NYFF63 Week One: Clooney, Roberts, Springsteen & Global Auteurs Illuminate Lincoln Center
L-R: Zoey Deutch, Jeremy Allen White, Rebecca Ferguson at NYFF 63.
A star-studded opening week at the 63rd New York Film Festival brought red carpets, world premieres, and some of the fall’s most anticipated films.
The 63rd New York Film Festival opened its doors to a dazzling first week of premieres, where red carpets at Lincoln Center pulsed with energy, global stars, and films destined to dominate the fall conversation. The tone was set on opening night with Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, as Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri joined the director for a glamorous kickoff that blended classic Hollywood presence with the electric anticipation of a festival premiere.
From there, the week belonged to an eclectic mix of world premieres, major U.S. debuts, and global auteurs returning to New York with their latest visions. Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly brought George Clooney and Adam Sandler to Alice Tully Hall, joined by Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards, Greta Gerwig, and co-writer Emily Mortimer. The film, fresh from Venice, was instantly one of the festival’s hottest tickets, with Clooney’s megawatt charisma matched by Sandler’s grounded, everyman charm on a red carpet that blended glamour with genuine warmth.
Richard Linklater pulled double duty this year, premiering both Blue Moon — with Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley earning early raves for their intimate, dialogue-driven performances — and Nouvelle Vague, a cinephile’s dream presented as part of the Spotlight slate. That red carpet brought a distinctly European elegance to Alice Tully Hall, with Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, Michèle Pétin, Aubry Dullin, and Florence Almozin joining Linklater on stage for a lively Q&A that celebrated the film’s playful homage to Godard and French cinema.
One of the week’s most electric nights arrived with the NYFF Main Slate premiere of Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite. The ensemble was nothing short of formidable: Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Jason Clarke, Greta Lee, Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts, Noah Oppenheim, and producer Greg Shapiro filled the stage, underscoring the film’s political heft and awards potential. The photo line crackled with energy, the rare moment when a red carpet truly reflected the scale of the ensemble thriller about to unspool inside.
Equally commanding was Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, which continued its buzzy festival run with the director joined by Wagner Moura and Emilie Lesclaux. The trio arrived together, celebrating a film already being hailed as one of the year’s most daring international entries. The screening drew a passionate crowd, with Mendonça Filho’s singular visual style and Moura’s commanding performance setting the tone for spirited discussions long after the credits rolled.
Elsewhere, Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere spotlighted Jeremy Allen White in his transformative turn as The Boss, alongside Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser, and Cooper himself. The red carpet carried both rock-and-roll energy and reflective gravitas, with audiences buzzing about the film’s raw portrayal of Springsteen during the making of Nebraska.
Additional highlights included If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, a breakout premiere that brought its rising young ensemble to Lincoln Center, and Late Fame, which arrived with a cast of international veterans in one of the week’s quieter but no less impactful entries. Together, these films reflected the breadth of the festival: from starry Hollywood showcases to daring global visions, from historical legends to intimate portraits.
Week one of NYFF 63 confirmed why New York remains one of the world’s great cinematic stages. Between the glamour of Clooney and Roberts, the auteurist fireworks of Linklater and Mendonça Filho, and the raw vulnerability of Jeremy Allen White, the festival’s first act was defined by its range, ambition, and ability to make the city itself feel like part of the story.
Below, explore highlights from week one of NYFF 63 in photos.
After the Hunt – Opening Night Red Carpet
The 63rd New York Film Festival launched in grand fashion with Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, a razor-sharp psychological drama that gave Julia Roberts one of the most complex roles of her career. Roberts led the glamorous red carpet, joined by co-stars Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield, director Guadagnino, and screenwriter Nora Garrett. Emma Roberts also turned out in support, as did Michael Stuhlbarg, who plays Roberts’s mercurial husband in the film. The evening carried the rare mix of glitz and gravity that only Guadagnino can conjure, signaling NYFF’s strongest opening night in years.
