MAY DECEMBER (2023): Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore’s New Film Will Open the 61st New York Film Festival

May December To Open New York Film Festival

Todd Haynes‘s critically acclaimed film, May December, will open the New York Film Festival and the film’s stars and director will be in attendance.

For a second year in a row, a Netflix release will be opening the New York Film Festival. Last year, it was the Adam Driver starrer, White Noise, which had the best closing credits scene in quite some time (it was set in an A&P supermarket). This year a $20 million Netflix acquisition called May December will be kick-starting the 61st New York Film Festival. This isn’t the first festival which has shown the movie, May December. The picture was previously on the schedule at Cannes and earned some nice reviews which highlighted the performances by the movie’s primary stars, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.

The New York Film Festival typically shows the best of independent and mainstream cinema and another Netflix picture, The Irishman opened there in 2019. Last year, the A24 movie Aftersun played at the festival and has since become one of the most talked about movies of 2022 even though it only nabbed an Oscar nomination for its star Paul Mescal and was snubbed in all the other categories across the board. The New York Film Festival tends to recognize creativity and true artistry more than overall perfection in terms of the films it shows.

May December is the story of a couple who cause controversy for their significant age gap. This pair is played by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton. Natalie Portman will play the television actress who is cast to play Moore’s character in a movie that is being made within Haynes’s movie. The unusual connection formed between Moore and Portman’s characters will be explored in Haynes’s film which is said to be a pretty heavy drama. This movie will show at Alice Tully Hall during the evening of September 29th and will kick off what is hoping to be another great festival.

Haynes’s film will release on November 17th theatrically and will compete for Oscar nominations all around in the most competitive time of the year which is the heart of the awards season. This movie will proceed to go to Netflix on December 1st. Julianne Moore has been working steadily these days and it’s no surprise her Sundance movie from last year, When You Finish Saving the World, was lost in the shuffle considering Moore has other bigger prestige projects like May December on the horizon. These films could help land her another Oscar nomination which, for the record, she did deserve for When You Finish Saving the World. Portman is also due for another Academy Award nomination and May December could be just the type of movie to sneak her into the Oscar race.

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