Key Highlights
- The 62nd New York Film Festival presents a 14-film spotlight slate blending blockbuster sequels (Godzilla Minus Zero), high-profile documentaries (NAZA, You Can See Everything), and new works from auteur legends Werner Herzog, Pedro Almodóvar, and James Gray.
- Oscar-season contenders feature heavily, with Julianne Moore (The Debut), Pedro Pascal (Behemoth!), Adam Driver (Paper Tiger, Misty Green), and John Turturro (The Only Living Pickpocket in New York) leading star-studded ensembles.
- Several titles arrive with immediate theatrical dates through December 2024, while Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard and Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter await distribution confirmation.
NYFF 2024 Unveils Star-Studded, Genre-Defying Slate
The New York Film Festival kicks off this week, capping a jam-packed fall festival season with a lineup that balances commercial spectacle with urgent political cinema and intimate character studies. Whether attending in person at Lincoln Center or planning a fall moviegoing calendar, audiences face a dense roster of 14 highlighted titles ranging from Takashi Yamazaki’s kaiju follow-up Godzilla Minus Zero to Jesse Eisenberg’s A24 theater farce The Debut. The festival continues its tradition of platforming both established masters—Pedro Almodóvar, Werner Herzog, James Gray, Mike Leigh—and emerging voices like Jordan Firstman and Noah Segan, ensuring a program that caters to cinephiles hunting for awards contenders and genre thrills alike.
Blockbuster Spectacle and Auteur Returns: Godzilla, Gilroy, and Gray
The slate opens with a thunderous arrival: Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to 2023’s surprise critical smash Godzilla Minus One. Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko contextualizes the anticipation, writing:
One of the most thrilling surprises of 2023 cinema was just how epic Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One was. While American filmmakers had made a flurry of flashy monster movies, it was this period piece set in World War II that had audiences and critics roaring with renewed vigor for the iconic kaiju. That its sequel is playing the New York Film Festival speaks to the enthusiasm of cinephiles for more. Yamazaki returns with a story that picks up two years after the events of the first film. The monster is sure to rise again. And we cannot wait!
Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, and Yuki Yamada, the film opens in theaters and IMAX on November 6. Tony Gilroy returns to the director’s chair with Behemoth!, a drama headlined by Pedro Pascal as a studio musician from a musical family. Featuring Olivia Wilde and Will Arnett, the film promises the “seduction and tension” characteristic of Gilroy’s work (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Legacy), opening December 4. James Gray continues his New York chronicles with Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver as a cop-turned-security consultant and Miles Teller as his engineer brother, with Scarlett Johansson as the brother’s wife. Puchko notes the thriller explores “how an average man might fare against Goodfellas,” releasing November 13.
Documentaries Confront Power and Identity: NAZA, You Can See Everything
Non-fiction offerings carry significant geopolitical and cultural weight. NAZA, from the Oscar-winning team behind No Other Land—Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra, and Hamdan Ballal—presents a harrowing investigation into AI-driven warfare. Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards describes the film’s methodology:
Israeli documentarians Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who co-directed 2024’s Academy Award-winning No Other Land alongside Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, return to NYFF with their new documentary NAZA. Made up of interviews with 24 anonymous Israeli military and intelligence officers, NAZA takes an unflinching look at how Israeli forces use AI and high-tech surveillance systems to target and kill Palestinians. The film draws its title from the term for the number of estimated civilian deaths in strikes. Instead of saying 15 people will die, Israeli forces say 15 NAZA. The term NAZA is one of the many ways Abraham and Szor’s striking film illustrates how the Israeli government and military dehumanize Palestinians and try to justify their killings. Often, interviewees will claim they’re just cogs in a machine. Abraham and Szor refrain from showing any actual atrocities, instead forcing viewers to sit in the descriptions of killings and strikes. The result is a calmly brutal portrait of the banality of evil that should be required viewing.
NAZA opens in limited theaters September 30. Meanwhile, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim (Primetime) team up for You Can See Everything, a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes that premiered at Telluride. Puchko observes: “Considering Fielder is known for blurring the lines of reality and performance, what will his doc about living in the same house as Holmes ahead of her incarceration offer? We’re as curious as everyone else.” It hits theaters October 16.
