Todd Haynes’s ‘May December’ to Open 61st New York Film Festival (NYFF)

Film at Lincoln Center announced today that Todd Haynes’s May December as Opening Night of the 61st New York Film Festival, making its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on September 29 with the director and cast in person. NYFF61 will take place September 29–October 15, 2023. The film is set for release by Netflix in theaters this November and streaming in December.

“We are all so proud and moved to have been invited to open the New York Film Festival with the North American premiere of May December,” said Haynes. “It is a festival that plays a role in my work and life like no other in the world, since it enshrines the cultural life of this city, which is both my creative home as a filmmaker and, as ever, the eternal site of artistic possibility.”

“May December is a tour de force of writing, acting, and directing: a film built on moment-to-moment surprise, as thought-provoking as it is purely pleasurable,” said Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival. “It cements Todd Haynes’s place as one of American cinema’s most brilliant mischief-makers and as an all-time great director of actors. Todd has been a consistent presence at the New York Film Festival for almost his entire career, and we are very excited to open this edition with one of his most dazzling achievements.”

In May December, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a popular television star, has arrived in a tight-knit island community in Savannah. Here, she will be doing intimate research for a new part, ingratiating herself into the lives of Gracie (Julianne Moore), whom she’ll be playing on-screen, and her much younger husband, Joe (Charles Melton), to better understand the psychology and circumstances that more than 20 years ago made them notorious tabloid figures. As Elizabeth attempts to get closer to the family, the uncomfortable facts of their scandal unfurl, causing difficult, long-dormant emotions to resurface.

Although this is Haynes’s first film to open NYFF, the director has been a staple of the fest beginning with Velvet Goldmine (NYFF36), Far from Heaven (2002), I’m Not There (NYFF45), Carol (NYFF53), Wonderstruck (NYFF55 Centerpiece Selection), Dark Waters, and the documentary The Velvet Underground (NYFF59).

The film marks the fourth NYFF opener by Netflix in the last eight years after 13TH (2016), The Irishman (2019) and White Noise (2022). May December will be released domestically, in theaters November 17 and on Netflix December 1.

The NYFF Main Slate selection committee, chaired by Dennis Lim, also includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen.

New York Film Festival Opening Night Films

2022 White Noise (Noah Baumbach, US)

• 2021 The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, US)
• 2020 Lovers Rock (Steve M^cQueen, UK)
• 2019 The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, US)
• 2018 The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/US)
• 2017 Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, US)
• 2016 13TH (Ava DuVernay, US)
• 2015 The Walk (Robert Zemeckis, US)
• 2014 Gone Girl (David Fincher, US)
• 2013 Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, US)
• 2012 Life of Pi (Ang Lee, US)
• 2011 Carnage (Roman Polanski, France/Poland)
• 2010 The Social Network (David Fincher, US)
• 2009 Wild Grass (Alain Resnais, France)
• 2008 The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
• 2007 The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, US)
• 2006 The Queen (Stephen Frears, UK)
• 2005 Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, US)
• 2004 Look at Me (Agnès Jaoui, France)
• 2003 Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, US)
• 2002 About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, US)
• 2001 Va savoir (Jacques Rivette, France)
• 2000   Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, Denmark)
• 1999   All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
• 1998   Celebrity (Woody Allen, US)
• 1997   The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, US)
• 1996    Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, UK)
• 1995    Shanghai Triad (Zhang Yimou, China)
• 1994    Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US)
• 1993    Short Cuts (Robert Altman, US)
• 1992    Olivier Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, France)
• 1991    The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, Poland/France)
• 1990    Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, US)
• 1989    Too Beautiful for You (Bertrand Blier, France)
• 1988    Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
• 1987    Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, Soviet Union)
• 1986    Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, US)
• 1985    Ran (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
• 1984    Country (Richard Pearce, US)
• 1983    The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, US)
• 1982    Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
• 1981    Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, UK)
• 1980    Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, US)
• 1979    Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/US)
• 1978    A Wedding (Robert Altman, US)
• 1977    One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Agnès Varda, France)
• 1976    Small Change (François Truffaut, France)
• 1975    Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
• 1974    Don’t Cry with Your Mouth Full (Pascal Thomas, France)
• 1973    Day for Night (François Truffaut, France)
• 1972    Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, France)
• 1971    The Debut (Gleb Panfilov, Soviet Union)
• 1970    The Wild Child (François Truffaut, France)
• 1969    Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, US)
• 1968    Capricious Summer (Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
• 1967    The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria)
• 1966    Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia)
• 1965    Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
• 1964    Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, Soviet Union)
• 1963    The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)