“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” to open New Films Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - New York’s 43rd annual New Directors/New Films festival has set its full 2014 slate, tapping a trio of Sundance alums for its prime screening slots: opener “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” centerpiece “Obvious Child” and closer “20,000 Days on Earth,” Variety reported.

Full lineup comprises 13 shorts and 27 features, seven of which were announced last month including Richard Ayoade’s Jesse Eisenberg starrer “The Double.” Joining those pics on the docket are the world premiere of Jessica Oreck’s “The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga,” as well as U.S. or North American bows of Shahram Mokri’s “Fish & Cat,” Benjamin Naishtat’s “History of Fear,” Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone’s “Mouton (Sheep),” Andrei Gruzsniczki’s “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” and Tom Shoval’s “Youth.”

Co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center (which also presented the New York Film Festival) and the Museum of Modern Art, ND/NF focuses on the work of debut or emerging filmmakers, and has in the past screened early works from Darren Aronofsky, Shane Carruth and Pedro Almodovar.

The ND/NF lineup tends to include a number of debuts that have previously screened elsewhere on the festival circuit. “Dear White People” and “The Babadook,” for instance, are two more Sundance outings showing up in the 2014 ND/NF slate.

At Sundance, Ana Lily Amirpour’s ”A Girl Walks Home” turned heads for its unusual Persian take on a vampire story. Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s “20,000 Days on Earth” follows Nick Cave over the course of a fictional day in his life, while Gillian Robespierre’s comedy “Obvious Child” grabbed attention for its lead perf by Jenny Slate.