NYFF's lineup digs Baumbach, Haneke, and Assayas

After a week of slowly revealing the three exclusive premieres of their festival, New York Film Festival has now unveiled the Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, and Venice scattered main slate for their 50th run. Amongst the already announced primary three, "Life of Pi", "Not Fade Away", and "Flight", also chosen for this year's festival are Cannes champion "Amour", Christian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills", Leos Carax's apparent fireball of "Holy Motors", and Pablo Larrain's universally acclaimed "No". Also of close interest from Cannes is "Like Someone in Love", a film that split critics decisively at Cannes, which promises an experience that's captivating at minimum.

From Berlin this year are "Barbara", "Caesar Must Die" (No, it's still not a sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"), and "Tabu", the last of which has had quite a few very outspoken champions. Out of Toronto are quite a few interspersed foreign features, plenty of which are likely to emerge as prominent candidates for this year's Foreign Language Film race. Fixed along with them are Noah Baumbach's rather secretive new project "Frances Ha", which instantly receives my attention based on up-and-comer Greta Gerwig's central role in the film. Less interesting is Oscar bait "Hyde Park of Hudson", which seems all too much like the "Albert Nobbs" of this year.

NYFF brings "Not Fade Away" for centerpiece premiere

Barely two days ago it was announced what the opening and closing films for the 50th New York Film Festival would be, to much rapturous anticipation given they brought the premieres of Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" and Robert Zemeckis' "Flight". In contemplation on the two choices, they go hand in hand with directors going in bold new directions. While Ang Lee is embracing romantic 3D vistas and crowd-pleasing blockbuster inclinations, Robert Zemeckis is heading back to his live-action roots with an intriguing drama with legal strings to it.

As such, the centerpiece film begs a similar attempt to break new ground, and in a way the festival has kept to that running theme. Far from a bid towards putting debut filmmakers in the spotlight, David Chase has found a stronger cinematic outlet than most in his much acclaimed series "The Sopranos". Now he makes a rather late career entrance into feature filmmaking with "Not Fade Away", a project whose only inkling of plot description remains "a young man's coming-of-age in the 60s". It's certainly a move that will get people talking, but also one with a certain degree of trepidation attached to it.

NYFF taps "Life of Pi" as opener; "Flight" as closer

I've been slowly eking my way into the festival circuit over the past couple years, mostly with brief and not-terribly-thriving trips to Portsmouth, NH for their annual Telluride by the Sea redux of the Colorado festival. As much as I enjoy the atmosphere, they only ever have one standout, or even entirely solid, film on display, in past years playing host to "The Illusionist" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin". While I'll doubtlessly check out the one or two worthwhile films suspect to hit the fest this year, I have my much more ambitious sights set for the biggest festival on the east coast. That's right. This year has me rearing to go to New York Film Festival.

Of course that process can only be helped along by the choosing of outstanding films to make up its program. It'll be a short while before we get the full listing, but they've hinted at what the overall feel of the fest will be by announcing the film kicking off events. Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is set to have its world premiere as opening up the festival, a move which has everybody kicking with anticipation at what else is on tap for the festivities. Lee's film has already been praised for the gorgeous visuals of its trailer alone, though how it stacks up for a feature length film is really what matters. I wouldn't caution him to worry, since his film is already a shoo-in for Oscar glory.

2010 Festival Schedule

As we enter the final round of this year's festival circuit, lets take a quick look at the festivals for the next month or two. Hopefully a few of them will make it to awards season.

Venice Film Festival: September 1-11
Top Films: Black Swan, Somewhere, The Tempest, Machete

Toronto Film Festival: September 9-19
Top Films: Miral, Conviction, The Illusionist, The King's Speech, Let Me In, Hereafter, Another Year

New York Film Festival: September 24-October 10
Top Films: The Social Network, Hereafter

London Film Festival: October 13-28
Top Films: 127 Hours, Never Let Me Go