On screen, After the Hunt plunges into murky questions of morality and power on an elite campus, with Roberts as Yale professor Alma Olsson, whose life spirals after her protégé Maggie (Edebiri) accuses Alma’s close friend and colleague Hank (Garfield) of sexual assault. With a trenchant script by Garrett and an ensemble that also includes Chloë Sevigny, Guadagnino crafts a tense, provocative drama that offers no easy answers, confronting gender, race, and institutional complicity head-on. The festival premiere confirmed the film as both an awards contender and one of the most talked-about works of the fall season.
In attendance: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Luca Guadagnino, Nora Garrett, Emma Roberts, Michael Stuhlbarg.
Anemone — World Premiere
One of the festival’s most talked-about events came with the world premiere of Anemone, marking Daniel Day-Lewis’s first screen role in eight years. Directed by Ronan Day-Lewis and co-written by father and son, the emotionally charged family drama explores lives undone by political and personal violence on a path toward fragile redemption. The anticipation surrounding Day-Lewis’s return was palpable inside Alice Tully Hall, where the actor was joined by Ronan Day-Lewis, Rosanna Arquette, and Sean Bean. The premiere proved both a family affair and a historic moment for NYFF, with audiences buzzing about the intensity of the performances and the film’s haunting themes.
In attendance: Daniel Day-Lewis, Ronan Day-Lewis, Rosanna Arquette, Sean Bean.
Late Fame – NYFF 63 Premiere
Late Fame premiere at NYFF63. Photo by Getty.
Kent Jones’s marvelously witty second feature closed out the week’s highlights with a sharp, literary red carpet. Late Fame follows a once-upon-a-time New York poet, played with sly charm by Willem Dafoe, who gets an ego boost when he’s welcomed into the orbit of a twentysomething literary salon — only to confront the authenticity of his new admirers. On the carpet, Dafoe was joined by co-stars Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan, alongside Jones himself. Their presence drew cinephiles eager to celebrate a film that blends satire with poignancy, and the post-screening conversations confirmed it as one of NYFF’s sleeper favorites.
In attendance: Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Kent Jones, Edmund Donovan.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere – NYFF 63 Premiere
Jeremy Allen White inhabits a legend and lays bare his beating heart in Scott Cooper’s exceptionally moving biographical drama, chronicling the early-’80s crossroads in Bruce Springsteen’s career when he crafted the intensely personal acoustic songs that would become his mythic album Nebraska. Adapted from Warren Zanes’s bestselling chronicle, the film captures Springsteen at a moment of transition—still grappling with the weight of his rising fame while writing stripped-down, lo-fi ballads in Colts Neck, New Jersey, even as the demos for Born in the U.S.A. promised to catapult him to global superstardom. Cooper’s film is as much about familial trauma and depression as it is about songwriting, a portrait of an artist at once fragile and uncompromising.
The supporting cast adds power at every turn: Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s loyal manager Jon Landau, Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffmann as his complicated parents, Odessa Young as a tentative love interest, plus Paul Walter Hauser and David Krumholtz in key roles. But the night belonged to White, whose uncanny performance brought the Boss’s voice, mannerisms, and vulnerabilities to life in a way that felt both studied and lived-in.
The NYFF red carpet carried both rock-and-roll electricity and solemn reverence, with Bruce Springsteen himself making a surprise appearance alongside Steven Van Zandt, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, and director Scott Cooper. It was one of the festival’s most unforgettable nights, a celebration of music, cinema, and the human core of an icon.
In attendance: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Scott Cooper, Stephen Graham, Odessa Young, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt.
A House of Dynamite – NYFF 63 Premiere
Kathryn Bigelow’s return to the big screen lived up to its explosive title with one of the week’s most electrifying red carpets at Lincoln Center. The ensemble turnout was formidable: Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Jason Clarke, Greta Lee, Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts, Noah Oppenheim, and producer Greg Shapiro all walked the carpet, underscoring the scale and stakes of Bigelow’s newest work. The buzz in the room was palpable, with the cast’s collective star power signaling that this Netflix release is poised to ignite awards-season conversations.
