Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s ‘NYAD’ to Open 31st Hamptons International Film Festival

HamptonsFilm, the home of the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF), announced today that the festival will open on Thursday, October 5, with the East Coast Premiere of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s NYAD, sponsored by AUDI. 

The film, which is set to be released by Netflix later this year, marks the narrative feature directorial debut for the Academy Award, BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning filmmaking duo Vasarhelyi and Chin. The 31st annual edition of HIFF will take place October 5-12, 2023, with in-person screenings and events across the Hamptons with Vasarhelyi scheduled to attend.

NYAD, which stars four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening, two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans, tells the remarkable story of American marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (Bening), and is based on Nyad’s 2015 autobiography Find a Way. Nyad, at the age of 64, became the first person to complete the “Everest of swims,” executing a 53-hour, 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, through dangerous open ocean, without a shark cage. Vasarhelyi is scheduled to attend the festival and will participate in a post-screening conversation on the film.

Vasarhelyi and Chin’s previous works include Wild Life (2023), Return to Space (2022), The Rescue (2021), and Free Solo (2018), the latter of which was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

“After welcoming Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s incredible documentary film The Rescue at the 2021 edition of our festival, it is an honor to celebrate their narrative debut as this year’s Opening Night presentation,” said HamptonsFilm Artistic Director David Nugent. “Vasarhelyi and Chin are two of this generation’s most compelling storytellers, and NYAD is further proof that their creativity and eye for filmmaking knows no bounds. We are thrilled to share their story with our audiences.”

“Following another successful summer of programming, it is with great enthusiasm that we begin to unveil the lineup for this year’s 31st annual festival,“ said HamptonsFilm Executive Director Anne Chaisson. “We are grateful to our audiences out East for their continued support and we look forward to bringing the community another diverse, engaging, and entertaining festival curation.”

HIFF main supporters for this year’s festival include returning Premiere Sponsor Audi; Signature Sponsors Macallan and Variety; Supporting Sponsors Naturopathica, Dragon Hemp, Netflix, Silvercup, and Regal Cinemas; as well as official Media Sponsors WNBC, The East Hampton Star, The Purist, and new Signature Sponsor The Atlantic; and long term support from New York State Council on the Arts, and Suffolk County Film Commission.

Passes and packages for the 31st edition of HIFF will be on sale beginning September 5, 2023, at the HamptonsFilm website. Additional programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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