Festival Darlings and Directorial Debuts: Almodóvar, Herzog, Eisenberg, Firstman
Pedro Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas, a semi-autobiographical drama weaving two timelines (2004 and 2025) about filmmakers mining their loved ones for art. Starring Bárbara Lennie and Leonardo Sbaraglia, the Cannes-lauded title opens limited November 13 before expanding November 25. Werner Herzog makes his first NYFF appearance since 1982’s Fitzcarraldo with Bucking Fastard, casting real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara as siblings who speak in unison and fall for the same man (Orlando Bloom). Puchko reports “early buzz has it that this setup makes for some surreal moments and unsettling threesome scenes,” though a theatrical date remains TBD.
Jesse Eisenberg directs Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in The Debut, an A24 comedy about community theater. Senior Editor Shannon Connellan highlights the emotional core:
Oh, we do love a film about making theatre. Director, writer, and producer Jesse Eisenberg’s A24 comedy looks to capture the sheer grit and dedication of community theatre productions and the lifeline they can be for the people who make them. In The Debut, Julianne Moore plays Mona Friedman, a wife and mother who decides to audition for a community musical in her local New Jersey theatre. What begins as a flight of fancy becomes a serious means for Mona to channel her inner rage and joy, as local legend and demanding director Jerry (Paul Giamatti) pushes her to unlock a part of herself she’s long suppressed.
The film opens December 11. Other notable entries include Andrew Haigh’s queer drama A Long Winter (Fred Hechinger, Caitríona Balfe, Martin Freeman); the Esiri brothers’ Lagos-set Mrs. Dalloway adaptation Clarissa (Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri); Chris Rock’s Hollywood drama Misty Green (Rosalind Eleazar, Daniel Kaluuya); Noah Segan’s New York thriller The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito); Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care (Kate O’Flynn); and Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid (Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva).
Why This Matters
The 2024 New York Film Festival slate signals a robust awards season pipeline and a film industry increasingly comfortable blending streaming-era talent with theatrical spectacle. The presence of Godzilla Minus Zero and Behemoth! alongside heavy-hitting documentaries like NAZA reflects a programming strategy that refuses to silo genre entertainment from political urgency. For distributors, the festival serves as a critical launchpad: titles like The Debut (A24) and Paper Tiger arrive with firm December release dates, positioning them squarely for Oscar consideration. Meanwhile, the return of Herzog and Almodóvar—absent from NYFF for decades in Herzog’s case—underscores the festival’s enduring prestige as a career milestone venue. As the fall circuit concludes with NYFF, the critical reception here will likely shape the narrative for the final quarter of the theatrical year.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which NYFF 2024 films have confirmed theatrical release dates?
- Ten of the 14 highlighted films have announced release windows between September and December 2024. Key dates include NAZA (Sept 30 limited), Misty Green (Oct 9 select), The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Oct 23 NYC/LA, Oct 30 wide), You Can See Everything (Oct 16), Godzilla Minus Zero (Nov 6 IMAX), Club Kid (Nov 6), Paper Tiger (Nov 13), Bitter Christmas (Nov 13 limited/Nov 25 expand), Behemoth! and Tender Loving Care (Dec 4), and Clarissa and The Debut (Dec 11). Bucking Fastard and A Long Winter remain undated.
- What are the major documentary premieres at this year’s festival?
- Two high-profile documentaries anchor the non-fiction slate: NAZA, from the No Other Land Oscar-winning team (Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal), investigating AI targeting systems in Gaza; and You Can See Everything, a Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim collaboration embedding with Elizabeth Holmes before her incarceration. Both premiered earlier on the festival circuit (Telluride for the latter) and arrive with limited theatrical runs in September and October respectively.
- Which actors are appearing in multiple NYFF 2024 selections?
- Adam Driver stars in two featured films: James Gray’s Paper Tiger and Chris Rock’s Misty Green. Pedro Pascal leads Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! while also maintaining a high profile from The Last of Us. Julianne Moore headlines Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut as a central awards-season contender. John Turturro appears in Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.
