New York Film Festival 2024

[Chris Knipp]

FESTIVAL REVIEW THREAD

RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys Set as New York Film Festival Opening Night Film

The New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center (Sept. 27-Oct. 14, 2024) has announced the adaptation of Colson Whitehead's NICKEL BOYS, directed by RaMell Ross, will be the opening night film. The new film, from Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures, will open the festival on Sept. 27 before hitting theaters on Oct. 25.

The story follows two Black teenagers held at a cruel juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson play Elwood and Turner, two boys whose close friendship helps sustain their hope even as the horrors mount around them at the Nickel Academy, which becomes a microcosm of American racism in the mid-20th century.

“’Nickel Boys’ signals the emergence of a major filmmaking voice,” said Dennis Lim, the festival’s artistic director, in a statement. “RaMell Ross’ fiction debut, like his previous work in photography and documentary, searches for new ways of seeing and, in so doing, expands the possibilities of visual language. It’s the most audacious American movie I have seen in some time.”

The screening will be Sept. 27 at Alice Tully Hall. The adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel in addition to Herisse and Wilson features Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Director RaMell Ross is known for the Oscar-nominated HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING (ND/NF 2028), and EASTER SNAP (2019). Both are shorts.