As exciting as it can be to see some of the most-anticipated films of the year at their festival debuts, it’s perhaps even a more enticing proposition to seek out the work that one may not have a chance to see for quite some time. With the 63rd New York Film Festival kicking off this Friday, September 26, at Film at Lincoln Center, we’ve highlighted the must-see selections still seeking U.S. distribution at the time of publishing. For more coverage, follow here and subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Bouchra (Meriem Bennani, Orian Barki)
Based on a real-life conversation shared by co-director Meriem Bennani and her own mother, Bouchra (co-directed with Orian Barki and co-written by them and Ayla Mrabet) opens with a phone call. Aicha (Yto Barrada) is checking in on her daughter from Morocco when Bouchra (Bennani) broaches a subject they’ve been avoiding for almost a decade. Stuck creatively, the latter has decided to find emotional catharsis through a script about the complex dynamic shared with her parents and seeks context from the opposite side. – Jared M. (full review)
Evidence (Lee Anne Schmitt)
A highlight of this year’s Currents lineup, Lee Anne Schmitt’s invigorating essay film Evidence captures the ills of modern American conservatism through a very personal lens. With the through line of exploring family history, the director weaves fascinating threads about corporate environmental destruction, the stranglehold of right-wing media, and the devious ways Republican officials get elected. A work of investigative journalism that has a formal and emotional backbone like few others of its ilk, Evidence is a must-see. – Jordan R.
The Fence (Claire Denis)
Is the idea of a Claire Denis film changing? There was likely an image one formed in their head when that name emerged: elliptical, sexy, avant-garde. Yet recent works are suggesting a different direction, one far more direct and less mysterious. It can even be said that her newest, The Fence, plays like a final film––not necessarily as a grand summation or statement, but like a stripping-down of almost everything possible. The film, one can say, comes to be just about the politics––or perhaps if you asked Denis, a known fan of the wordy Jean Eustache, character and dialogue––instead of capital m-e-s mise-en-scène. Being based on Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play Black Battles with Dogs, its stagey origins serve it to both effective and detrimental ends, and also point to someone just wanting to knock out an adaptation of something they liked rather quickly. – Ethan V. (full review)
Gavagai (Ulrich Köhler)
A perpetually underrated figure in world cinema, Ulrich Köhler (In My Room) returns with what already seems a major statement. In a metacinematic spin on Medea, a pair of actors (Jean-Christophe Folly and Maren Eggert) film Euripides’s play in Senegal under the guise of an anxious director (Nathalie Richard) while carrying an offscreen affair; a later incident at its Berlin premiere opens tough questions about bias and intent. If Köhler’s past films are any indication, it’ll also be genuinely funny. – Nick N.
The Last One for the Road (Francesco Sossai)
With no new Aki Kaurismäki film on the horizon, Francesco Sossai’s Cannes breakout The Last One for the Road fits the bill, and then some. The ambiable Italian hangout feature follows two inebriated friends travelling through the country reminiscing on youthful adventures and the path that lies ahead, all while finding some energy thanks to a new student joining their journey. Sossai employs a lived-in, beautiful touch, crafting weathered yet empathetic characters that one imagines they could meet at the local dive and spend an unforgettable night with. – Jordan R.
Late Fame (Kent Jones)
To a certain era of cinephile (hello), Kent Jones’ criticism and programming were a perpetual north star. He’s been largely absent since leaving the New York Film Festival in 2019, and though a longtime documentary collaborator of Martin Scorsese, filmmaking has only started to suggest a new phase: if 2018’s thorny, odd Diane might not have been what people anticipated from his venture into narrative cinema, Late Fame––scripted by Samy Burch (May December), starring Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee––seems more at home with Jones’ longtime interest in life’s work and the artist-advocate relationship. Adapting a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (most famously the author of Eyes Wide Shut source Traumnovelle), it concerns a lesser-known poet (Dafoe) receiving late-in-life recognition for a reassessed collection, and the efforts of an actress (Lee) to gain his attention. The combination of director, scribe, stars, and DP Wyatt Garfield points towards an appreciably adult take on artistic practice. – Nick N.
Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks) (Lucrecia Martel)
“I don’t know if the title will be Chocobar at this point, but the film is all about the crime involving this man. It’s been 13 years. I live very far from that community so I can’t spend large periods of time with them,” Lucrecia Martel told us back in 2023. “I also feel very uncomfortable when I interrupt the lives of these people. There are people, like people who make documentary films, they have this facility to connect with people very easily and I don’t have that. It’s a huge effort for me. And imagine: I have to use a cane now and these are mountainous areas!” The 15-year process of completing her first documentary has concluded with Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks), now set to premiere at fall festivals. Capturing the 2009 murder of Javier Chocobar, a member of the Indigenous Chuchagasta community in northwest Argentina, we imagine this, from one of the world’s great filmmakers, will feel remarkably different than the recent wave of true-crime documentaries. – Jordan R.
Pin de Fartie (Alejo Moguillansky)
Since the early 2000s, the fiercely independent Argentine filmmaking collective El Pampero Cine has built a sui generis filmography by shirking conventions. A catalogue that includes Mariano Llinás’ 13.5-hour La Flor and Laura Citarella’s 4.5-hour Trenque Lauquen doesn’t exactly make it easy. Yet those who groove with Pampero’s beat will attest to the singularly rewarding experience of giving oneself over to their films. Pin de Fartie, the latest from co-founder Alejo Moguillansky, clocks in at a very reasonable 106 minutes. How it expands on and deconstructs one of the 20th century’s defining absurdist plays will send one’s head spinning nonetheless. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)
Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin)
The films of Mark Jenkin ooze a hypnotic, seasick sensibility; to watch them is to be lulled by their restless jumps through time and space, their ability to convert his home turf of Cornwall into a suspended world where facts and visions collide in stupefying dioramas. The director is a spinner of wandering tales, never fueled by linear plots so much as ambient forces: a ticking clock, gusts of wind, the distant roaring of waves. His dramas tend to pull your gaze from people and toward the inanimate objects that litter their surroundings. It’s here––in the interstice between the fictional foreground and non-fictional background––that the actual story often lies. – Leonardo G. (full review)
With Hasan to Gaza (Kamal Aljafari)
The new documentary With Hasan in Gaza––a poignant, meditative portrait of a city now fighting for its life––works as both a travelogue and time machine. In 2001, the filmmaker Kamal Aljafari journeyed to Palestine in the hopes of finding Adder Rahim, a friend he made while serving seven months in the juvenile section of Israel’s Naqab Desert prison when he was 17 years old. During filming, Aljafari met Hasan, a guide who agreed to drive him the length of the country, down its coastal strip, during which time the director documented what he saw: children playing, rows of cars and buildings, bustling city streets. – Rory O. (full review)
11 More Undistributed Films to See at NYFF63
- Back Home
- Below the Clouds
- The Currents
- Duse
- Escape
- Hair, Paper, Water..
- I Only Rest in the Storm
- Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes
- Levers
- Mare’s Nest
- Windward
For more, listen to our interview with Dennis Lim on the 63rd New York Film Festival below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
The 63rd New York Film Festival takes place September 26-October 13. Get tickets here.