The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Ang Lee\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Pi\u201d will open the 50th New York Film Festival, where it will also make its world premiere. \u201cThe Life Of Pi\u201d is the first 3D film to be presented as the opening night gala selection of the New York Film Festival, which runs September 28 through Oct. 14.<\/p>\n
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\nThis marks the Academy Award-winning director\u2019s return to the New York Film Festival, 12 years after \u201cCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,\u201d which was the Closing Night Gala presentation in 2000 (the film was also nominated for an Oscar for best film and director in 2001).<\/p>\n
The selection of \u201cLife of Pi\u201d puts Ang Lee in good company, with other directors Robert Altman, Pedro Almod\u00f3var and Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut as the only directors to have had more than one film chosen to open NYFF. Ang Lee\u2019s film \u201cThe Ice Storm\u201d was the opening night gala selection in 1997.<\/p>\n
The esteemed director won a best directing Oscar for \u201cBrokeback Mountain\u201d in 2005.<\/p>\n
In 2009 the Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrated Ang Lee\u2019s career with a retrospective of the director\u2019s work at the Walter Reade Theater.<\/p>\n
Ang Lee\u2019s \u201cThe Life of Pi\u201d joins other prestigious Opening Night Gala slots over the course of NYFF\u2019s 50-year history, including Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s \u201cThe Exterminating Angel\u201d (1963), Gillo Pontecorvo\u2019s \u201cThe Battle of Algiers\u201d (1967), Akira Kurosawa\u2019s \u201cRan\u201d (1985), Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s \u201cWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown\u201d (1988), Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d (1994), Mike Leigh\u2019s \u201cSecrets & Lies\u201d (1996), Stephen Frears\u2019s \u201cThe Queen\u201d (2006) and David Fincher\u2019s \u201cThe Social Network\u201d (2010) (complete list below).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Life of Pi,\u201d is based on the book that has sold more than seven million copies and spent years on the bestseller list. \u201cIt takes place over three continents, two oceans, many years, and a wide world of imagination,\u201d according to the Festival release, which adds that the director\u2019s vision, \u201ccoupled with game-changing technological breakthroughs, has turned a story long thought un-filmable into a totally original cinematic event and the first truly international all-audience motion picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film follows the story of a young man named Pi, a zookeeper\u2019s son, who survives a disaster at sea which sets into motion his adventurous journey in the Pacific Ocean. While shipwrecked on a lifeboat, he forms an unexpected connection with a Bengal tiger. The Twentieth Century Fox release is due in theaters on Nov. 21, 2012.<\/p>\n
Richard Pe\u00f1a, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, wrote, \u201cIt is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision. Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them. We’re enormously proud to have this film for our Opening Night for the 50th NYFF.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding his return to NYFF, Ang Lee said, “I am both delighted and honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with \u2018Life of Pi.\u2019 I have the deepest respect for Richard Pe\u00f1a and his team and to be selected by them as the Opening Night Film for the 50th Anniversary is extremely gratifying. I am also excited because this is my hometown, and to be unveiling this film that I am so proud of here is a real pleasure.”<\/p>\n
General Public tickets will be available September 9th. For more information visit www.Filmlinc.com\/NYFF or call 212 875 5601.<\/p>\n
New York Film Festival Opening Night Films<\/p>\n
1963 The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bu\u00f1uel, Mexico)
\n1964 Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, USSR)
\n1965 Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
\n1966 Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman, Czechoslovakia)
\n1967 The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy\/Algeria)
\n1968 Capricious Summer (Jiri Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
\n1969 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, US)
\n1970 The Wild Child (Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, France)
\n1971 The Debut (Gleb Panfilov, Soviet Union)
\n1972 Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, France)
\n1973 Day for Night (Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, France)
\n1974 Don’t Cry With Your Mouth Full (Pascal Thomas, France)
\n1975 Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
\n1976 Small Change (Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, France)
\n1977 One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (Agn\u00e8s Varda, France)
\n1978 A Wedding (Robert Altman, US)
\n1979 Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy\/US)
\n1980 Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, US)
\n1981 Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, UK)
\n1982 Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
\n1983 The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, US)
\n1984 Country (Richard Pearce, US)
\n1985 Ran (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
\n1986 Down By Law (Jim Jarmusch, US)
\n1987 Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, Soviet Union)
\n1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almod\u00f3var, Spain)
\n1989 Too Beautiful For You (Bertrand Blier, France)
\n1990 Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, US)
\n1991 The Double Life of Veronique (Krysztof Kieslowski, Poland\/France)
\n1992 Olivier Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, France)
\n1993 Short Cuts (Robert Altman, US)
\n1994 Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, US)
\n1995 Shanghai Triad (Zhang Yimou, China)
\n1996 Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, UK)
\n1997 The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, US)
\n1998 Celebrity (Woody Allen, US)
\n1999 All About My Mother (Pedro Almod\u00f3var, Spain)
\n2000 Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, Denmark)
\n2001 Va Savoir (Jacques Rivette, France)
\n2002 About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, US)
\n2003 Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, US)
\n2004 Look At Me (Agn\u00e8s Jaoui, France)
\n2005 Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, US)
\n2006 The Queen (Stephen Frears, UK)
\n2007 The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, US)
\n2008 The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
\n2009 Wild Grass (Alain Resnais, France)
\n2010 The Social Network (David Fincher, US)
\n2011 Carnage (Roman Polanski, France\/Poland)<\/p>\n