61st New York Film Festival poster revealed

Jim Jarmusch named as designer

by Anne-Katrin Titze

New York Film Festival stalwart Jim Jarmusch is the 61st New York Film Festival poster designer
New York Film Festival stalwart Jim Jarmusch is the 61st New York Film Festival poster designer Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center has announced that Jim Jarmusch is the designer of the 61st New York Film Festival poster with an “image of film star Yûzô Kayama (Sword Of Doom, Red Beard, Sanjuro, etc.).” Jim’s films that have screened at the New York Film Festival are Stranger Than Paradise (1984); Down By Law (1986, Opening Night); ]Mystery Train (1989); Night On Earth (1991); Dead Man (1999); Broken Flowers (2005); Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Gimme Danger and Paterson (2016). Earlier it was announced that Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, a portrait of Elvis Presley’s (Jacob Elordi) wife, born Priscilla Ann Wagner (Cailee Spaeny) will be the Centerpiece selection of the festival. Todd Haynes’s May December, starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton will be the Opening Night selection and Michael Mann’s Ferrari, starring Penélope Cruz and Adam Driver (as Enzo Ferrari) with Shailene Woodley, Gabriel Leone, Patrick Dempsey, and Jack O’Connell will be the Closing Night.

61st New York Film Festival poster designed by Jim Jarmusch
61st New York Film Festival poster designed by Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch says of his design: “Since arriving in New York City decades ago, attending the NYFF has been my version of going to church. I’m honoured to have been asked to create the poster for the 61st NYFF, joining a list of filmmakers, artists, and friends who have done so in the past.

“For this poster the image was pulled from the files of several thousand useless photographs I’ve taken since getting my hands on a camera as a teenager,” he continued. “I consider them to be useless not necessarily in a negative way, but because they’ve almost never had any intended ‘use.’

“Most of my favourites are random, playful, or accidental,” added the filmmaker. “This one’s from the late Seventies, an incidental portrait of a friend, hiding her face with a Japanese album cover from the 1960s. Its image is of film star Yûzô Kayama (The Sword of Doom, Red Beard, Sanjuro, etc.) and rock musician (!)—an LP of his psychedelic surf band, The Launchers.”

The New York Film Festival Main Slate selection committee, chaired by Dennis Lim, also includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K Austin Collins and Rachel Rosen.

The 61st New York Film Festival runs from Friday, September 29 through Sunday, October 15.

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