Irish Abroad: The Lobster and Brooklyn head to the New York Film Festival

The 53rd New York Film Festival has announced its main slate of feature films. Amidst the star-studded line-up are two Irish co-productions, John Crowley’s Brooklyn and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster.

The line-up features a number of films that will also play at Toronto, Venice, and Telluride before making their way to New York, including the two Irish films. One film that will have its world premiere at the festival will be Steven Spielberg’s new Cold-War spy thriller Bridge of Spies, atrring Tom Hanks.

John Crowley’s Brooklyn is set in the 1950s, and sees a young woman move from a small town in Ireland to Brooklyn, where she has the opportunity for work, for a future and for love.

The film is an adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel by the equally best-selling British author Nick Hornby. Intermission director John Crowley has gathered an all-star Irish and British cast for the film, that features Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters.

Brooklyn is an Irish/British co-production from Wildgaze Films, Finola Dwyer Productions, Parallel Films and Item 7. Brooklyn was co-financed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.

Yorgos Lanthimos’s critically acclaimed Irish co-production The Lobster is a love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel.  There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days.  If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods.  A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

The film is the English language debut of Greek director Lanthimos, and stars Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz with a supporting cast including Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, John C.Reilly, Olivia Colman and Ashley Jensen.

The Lobster is written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou and produced by Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Ceci Dempsey and Yorgos Lanthimos. Executive Producers are Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross and Sam Lavender with Isabel Davis as the lead executive for the BFI Film Fund. The film was developed by Element and Irish finance for the film came from the Irish Film Board with Rory Gilmartin as the lead executive for the IFB.

The 53rd New York Film Festival will run from September 25th to October 11th.

Opening Night

The Walk – Robert Zemeckis

Centerpiece

Steve Jobs – Danny Boyle

Closing Night

Miles Ahead – Don Cheadle

Main Slate

Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One – Miguel Gomes
Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One – Miguel Gomes
Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One – Miguel Gomes

The Assassin – Hou Hsiao-hsien

Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg

Brooklyn – John Crowley

Carol – Todd Haynes

Cemetery of Splendour – Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Les Cowboys – Thomas Bidegain

Don’t Blink: Robert Frank – Laura Israel

Experimenter – Michael Almereyda

The Forbidden Room, Directors: Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson

In the Shadow of Women / L’Ombre des femmes – Philippe Garrel

Journey to the Shore / Kishibe no tabi – Kiyoshi Kurosawa

The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos

Maggie’s Plan – Rebecca Miller

The Measure of a Man / La Loi du marché – Stéphane Brizé

Mia Madre – Nanni Moretti

Microbe & Gasoline / Microbe et Gasoil – Michel Gondry

Mountains May Depart – Jia Zhangke

My Golden Days / Trois Souvenirs de ma jeunesse – Arnaud Desplechin

No Home Movie – Chantal Akerman

Right Now, Wrong Then – Hong Sangsoo

The Treasure / Comoara – Corneliu Porumboiu

Where To Invade Next – Michael Moore