Film at Lincoln Center has announced RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys” as the Opening Night of the 62nd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on September 27th. The adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. You can secure tickets with Festival Passes; limited quantities are on sale now. Single tickets for the general public go on sale September 17th at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date.
Rare is the film of a major book that maintains the power and precision of its source material while also generating its own singular aesthetic. Yet RaMell Ross’s extraordinary realization of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel, about two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida, achieves just this. In breakout performances that cut to the bone, Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson play Elwood and Turner, whose close friendship helps sustain their hope even as the horrors mount around them at the Nickel Academy, which becomes a microcosm of American racism in the mid-20th century. Adapted by Joslyn Barnes and Ross, whose unforgettable Oscar-nominated documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (Closing Night of New Directors/New Films, 2018) portrayed an Alabama community in moments of revelatory intimacy, has here fashioned a film of equal daring and intensity, buoyed by expressive, shallow-focus cinematography by Jomo Fray (“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt“), pinpoint-precise editing by Nicholas Monsour (“Nope“), and deeply felt supporting performances from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, and Daveed Diggs. Inspired by actual events, this harrowing tale comes to vivid life via an ingenious visual approach that brilliantly adapts the novel’s exercise in subjectivity. Ross’s Nickel Boys sets the beauty of the natural world against the cruel realities of American racism and confirms its maker’s status as a visionary cinematic artist.
“Nickel Boys” is directed by RaMell Ross, with a screenplay by Ross and Joslyn Barnes, based on the book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, and Barnes. Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios present a Plan B Entertainment / Anonymous Content / Louverture Films production. Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios will release Nickel Boys in theaters on October 25th, expanding through the fall.
“What an absolute honor for Nickel Boys to open the 62nd New York Film Festival… a daydream really, for the crew, the cast, and the team who’ve committed so wholeheartedly to its vision,” said Ross. “It feels almost full circle, given “Hale County This Morning, This Evening’s” selection in 2018’s New Directors/New Films program. The New York Film Festival, in particular, constellates much of what one aspires toward through filmic production. Since just after my undergrad when I was wooed by the still and moving image, it has been an extraordinary compendium for global aesthetics.”
“Nickel Boys signals the emergence of a major filmmaking voice,” said Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival. “RaMell Ross’s fiction debut, like his previous work in photography and documentary, searches for new ways of seeing and, in so doing, expands the possibilities of visual language. It’s the most audacious American movie I have seen in some time, and we are excited and honored to open the New York Film Festival with it.”
RaMell Ross is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and liberated documentarian. He has been awarded an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, a USA Artist Fellowship, and was a 2022 Solomon Fellow at Harvard University. His feature experimental documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and the 2020 Peabody Award. It was nominated for an Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards and an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Film. RaMell holds degrees in Sociology and English from Georgetown University and is an associate professor in Brown University’s Visual Arts Department. His work is in various public and private collections, such as The Museum for Modern Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the High Museum.
The NYFF Main Slate selection committee is chaired by Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director, and includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen.
Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival is an annual showcase of the best in world cinema. Since 1963, NYFF has shaped film culture and continues an enduring tradition of introducing audiences to bold and remarkable works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. We’re pleased to announce that the 62nd edition of the festival has been extended by a day and now takes place September 27th–October 14th, 2024.
Secure your tickets for Opening Night and more with Festival Passes; limited quantities are on sale now. NYFF62 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 17th at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date. Become an FLC Member by August 13th to secure NYFF62 pre-sale access and discounted tickets year-round. NYFF62 Press and Industry accreditation is now open.
New York Film Festival Opening Night Films
2024: Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross, US)
2023: May December (Todd Haynes, US)
2022: White Noise (Noah Baumbach, US)
2021: The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, US)
2020: Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen, UK)
2019: The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, US)
2018: The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/US)
2017: Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, US)
2016: 13th (Ava DuVernay, US)
2015: The Walk (Robert Zemeckis, US)
2014: Gone Girl (David Fincher, US)
2013: Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, US)
2012: Life of Pi (Ang Lee, US)
2011: Carnage (Roman Polanski, France/Poland)
2010: The Social Network (David Fincher, US)
2009: Wild Grass (Alain Resnais, France)
2008: The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
2007: The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, US)
2006: The Queen (Stephen Frears, UK)
2005: Good Night, And Good Luck (George Clooney, US)
2004: Look at Me (Agnès Jaoui, France)
2003: Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, US)
2002: About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, US)
2001: Va savoir (Jacques Rivette, France)
2000:Â Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, Denmark)
1999: All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
1998:Â Celebrity (Woody Allen, US)
1997:Â The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, US)
1996:Â Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, UK)
1995:Â Shanghai Triad (Zhang Yimou, China)
1994:Â Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US)
1993:Â Short Cuts (Robert Altman, US)
1992:Â Olivier Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, France)
1991: The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, Poland/France)
1990: Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, US)
1989:Â Too Beautiful for You (Bertrand Blier, France)
1988: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
1987:Â Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, Soviet Union)
1986:Â Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, US)
1985:Â Ran (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
1984:Â Country (Richard Pearce, US)
1983:Â The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, US)
1982:Â Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
1981:Â Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, UK)
1980:Â Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, US)
1979:Â Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/US)
1978:Â A Wedding (Robert Altman, US)
1977: One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Agnès Varda, France)
1976: Small Change (François Truffaut, France)
1975:Â Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
1974: Don’t Cry with Your Mouth Full (Pascal Thomas, France)
1973: Day for Night (François Truffaut, France)
1972:Â Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, France)
1971:Â The Debut (Gleb Panfilov, Soviet Union)
1970: The Wild Child (François Truffaut, France)
1969:Â Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, US)
1968:Â Capricious Summer (Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
1967:Â The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria)
1966:Â Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia)
1965:Â Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
1964:Â Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, Soviet Union)
1963: The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)
What do you think of this news? Are you excited to see “Nickel Boys?” Given that there is no mention of this being a world premiere, a Telluride or TIFF world premiere feels likely for “Nickel Boys.” What do you think? What else do you think will be announced for NYFF62? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our X account.