Inside the theater, Bigelow delivered her trademark kineticism with a taut, politically charged thriller that begins at a remote military outpost, where an unidentified incoming missile is detected, triggering an escalating series of actions and reactions across every level of the United States government. Working with screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, Bigelow constructs a frighteningly plausible crisis where bureaucracy, personal stakes, and existential dread overlap in real time. The film’s prismatic structure allows for multiple vantage points—military, political, and intimate—each given emotional resonance by its muscular cast. Elba and Ferguson anchor the ensemble with commanding intensity, while Harris and Letts provide gravitas, and rising star Anthony Ramos adds urgency to the unfolding nightmare. By the time the cast reunited on stage after the screening, the night had already cemented itself as one of NYFF’s most unforgettable premieres.
In attendance: Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Jason Clarke, Greta Lee, Rebecca Ferguson, Tracy Letts, Noah Oppenheim, Greg Shapiro.
The Secret Agent – NYFF 63 Red Carpet
Photos by Julie Cunnah
Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, NYFF57) returned to New York with The Secret Agent, a thrillingly unpredictable, shape-shifting epic set in his hometown of Recife during the late 1970s. The film, which earned Filho Best Director and Wagner Moura Best Actor at Cannes, follows a man on the run from his past against the backdrop of Brazil’s political upheaval. At NYFF63, Filho was joined by Moura and producer Emilie Lesclaux, greeting a sold-out Alice Tully Hall crowd eager to experience what many critics have already called one of the year’s boldest and most daring works. Moura’s magnetic performance and Filho’s razor-sharp political vision defined the night, cementing The Secret Agent as a festival standout.
In attendance: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Wagner Moura, Emilie Lesclaux.
Jay Kelly — Premiere
Photos by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Netflix
Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly brought one of the festival’s most star-studded nights to Alice Tully Hall, with George Clooney and Adam Sandler leading the ensemble alongside Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Grace Edwards, Greta Gerwig, and co-writer Emily Mortimer. The red carpet buzz matched the film’s mix of introspection and spectacle, as Clooney returned to the kind of commanding role that plays directly into his Hollywood persona—while also slyly dismantling it.
On screen, Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a fading movie star at a personal and professional crossroads. Reeling from the death of his mentor and haunted by old regrets, Jay abandons a major project at the last minute to chase down his daughter in France before accepting a career tribute in Italy. Trailed by his entourage, including his long-suffering manager Ron (Adam Sandler, in one of his most vulnerable turns), Jay drifts between memory and fantasy, confronting the cost of a life built on performance. Baumbach and Mortimer’s script balances parody with pathos, probing the industry’s absurdities while offering a bittersweet meditation on family, fame, and the impossibility of simply being oneself. With Clooney leaning into his own mythology and Sandler providing the film’s emotional anchor, Jay Kelly emerges as one of Baumbach’s most poignant and self-aware works.
In attendance: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer.
Blue Moon — Premiere
Richard Linklater returned to NYFF with one of the festival’s most luminous premieres, Blue Moon, a portrait of one crucial night in the life of legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart. Played with staggering brilliance by Ethan Hawke, Hart emerges not just as a figure of Broadway lore but as a man reckoning with the collapse of his partnership with Richard Rodgers and the dawn of a new theatrical age. Linklater’s erudite drama unfolds on the night of the Oklahoma! premiere in 1943, with Hart holed up at Sardi’s, his wit and melancholy spilling across conversations that capture the sting of being left behind by history.
