As the fall festival season continues to take shape, we now know when one of our most-anticipated films will arrive in North America. Film at Lincoln Center announced Steve McQueen’s Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan, will be the Closing Night selection of the 62nd New York Film Festival, making its North American premiere on October 10 at Alice Tully Hall. This will follow the film’s World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival the day prior and continues a long-standing relationship between McQueen and NYFF as all of his features have played at the festival, except for Widows and two of his Small Axe films.
Here’s the NYFF synopsis: “Blitz, an authentic and astonishing recreation of London during its blitzkrieg by the Germans during World War II, pushes the artistry of Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, NYFF51) to ever more impressive levels. Working on a vast scale, McQueen sets things at human eye level, telling his original tale from the parallel perspectives of working-class single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her 9-year-old son, George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan), as they become separated within the labyrinth of a city under siege. Alternately overwhelming and tender, McQueen’s dazzling film offers a multicultural portrait of 1940s London too infrequently seen on screens. While Ronan and Heffernan emotionally match one another beat for beat, the supporting cast, including Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, Hayley Squires, and Paul Weller, is uniformly superb, fleshing out a film that feels positively Dickensian in its scope and storytelling.”
“It is with immense pride, gratitude, and fondness that I’m able to return to the New York Film Festival with Blitz,” said McQueen. “I’ve been lucky enough to have enjoyed a number of memorable experiences at the festival and with New York audiences, and I’m enormously grateful to have been invited back for Closing Night.”
“Blitz is a vivid and visceral depiction of life during wartime, a meticulous historical account that resonates unmistakably with our current age of endless war,” said Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival. “We are thrilled to welcome back to the festival Steve McQueen, one of the most daring artists at work today, with one of the greatest achievements of his career.”
Blitz will premiere in theaters on November 1 ahead of its global premiere on Apple TV+ on November 22.