The Film Society of Lincoln Center has just announced the entire Main Slate for the 53rd New York Film Festival, which opens on September 25th, 2015 with the world premiere of The Walk, a 3-D film directed by Robert Zemeckis about tightrope-walker Philippe Petit, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. The director was at the Film Festival recently with his very fine Flight, the closing night selection in 2012.

 

The festival runs through October 11th ending with the world premiere of the closing night selection, the actor Don Cheadle's directorial debut, a biopic about legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis titled Miles Ahead.

 

The festival Centerpiece will be Steve Jobs, a biopic of the Apple Computers chairman starring Michael Fassbender and directed by Danny Boyle — whose 28 Days Later was memorable — with a screenplay by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin.

 

The remainder of the Main Slate includes a panoply of many of the finest directors working today the most exciting of which I note below.

 

Portuguese director Miguel Gomes returns to the festival with the U.S. premiere of his well-received Arabian Nights trilogy, which will be released by Kino Lorber.

 

For cinephiles, the most anticipated film will be the U.S. premiere of the martial arts epic, The Assassin, by Hou Hsiao-hsien, possibly the greatest filmmaker working today and a Festival favorite. It will be released by Well Go USA.

 

The world premiere of Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies is also highly anticipated — it features a screenplay co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance, possibly the greatest working actor.

 

Todd Haynes returns to the Festival with an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, Carol, shot by the great Ed Lachman, and features Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It will be released by the Weinstein Company.

 

Another of the best contemporary directors and a Festival favorite, Apichatpong Weerasethakul of Thailand, will be represented by the U.S. premiere of Cemetery of Splendor, which is distributed by Strand Releasing.

 

Michael Almereyda, who has been much featured at the Film Society, returns with Experimenter, a portrait of social scientist Stanley Milgram, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder, released by Magnolia Pictures.

 

Guy Maddin, another Festival veteran brings us The Forbidden Room, co-directed with Evan Johnson and released by Kino Lorber.

 

Philippe Garrel, another supreme artist, also returns to the Festival with the U.S. premiere of In the Shadow of Women.

 

Another excellent director and Festival veteran, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, delivers the U.S. premiere of Journey to the Shore.

 

Yorgos Lanthimos has also been featured at the Film Society and his new film, The Lobster, stars Colin Farrell, Léa Seydoux, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and Ben Whishaw and will be released by Alchemy.

 

Another Film Society veteran, Nanni Moretti, returns with the U.S. premiere of Mia Madre, also released by Alchemy.

 

Michel Gondry, whose work has previously screened at the Film Society, brings the U.S. premiere of Microbe & Gasoline, featuring Audrey Tatou.

 

One of the best contemporary directors, and a Festival favorite, Jia Zhangke returns with the U.S. premiere of Mountains May Depart, a Kino Lorber release.

 

Arnaud Desplechin is another superb filmmaker and a favorite of the Festival; he returns with the North American premiere of My Golden Days, starring the director's alter-ego, the wonderful Mathieu Amalric, and released by Magnolia Pictures.

 

The legendary Chantal Akerman delivers a portrait of her mother in No Home Movie, seen here in its U.S. premiere.

 

Festival favorite Hong Sangsoo's films are consistently enjoyable; his newest is Right Now, Wrong Then, which will be having its U.S. premiere.

 

Corneliu Porumboiu, one of the leading figures of the current new wave in Romanian cinema, is another Film Society favorite; The Treasureis his latest.