NYFF Opens Tonight With Paper Tiger in 35mm
Summary
James Gray's crime drama gets four 35mm screenings at Alice Tully Hall and the Walter Reade Theater, while Kleber Mendonca Filho's short about Jafar Panahi premieres as the first film in an annual series shot during the festival itself
The 64th New York Film Festival opens tonight with James Gray's Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson, receiving its North American premiere in a gala at Alice Tully Hall. Neon will present the film in 35mm at all four opening-night screenings, 6pm and 9pm at Alice Tully Hall, 6:30pm and 9:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater, ahead of its theatrical release November 13, IndieWire reported. "There are many ways to watch a film today, and many can be beautiful," Gray said in a statement. "But a 35mm print, projected right, has that thing we call the magic of the silver screen." The same opening slate introduces NYFF Encounters, a new annual commissioning program that invites one filmmaker with a film in the festival lineup to shoot an original short during the festival itself, premiering it the following year. Its inaugural film is Kleber Mendonca Filho's South of Tehran, an eight-minute short built from conversations between Mendonca Filho and Jafar Panahi, both of whom screened films at the 2025 festival that went on to earn Best International Feature Oscar nominations. "We invite each commissioned filmmaker to capture that spirit while leaving the choice of subject and style up to them," said NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim. The program is backed by executive producer Mary Solomon.