Steve McQueen’s ‘Blitz’ will close 2024 New York Film Festival
Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen is headed back to the New York Film Festival.
On Thursday, Film at Lincoln Center revealed that McQueen’s “Blitz” starring Saoirse Ronan and newcomer Elliott Heffernan will close the 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival. The event is being billed as the Apple Original Film’s North American premiere, following the “Blitz” world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in early October. (The NYFF premiere designation all but officially rules out a potential screening at the Telluride Film Festival.)
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“Blitz” is the eighth McQueen film to screen at the New York Film Festival in its history, following “Hunger,” “Shame,” Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave,” the Amazon title “Lovers Rock” (part of McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology), and last year’s documentary “Occupied City.” “Blitz” will land in New York on October 10.
“It is with immense pride, gratitude, and fondness that I’m able to return to the New York Film Festival with ‘Blitz,’” said McQueen in a statement. “I’ve been lucky enough to have enjoyed a number of memorable experiences at the festival and with New York audiences, and I’m enormously grateful to have been invited back for Closing Night.”
“‘Blitz’ is a vivid and visceral depiction of life during wartime, a meticulous historical account that resonates unmistakably with our current age of endless war,” said Dennis Lim, the artistic director at the New York Film Festival. “We are thrilled to welcome back to the festival Steve McQueen, one of the most daring artists at work today, with one of the greatest achievements of his career.”
According to the press release provided by Film at Lincoln Center, “Blitz” is “an authentic and astonishing recreation of London during its blitzkrieg by the Germans during World War II” and the film apparently “pushes the artistry of Steve McQueen (‘12 Years a Slave,’ NYFF51) to ever more impressive levels.”
Continues the unattributed statement, “Working on a vast scale, McQueen sets things at human eye level, telling his original tale from the parallel perspectives of working-class single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and her 9-year-old son, George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan), as they become separated within the labyrinth of a city under siege. Alternately overwhelming and tender, McQueen’s dazzling film offers a multicultural portrait of 1940s London too infrequently seen on screens. While Ronan and Heffernan emotionally match one another beat for beat, the supporting cast, including Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, Hayley Squires, and Paul Weller, is uniformly superb, fleshing out a film that feels positively Dickensian in its scope and storytelling.”
“Blitz” is among the top contenders in these early days of the Oscars conversation, with many predicting nominations for Best Picture, McQueen for Best Director, and Ronan for Best Actress.
Previously, the New York Film Festival announced “Nickel Boys” as the festival’s opening night feature.
“Blitz” will premiere in theaters on November 1 in limited release before it drops on Apple TV+ starting on November 22.
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