As the 2024 New York Film Festival (NYFF) kicks off, artistic director Dennis Lim reflects on the relief of returning to normal after last year’s challenges. Actors were on strike and they remained true to their word. 

Stars like Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Andrew Scott were absent from the 2023 festival, leaving the films to speak for themselves. But this year, from September 27 to October 14, the festival returns with actors in attendance.

Lim is thrilled to have them back and emphasizes that the selection process does not follow a thematic agenda. Instead, it aims to sum up the year in film. Audiences are eagerly anticipating movies such as Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door and Steve McQueen’s Blitz.

While premieres aren’t the focus for NYFF, the festival continues to resonate with today’s political climate, offering films that are highly relevant to current societal issues.

For the opening night, RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Nickel Boys made a strong impression, setting the tone for the rest of the festival. Whitehead’s work certainly does a great job at highlighting issues and making audiences see reason within them 

We cannot wait to see what else awaits us! The NYFF is a communal experience, sharing the power of cinema with an audience—reminding us why film matters.