How New York Film Festival became a key awards season destination and “de facto mini-market”

This year’s 63rd edition of New York Film Festival (NYFF, September 26-October 13) will showcase 74 features and 33 shorts from 42 countries. The festival does not have a competition section or offer prizes, and the guiding light that drives the annual selection, according to artistic director Dennis Lim, is one overriding question.

“If we are going to make a case for cinema as a vital, relevant art form, which films do we put forward as evidence?” Lim says. “The programme is the answer.”

Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, this year’s line-up opens with the North American premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt fresh off its world premiere in Venice, while Jim Jarmusch’s fellow Lido premiere and Golden Lion winner Father Mother Sister Brother is the Centrepiece selection.

The 34 films in Main Slate span the buzziest titles from Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto, Berlin and Sundance. They include, from Cannes, Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner and French Oscar submission It Was Just an Accident and Bi Gan’s jury prize winner Resurrection; and, from Venice, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House Of Dynamite, Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Kent Jones’ Late Fame.

Scott Cooper’s Telluride premiere Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is the Spotlight Gala, while Sundance standouts include Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day. NYFF will also screen both of Richard Linklater’s 2025 features: Berlin premiere Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague from the Croisette.

High-profile world premieres include Bradley Cooper’s closing night film Is This Thing On?; Ben Stiller’s documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, about his comedy duo parents; Rebecca Miller’s Martin Scorsese deep dive Mr. Scorsese; and Ronan Day-Lewis’ Anemone featuring the return of his famous father Daniel to the screen.

Awards staging post

Yet artistic director Lim tells Screen: “The premiere game has never been our thing. It is nice to have them for extra buzz, but it is not a primary criterion in terms of decision-making. If you’re trying to find the films that matter in a given year, if you limit yourself to only world premieres, you’re simply not going to get most of the best or most important films.”

In recent years, that quest to find the best films of the year has seen the festival, founded in 1963, become a significant awards-season staging post.

“NYFF takes place just as awards chatter starts ramping up and the industry begins to ask, ‘What are the films of the year?’” Lim says. “We’re not Oscar-handicappers; we don’t make decisions based on what we think has a shot at nominations. But awards season has an important role in calling attention to worthy films that wouldn’t otherwise get recognition, which is the role of our festival, so we do hope we can give them a launch.”

Last year, 10 films in selection earned 40 Oscar nominations including best picture winner Anora and other prize winners like The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, I’m Still Here, A Real Pain and No Other Land. In 2023, Anatomy Of A Fall, Poor Things and The Zone Of Interest passed through the festival en route to Academy Awards success.

Cooper’s closing night selection Is This Thing On? from Searchlight Pictures notably follows other features from the studio that have claimed the slot and gone on to enjoy big nights at the Academy Awards: Sideways in 2004, The Wrestler in 2008, The Descendants in 2011 and Birdman in 2014.

Industry attraction

One big benefit for NYFF is the fact that so many key distributors are based in the city, as the festival’s managing director Matt Bolish notes: “This is a hometown festival. We benefit from the fact that major distributors like Mubi and A24 all have offices here. It is a prime location for networking opportunities.”

Bolish cites New York-based Sony Pictures Classics executive vice president of acquisitions and production Dylan Leiner, Neon president of acquisitions and production Jeff Deutchman, Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber and Criterion president Peter Becker, who are all expected to attend this year alongside top executives from Netflix, Warner Bros, Disney and Searchlight.

“The fact that we are in New York makes us a de facto mini-market without having to set up a literal market,” Lim adds. Several films found distributors during or just before last year’s edition, including The Brutalist at A24, April at Metrograph Pictures, Maria at Netflix, and Who By Fire at KimStim.

Heading into this year’s edition, 10 films in Main Slate are still looking for US distribution. Among them are recent Venice premieres like Late Fame, which buyers are understood to be circling, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Cover-Up, and Pietro Marcello’s Duse, as well as Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premieres like Claire Denis’ The Fence and Milagros Mumenthaler’s The Currents.

Paris-based sales company Lucky Number is seeking a US buyer for Main Slate selection The Last One For The Road after its Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere, and TIFF entry Bouchra, which screens in Currents.

“NYFF is a strong launchpad for specialty films in the US,” Lucky Number co-founder Ola Byszuk notes. “Being selected can significantly elevate a film’s profile. Distributors are paying close attention, and at the very least, they’re waiting to see how the films are received by the press during the festival.”

“From a business point of view, NYFF is an essential stop on our fall calendar,” Kino Lorber founder and CEO Richard Lorber says.

The company’s streaming service Kino Film Collection features 62 films that have played at the festival over the years, accounting for around 10% of the offerings on the platform.

The distributor is planning an awards push for Sepideh Farsi’s documentary and NYFF Spotlight selection Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, about Gaza photojournalist Fatma Hassona who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on her home before the film’s Cannes premiere.

Summarising the year

NYFF prides itself on keeping its selection tight, says Lim, “so we can make sure presentations and conversations are deep and thoughtful”.

He adds: “It all comes back to filmmaker and audience experience. Filmmakers value our open and engaged New York audiences, our Q&As and in some cases, even interacting with people on the streets.”

Ryan Werner, the recently-appointed president of global cinema at Neon, says: “The Main Slate of the New York Film Festival is put together with a lot of thought by one of the greatest teams of curators working today. It commands the attention of critics, press and audiences. When you get a strong response at the festival, it feels great because you know your film has passed a major test with one of the most discerning and demanding audiences there is.”

Neon has five films in Main Slate that are already in the awards season conversation: No Other Choice, It Was Just An Accident, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.

While the festival prides itself on more intimate interactions, it continues to expand in numbers. Pass sales are at a record high this year and, to respond to audience demand, the festival has rolled out more daytime screenings and added an extra venue – the David Rubenstein Atrium – for its popular Talks programme.

“The basic identity of the festival has always been to introduce US audiences to global cinema,” Lim says. “Our goal is to summarise the year in cinema and we have stayed true to that idea, even if the festival is getting bigger and bigger.”

Noting that NYFF’s primary venue, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, has a capacity of more than 1,000 seats, Lim adds: “The festival is a reminder that people still want to come together to experience movies as they were meant to be experienced. It is how filmmakers and distributors want you to see their films.”

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