This fall film festival season has plenty of world premieres in store. It’s also an opportunity for titles that debuted earlier in 2024 at the likes of Cannes to reclaim the spotlight as this year’s highly competitive awards season kicks off. From among the vast list of new features by both fresh-faced and established artists, we’ve picked five that have the potential to become some of the most talked-about releases of the year.
“The Brutalist”
(Venice, TIFF, NYFF)
Actor-turned-director Brady Corbet has already proven himself to be an ambitious, provocative artist with his previous two features: “The Childhood of a Leader” (2015), about a future dictator’s early years, and “Vox Lux” (2018), starring Natalie Portman as a problematic pop star. Corbet’s latest project, “The Brutalist,” which he co-wrote with Mona Fastvold, clocks in at over three and a half hours. The period piece stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States with his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), in pursuit of a new life. After struggling for a while, László meets the enigmatic Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a man who will change his fate forever.
“I’m Still Here”
(Venice, TIFF, NYFF)
Brazilian director Walter Salles and Oscar-nominated actor Fernanda Montenegro first collaborated on 1998’s “Central Station,” an endearing tale of a former teacher who comes to the aid of a child in need. Twenty-six years later, the two have reunited for this drama based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir. The film tells the story of the author’s mother, Eunice, whose husband disappeared under the military dictatorship of 1970s Brazil when Marcelo was 11 years old. Eunice is alternately portrayed by Montenegro and her daughter, Fernanda Torres. The pair have shared the screen on a few occasions, most notably in Andrucha Waddington’s acclaimed period piece “The House of Sand” (2005).
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”
(TIFF, NYFF)
While driving down an empty road at night—decked out in an outfit that mimics the iconic getup Missy Elliott wore in the 1997 music video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”—Shula (Susan Chardy), a young Zambian woman, discovers the body of her uncle. His death will unearth a painful truth that the women in her family have long kept secret in order to uphold the traditional patriarchal values of their culture. The second feature from Zambian Welsh filmmaker Rungano Nyoni—following her searing “I Am Not a Witch” (2017)—premiered at Cannes earlier this year. With it, she continues to explore the complex societal roles Zambian women play through pointed magical realism.
“Pedro Páramo”
(TIFF)
Four-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of Mexican author Juan Rulfo’s seminal 1955 novel. Fulfilling a promise he made to his late mother, Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) sets off to find his estranged father, the titular Pedro (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), in the rural town where he was once a feared, ruthless figure. Throughout his eerie, dreamlike journey, Juan is confronted with memories of a man he never knew whose transgressions reverberate across time. Last year, Prieto earned praise for his DP work on two distinct, celebrated projects: Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.”
“The Room Next Door”
(Venice, TIFF, NYFF)
After testing the waters with two short films, Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar is finally unveiling his first English-language feature, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel “What Are You Going Through.” The film stars a pair of Oscar winners: Julianne Moore as Ingrid, a successful author, and Tilda Swinton as Martha, a journalist who covers armed conflicts. The two old friends reconnect after many years of absence from each other’s lives; but as effortless as their newly revitalized relationship seems, can it survive an unexpected curveball? Swinton first entered Almodóvar’s universe in 2020 with his 30-minute character study “The Human Voice.”
This story originally appeared in the Sept. 5 issue of Backstage Magazine.