere underwater needledrop that had me beaming amidst an otherwise pretty downbeat, yet enthralling narrative

zedz wrote: Thu Aug 14, 2025 3:41 am IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2025) – I don’t know that Panahi has ever made a bad film (and I think I’ve seen them all), but this one is so complete that it might just rise to the top. It’s a story of revenge deferred and frustrated (often in incongruously comic terms) that balances humour and horror and tension (it occurs to me that my top five are all oddball thrillers of some kind), shot through with a casual formal mastery. The ending is sheer perfection. Life goes back to normal.

This was my favorite film of the festival so far, and by far the best Panahi I've seen (though I have not seen close to them all). It's oddly hysterical and breezy, in an extremely organic fashion, while maintaining a deep sense of unease and never letting you lose sight of the dramatic stakes at its core. Panahi uses at least three or four of the most effective long takes I've witnessed in some time, from the opening shot to the stark climax

zedz wrote: Thu Aug 14, 2025 3:41 am SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Joachim Trier, Norway, 2025): I would probably rate this film higher if I hadn’t seen it alongside Haugerud’s Oslo Trilogy, which does much of the same stuff more deftly and persuasively. For instance, there are three characters in this film, and they’re well written and well played. Unfortunately, there’s also Elle Fanning, who is more of a plot prop, and a bunch of other characters who are barely differentiated. There’s also a comparison to be made with Nouvelle Vague (American movie star out of her comfort zone on Arty European filmshoot), and it too is unflattering.

I liked this well enough, but I had more than a few problems with it. It's predictable, overlong, overwritten (which is pretty ironic considering the claim a character makes about the featured script being so within the film itself!), doesn't make effective use of Trier's usual knack for narrative and visual pivots and needledrops, and I actually wasn't a big fan of the oft-highlighted performances (Reinsve and Skarsgård). Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas was subtly the film's strongest player, and the only character that's effectively developed. The others felt thin - Reinsve in particular - and the tacked-on dramatic reveal at the end about her past feels insultingly manipulative, as if Trier is trying to dole out some unearned character development the audience must magnetize towards far too late in the game. The film is mostly involving and funny enough (especially all the deadpan stuff involving Lilleaas' husband) to earn points for its ultimate value as a fine film, but it's got a lot more problems than Fanning going on. I did like the ending where

Spoiler

it's implied that Skarsgård changed the script to remove the suicide from completion. It's barley implied with just the "Cut" phrase - there could've been something a bit more final added, even with subtlety - but I think I read it right. A nice touch, that could've been more effectively planted with a bit more attention to it.

I guess that's part of my problem with the movie - even embedded in a half-compliment: It just felt like a rough draft.

Clinton Krute, Molly Haskell, J. Hoberman and Beatrice Loayza discuss the films at the NYFF. (FWIW, they spoil the endings!)

Mr Sausage wrote: Mon Aug 04, 2025 2:05 am Reflections in a Dead Diamond (Cattet & Forzani): I love Cattet & Forzani's festishistic Eurotrash pastiches. Here, they take the Euro spy film and refract it (get it?) until it becomes multiple levels of memory, reality, dream, and fiction, with Fabio Tesi (remarkably spry at 84) playing either a retired spy or a retired actor in spy films on vacation, where dreams or nightmares or memories or who knows what begin to crowd him in. Wonderfully tactile and sensual and yet at the same time densely conceptual. Brilliant.

I thoroughly enjoyed this hot-blooded drug of a movie, and like your interpretation of Tesi as retired looking back at memories that become reality. Though I also enjoyed reading it as a contrast between the cinematic glorification of a spy and the reality of an aging spy who's impotent at accessing the skills he once had, yet on this rote existential path that he can't evade because it's all he knows. If one really wanted to stretch the meaning of the film, it can be about the reality of aging in general and how one copes by escaping into fantasy gleaned from consuming media (there are even comic strips!) Was this guy ever a spy (or even an actor in spy films), or is he stuck in a lame stage of life without many corporeal abilities except the capacity to use his imagination? Take the scene where he fails to use a gadget weapon and has to resort to beating a man to death with a blunt object.. there are constant flashes between the old man and the young spy, but even the young spy would be ineffectual in this situation, failing to live up to the model agent previously depicted. Could Tesi be casting himself as an idealized character, only to have his actual disabilities impact that vision? There just isn't enough context to cast assumptions, and that's something I loved about the film: A meditation on memories as inherently skewed, enough so to be indistinguishable from pure imagination, depending on the context of one's mental state.

Will I, one day, be an old man who's seen so many movies that I just dream all day about being cast in one? And will my imagination, or memories, oscillate between being favorable and unfavorable depending on the context of what I'm doing or feeling while I remember/imagine them? There's something demented, in every sense of the word, about this film - and that lends layers of meaning that can be extracted and applied to its phantasmagoric schema informing an anti-narrative. This man - in control, or otherwise - is disengaging from a cohesive narrative about his life. Whether that's an intentional dodging, or desperate yet deficient attempt to create a cohesive one, is up to the viewer to decide, at least under this reading. I find that interesting as a rich portrait of the pains of aging juxtaposed with the magnificent wonders of the 'possible' of the mind. It's like a coin flip of whether or not this is a depressing or hopeful meditation, an elegy of regret or supreme agency, only for that coin to land on its side and have us marvel at the miracle of ambiguous prospect.

Anyways, the doubling also translates to how one reads films: This can be cerebral or just plain fun as surface-level pleasures. It's a bottomless Russian doll of a film, casting kaleidoscopic potential for digesting it, much like all the kaleidoscopic imagery contained within! It may, somehow, be even more intelligent and stratified than it appears