Patty Jenkins’ limited series “I Am the Night” is among the latest additions to AFI Fest 2018’s lineup, as the American Film Institute unveiled the program for its special screenings, Cinema’s Legacy, and Midnight sections on Thursday.
Jenkins, an AFI Conservatory alumnus, co-directed the six-episode series that will air on TNT in January, and which will have its first episode screened at the festival in November. The series stars India Eisley as a woman whose mother left her with a restroom attendant in a Nevada casino at birth. As an adult, she tries to unravel the secrets of her past, discovering that her mother was connected to a Hollywood gynecologist who played a role in one of the most infamous murders in history. Chris Pine also stars.
Other major films being featured in the special screenings include Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux” and the North American premiere of Jon S. Baird’s “Stan & Ollie.”
The Cinema’s Legacy program will feature a lineup consisting entirely of films directed by women, following AFI Fest’s theme this year of honoring female filmmakers. Among the selections are restorations of “The Juniper Tree,” Nietzchka Keene’s feminist spin on the Brothers Grimm fairytales, and “Queen of Diamonds,” Nina Menkes film starring her sister Tinka as a struggling blackjack dealer at a desert casino.
AFI Fest will begin on Nov. 8 with the world premiere of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic “On the Basis of Sex,” and close with the world premiere of “Mary Queen of Scots,” starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. More information on the festival can be found here.