‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere’ to Headline NYFF63 Spotlight Gala

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Aug 11

Written By Jonathan P. Moustakas

*Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere*. Photo by Macall Polay, © 2025 20th Century Studios.

Jeremy Allen White stars in Scott Cooper’s intimate biopic exploring Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ era.

The 63rd New York Film Festival has added another prestige premiere to its 2025 lineup: Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere will serve as this year’s Spotlight Gala selection. The high-profile screening takes place Sunday, September 28, at Lincoln Center, with Cooper joined by stars Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Odessa Young, and—fittingly—Bruce Springsteen himself.

Presented by Film at Lincoln Center in partnership with Rolex, NYFF63 runs from September 26 through October 13, cementing its reputation as one of cinema’s most influential showcases.

A Portrait of an Artist at a Crossroads

Adapted from Warren Zanes’s 2023 best-selling chronicle, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere zeroes in on a pivotal moment in the rock icon’s life. In the early 1980s, Springsteen balanced the introspective, acoustic writing that became his mythic album Nebraska with the bombastic sessions that would yield Born in the U.S.A.—an album that would propel him to global superstardom.

Cooper’s film, anchored by Jeremy Allen White’s transformative performance, is as much a character study as it is a music biography. The narrative digs into the songwriter’s process, his personal battles with depression, and the lingering shadows of familial trauma.

The supporting cast includes Jeremy Strong as longtime manager and producer Jon Landau, Stephen Graham and Gaby Hoffmann as Springsteen’s parents, Paul Walter Hauser, David Krumholtz, and Odessa Young. Produced by Cooper, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, and Scott Stuber, the film promises both an intimate human portrait and a celebration of an enduring cultural legacy.

Director and Festival Praise

“The New York Film Festival has always felt like a spiritual home for the kind of cinema I believe in,” Cooper said in a statement. “To arrive with a film about Bruce Springsteen—an artist whose music shaped my own sense of storytelling—is something I could never have imagined. Getting to know Bruce, to explore his world and his spirit, has been one of the most profound creative experiences of my life.”

POPULAR ON THE CINEMA GROUP

NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim called the biopic “a fitting tribute to a living legend,” praising its “intimacy and immediacy” and singling out White’s “revelatory performance” for grounding the film’s emotional core.

A Festival Fixture of Prestige Cinema

*Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere*. Photo by Macall Polay, © 2025 20th Century Studios. Courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center NYFF63

Since its founding in 1963, the New York Film Festival has introduced audiences to groundbreaking works from master filmmakers and emerging voices. The Spotlight Gala is one of the festival’s marquee events, often positioned as a bellwether for awards season.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere joins an already stacked NYFF63 lineup, which includes Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt (Opening Night), Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother (Centerpiece), and Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? (Closing Night).