Luca Guadagnino’s latest drama, “After the Hunt,” will open the 63rd New York Film Festival with its North American premiere, Film at Lincoln Center announced Wednesday.
The film stars Julia Roberts as a Yale philosophy professor whose comfortable life is upended when her star graduate student, played by “The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri, accuses another professor (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. Written by first-time screenwriter Nora Garrett, “After the Hunt” tackles gender, sexuality, race and power as they play out in the privileged world of academia.
Guadagnino will attend the Sept. 26 screening with members of the cast (names have not yet been announced). The acclaimed director came to last year’s New York Film Festival with “Queer” and brought “Bones and All” in 2022 and “Call Me by Your Name” in 2017. “After the Hunt” reunites the filmmaker with Michael Stuhlbarg (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Bones and All”) and Chloë Sevigny (“We Are Who We Are,” “Bones and All”), who appear as Roberts’ character’s husband and another one of her colleagues. The film is an Amazon MGM Studios release.
“I have always found the New York Film Festival to be an arbiter of global cinema,” Guadagnino said in a statement. “For over 60 years it has been a festival that makes audiences open their minds and hearts to the most daring and compelling global cinema from both established and emerging filmmakers. To be invited to open the 63rd edition is a tremendous responsibility and honor. I, alongside the incredible cast and crew and our companions at Amazon MGM Studios who made ‘After the Hunt’ possible, am elated and thrilled to bring to New York our tale of morality and power. My most heartfelt thanks to [the festival’s artistic director] Dennis Lim and the singular NYFF team.”
Also via statement, Lim said, “We are excited to open this year’s festival with Luca Guadagnino’s latest, which confirms his status as one of the most versatile risk-takers working today. Brilliantly acted and crafted, ‘After the Hunt’ is something rare in contemporary cinema: a complex, grown-up movie with a lot on its mind that also happens to be a deeply satisfying piece of entertainment.”
RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” opened last year’s festival. Todd Haynes’ “May December” kicked off the 2023 fest.