The world premiere brought a packed house to Alice Tully Hall, with Hawke joined by co-stars Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, and Bobby Cannavale. Scott, fresh off his Silver Bear win in Berlin for the role, dazzled once again on screen, providing a poignant counterpoint to Hawke’s loquacious, self-destructive Hart. Qualley and Cannavale added warmth and fire, rounding out an ensemble that perfectly balanced theatricality with lived-in humanity. Linklater’s presence on the carpet underscored the occasion: a filmmaker returning to New York with a work that felt both daringly intimate and thematically grand. For many, Blue Moon became one of the week’s defining premieres, a reminder of Linklater’s unparalleled ability to find universes in a single night of conversation.
In attendance: Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale, Richard Linklater.
POPULAR ON THE CINEMA GROUP
If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You — New York Premiere
Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You arrived at NYFF as one of the festival’s most bracing and claustrophobic showcases, a pressure-cooker dark comedy that turns the everyday chaos of motherhood and professional life into something operatic. Rose Byrne, fresh off her Berlinale Silver Bear win, anchors the film with a fearless performance as Linda, a therapist barely holding it together while caring for a young daughter who requires a feeding tube, juggling an increasingly unhinged caseload of patients, and contending with the collapse of her own home. Byrne’s total commitment—alternately funny, raw, and terrifying—drew instant acclaim from festival audiences who hailed it as one of her finest roles to date.
The premiere brought Byrne to Lincoln Center alongside co-stars Danielle Macdonald, Conan O’Brien, and Christian Slater, each of whom drew praise for playing sharply against type. Macdonald’s needily intrusive patient adds pathos and tension, while O’Brien—cast strikingly against his late-night persona—embodied Linda’s equally unraveling therapist-colleague to both comic and tragic effect. Slater, meanwhile, turns in a delightfully caustic performance as Linda’s absent, business-obsessed husband, a perfect foil to Byrne’s unraveling world. Bronstein herself joined the cast on stage, receiving a standing ovation for her daring vision: a film that transforms the suffocating realities of everyday crises into a surrealist spiral of absurdity and dread.
In attendance: Rose Byrne, Danielle Macdonald, Conan O’Brien, Christian Slater, Mary Bronstein, josh Safdie.
Nouvelle Vague — Premiere
Linklater doubled up at NYFF with Nouvelle Vague, his playful homage to Godard and French cinema. Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, Michèle Pétin, Aubry Dullin, and Florence Almozin joined Linklater on stage at Alice Tully Hall for a spirited Q&A following the Spotlight premiere. The red carpet radiated European elegance, with Linklater’s cinephile love letter perfectly matched by its glamorous cast.
In attendance: Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, Michèle Pétin, Aubry Dullin, Florence Almozin, Richard Linklater.
Week one of the 63rd New York Film Festival proved why New York continues to be one of cinema’s most vital stages. From the glamour of Julia Roberts opening the festival in After the Hunt to George Clooney and Adam Sandler sharing the spotlight in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, the first days of NYFF63 delivered both Hollywood spectacle and deeply personal storytelling. International auteurs like Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent) and Richard Linklater (Blue Moon, Nouvelle Vague) gave the festival its global scope, while breakout premieres like Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You showed NYFF remains a launchpad for bold, risk-taking cinema. Each night brought its own energy—sometimes electric, sometimes intimate—but always unmistakably tied to the spirit of discovery that defines Lincoln Center each fall.
These premieres set the tone for a festival that feels larger than any one film or celebrity moment. Together, they painted a portrait of a cinematic year in flux: torn between tradition and reinvention, stardom and authenticity, politics and personal history. The carpets shimmered with major stars, the theaters buzzed with world-class filmmaking, and the conversations spilled into the New York night. If week one is any indication, NYFF63 is more than just a showcase of films—it’s a reminder of cinema’s enduring power to spark dialogue, capture memory, and unite audiences under the glow of the big screen.
![ANEMONE - Official Trailer 2 [HD] - Only in Theaters October 3](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uS7DHGFXkNY/hqdefault.jpg)
![Frankenstein (2025) | New Official Trailer [1080p] | From The Venice Film Festival 2025](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t1584UwYBeU/hqdefault.jpg)
