New York Film Festival 2021

In addition to the features listed below, there are a number of shorts programmes

View other New York Film Festival Films by strand: Main Slate, Revivals, Spotlight

Returning To Reims (Fragments) Returning To Reims (Fragments)
Returning To Reims (Fragments) and Social Hygiene
2 Pasolini (Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Andrei Ujică)
Follows the Italian auteur and his theological advisor, Don Andrea Carraro, on a trip through 1960s Palestine to scout locations for his 1964 biblical masterpiece The Gospel According to Saint Matthew.
World premiere
All About My Sisters (Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Qiong Wang; Stars: Jin Zhou, Li Wang, Xiaoqing Yan, Jianhua Wang, Sifan Wang, Jin Zhou, Li Wang, Xiaoqing Yan, Jianhua Wang, Sifan Wang)
The director documents her own fractured family, gradually revealing the personal and psychological effects of China’s one-child policy on the individual, the family unit, and women in society at large.
North American premiere
The Great Movement (El Gran Movimiento) (Country: Bolivia, France, Qatar, Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Kiro Russo; Writer: Kiro Russo; Stars: Francisa Arce de Aro, Israel Hurtado, Gustavo Milán Ticona, Julio César Ticona, Max Bautista Uchasara)
Mystical portrait of the contemporary central South American cityscape and those who work within its bowels and environs.
US premiere
Haruhara-san’s Recorder (Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Kyoshi Sugita; Writer: Kyoshi Sugita; Stars: Chika Araki, Saho Ito, Takenori Kaneko, Minako Niibe, Chika Araki, Saho Ito, Takenori Kaneko, Minako Niibe)
Portrait of a young woman’s interior world.
North American premiere
I Want to Talk About Duras (Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Claire Simon; Writer: Claire Simon, based on the book by Yann Andréa; Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Swann Arlaud)
Portrait of the complex romantic relationship between epochal experimental novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras and her much younger, homosexual partner, Yann Andréa.
North American premiere
The Great Movement The Great Movement
The Great Movement and A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces
Just A Movement (Juste un mouvement) (Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2021; Director: Vincent Meessen; Writer: Vincent Meessen; Stars: Bouba Diallo, Marie-Thérèse Diedhiou, Cheikh Hamalah Blondin Diop, Dialo Diop, Ousman Blondin Diop, Doudou Fall, Fi Lu, Alioune Paloma Sall, Felwine Sarr, Malal Almamy Tall)
In Senegal, Omar Blondin Diop’s name is associated with an unpunished state crime. In France, he is mostly remembered as the Marxist activist featured in La Chinoise, a fiction film of political anticipation by Jean-Luc Godard. Vincent Meessen’s political and poetic inquiry into Diop offers a meditation on the relationship between politics, justice, and memory.
Nature (Country: France, Germany, Armenia; Year: 2020; Director: Artavazd Peleshian)
Essay film about humanity in harmony and conflict with the natural world.
A Night Of Knowing Nothing (Country: India, France; Year: 2021; Director: Payal Kapadia)
A poetic record of the experience of being a young Indian in a land of violence.
Outside Noise (Country: Germany, Korea, Austria; Year: 2021; Director: Ted Fendt; Writer: Ted Fendt, Mia Sellmann, Daniela Zahlner; Stars: Daniela Zahlner, Mia Sellmann, Natascha Manthe, Genevieve Havemeyer-King, Hani Alaraj, Manu Bäuerle, Katharina Maria Grabner, Ted Fendt, Stefanie Zingl, Daniela Zahlner, Mia Sellmann, Natascha Manthe, Genevieve Havemeyer-King, Hani Alaraj, Manu Bäuerle)
A group of friends hang-out and contemplate their lives.
North American premiere
Prism (Country: Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Eléonore Yameogo, An van. Dienderen, Rosine Mbakam)
A film in which the differences in the directors' skin colour serve as a departure to explore their different experiences with the biased limitations of the medium.
World premiere
I Want to Talk About Duras I Want to Talk About Duras
I Want to Talk About Duras and The Tale Of King Crab
Returning To Reims (Fragments) (Retour A Reims (Fragments)) (Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot; Stars: Narrated by Adèle Haenel)
An intimate and political story of the French working class from the beginning of the 1950s to today.
North American premiere
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (Year: 2021; Director: Shengze Zhu)
A Wuhan-set documentary that focuses on the Yangtze River.
US premiere
Social Hygiene (Hygiène sociale) (Country: Canada; Year: 2021; Director: Denis Côté; Writer: Denis Côté; Stars: Maxim Gaudette, Eve Duranceau, Éléonore Loiselle, Larissa Corriveau, Kathleen Fortin, Evelyne Rompré, Maxim Gaudette, Eve Duranceau, Éléonore Loiselle, Larissa Corriveau, Kathleen Fortin, Evelyne Rompré)
Hedonistic philosopher-cum-delinquent, Antonin gets stuck between five women.
US premiere
Ste. Anne (Country: Canada; Year: 2021; Director: Rhayne Vermette; Writer: Rhayne Vermette; Stars: Isabelle d'Eschambault, Jack Theis, Valerie Marion, Dolorès Gosselin, Roger Vermette, Andrina Turenne, Denise Tougas, Yvette Deveau, Paulette Cooksey, Rhéanne Vermette, Isabelle d'Eschambault, Jack Theis, Valerie Marion, Dolorès Gosselin, Roger Vermette)
Experimental film about a long-missing young woman’s unexpected return to her indigenous Métis community.
US premiere
The Tale Of King Crab (Re Granchio, The Legend Of King Crab) (Country: Italy, France, Argentina; Year: 2021; Director: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis; Writer: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis; Stars: Maria Alexandra Lungu, Darío Levy, Jorge Prado, Mariano Arce, Gabriele Silli, Severino Sperandio, Bruno di Giovanni, Daniel Tur, Ercole Colnago)
Italy, today. Some elderly hunters reminisce about the tale of Luciano - a drunk who locks horns with the head of the region over right of passage and is later exiled.
North American premiere
A Night Of Knowing Nothing A Night Of Knowing Nothing
A Night Of Knowing Nothing and The Tsugua Diaries
The Tsugua Diaries (Diarios De Otsoga) (Country: Portugal; Year: 2021; Director: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes; Writer: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo; Stars: Crista Alfaiate, Carloto Cotta, João Nunes Monteiro)
Details of this film have yet to be released.
Opening night. US premiere
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