The Descendants Closing Cannes Heavy NYFF

The New York Film Festival revealed today that its Closing Night Gala film will be Alexander Payne’s ‘The Descendants,’ which reviewers have described as an adroit dramedy starring George Clooney about a man who takes his daughters on a road trip to find his wife’s lover.

The NYFF additionally announced the complete slate of films for the 49th annual event, which runs from September 30 to October 16. The selection is an adventurous mix of big-name heavy-hitters from Berlin, heavy on Cannes, Locarno and Venice.

Highlights of the 27-film Main Slate include cantankerous New Yorker Abel Ferrara’s ‘4:44: Last Night on Earth,’ an “apocalyptic trance film” starring Willem Dafoe; ‘Shame,’ Steve McQueen’s follow-up to his amazing debut ‘Hunger,’ in which Michael Fassbender plays a compulsive NYC sex addict (possibly in need of therapy that Fassbender’s Jung could provide? Now there would a great short film …); Mia Hansen-Love’s bittersweet adolescent romance ‘Goodbye First Love’; American first-time director Sean Durkin’s Sundance-Cannes-TIFF traveled ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene,’ about a young woman dealing with the trauma of having spent years in a cult; and what might prove to be the highlight of the entire festival, the supposed final film of Hungarian master Bela Tarr, ‘The Turin Horse.’

Many films making the cut at NYFF were award winners at Cannes earlier this summer. These include Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s (Climates) abstract police procedural ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,’ which is joined at the NYFF by its co-Grand Prize winner, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s latest ‘The Kid with a Bike.’ Cannes best screenplay winner ‘Footnote’ is here, as well as the silent-movie inspired ‘The Artist,’ (best actor for Jean Dujarin) and Lars von Trier’s controversial ‘Melancholia’ (best actress for Kirsten Dunst).

Other films that made a splash at Cannes include Aki Kaurismäki’s ‘Le Havre,’ Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo’s ‘Miss Bala’ and a “secret” film that was smuggled out of Iran in a hard drive hidden in a cake: ‘This Is Not a Film,’ a semi-doc by and about embattled director Jafar Panahi, who is currently facing a lengthy prison sentence in his home country for making films which the Iranian government deems subversive.

Notable omissions from the NYFF ’11 slate include French provocateur Bruno Dumont’s ‘Hors Satan,’ as well as experimental Canadian director Guy Maddin’s ‘Keyhole.’ Also absent are several big name films that were expected to compete for gala night slots, such as the Weinstein Co.’s Margaret Thatcher biopic ‘The Iron Lady,’ starring Meryl Streep (could this be BFI London’s opening title?), and the buzz-heavy Cold War spy thriller ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,’ starring Gary Oldman.

The NYFF had previously announced other gala screenings for Opening Night film ‘Carnage,’ directed by Roman Polanski, and Simon Curtis’ ‘My Week with Marilyn,’ the Centerpiece selection. Two more galas will be held for David Cronenberg’s Jung v. Freud historical psychodrama ‘A Dangerous Method,’ and Pedro Almodovar’s psycho-thriller ‘The Skin I Live In.’