The 49th New York Film Festival will kick off opening night with Roman Polanski’s Carnage. The line-up at the festival, September 30 through October 16, also includes Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, scheduled for gala events.
Polanski’s Carnage, starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly, is based on the award-winning Broadway play about two sets of parents who meet after their sons are involved in a schoolyard brawl. It will also be screened at the Venice Film Festival.
Method, directed by Cronenberg (Crash, A History of Violence) stars Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Keira Knightley as a patient and is scheduled to screen on October 5. The film opens on November 23 in North America, followed by Spain, France and the Netherlands in November.
Almodovar’s latest film, the thriller The Skin I Live In, finds him working with Antonio Banderas again. The psychological story surrounding the world of plastic surgery will play the festival on October 12, two days before it releases on October 14.
The festival also features My Week with Marilyn starring Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), having its world premiere on October 9. Set in 1956, the story follows the diaries of British filmmaker Colin Clark, showing Monroe’s London life and chronicling the interaction between Sir Laurence Olivier and Monroe during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl.
The film also stars Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie), Eddie Redmayne (Powder Blue), Judi Dench, Julia Ormond and Emma Watson. It opens in North America on November 4, the UK November 18, and Scandinavian countries also in November.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center produces the New York Film Festival, which will present special screenings of historic films and will honor the 100th anniversary of Japan’s legendary Nikkatsu film studio with a 37-film salute. Tickets will be on sale starting September 12.