Having just passed its halfway point, the 56th New York Film Festival is simply soaring to its conclusion. The event, which kicked off September 28 and runs through Sunday, October 14, is New York’s preeminent showcase for world cinema. Having attended the festival for nearly two decades, something about this edition feels different. There’s a renewed energy, a rebirth. And, while the curation has always been outstanding, this year’s program is more exciting than in recent years. This is perhaps due in part to an expanded main slate that is comprised of 30 new films representing 22 different countries. If you haven’t yet partaken of this engaging cinematic celebration, there is still time to dig in. We’ve outlined below 6 things to look forward to this week.

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La Flor

At 868 minutes, Mariano Llinás’ La Flor holds the honor of being the longest film in the history of Argentine cinema. It is also likely the longest film to screen at the New York Film Festival. Consisting of six different episodes featuring the same four actresses, Llinás’ epic masterwork was shot over the course of nine years and across three continents. The film features a variety of stories, including a horror B-movie, a musical, a thriller, and a remake of Jean Renoir’s 1936 silent classic A Day in the Country. The film screens at the festival over the course of three evenings. Plus, director Llinás will be at the festival for a free talk on Friday, October 12.

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Tribute to Dan Talbot

It’s strange to think that last year at this time both Dan Talbot and the theater he co-founded, Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, were both still active elements of New York’s art house cinema guard. Alas, Talbot passed away in December and his beloved theater closed shortly after. As an homage to the film titan, the New York Film Festival has devoted part of its Retrospective section to films Talbot loved. Among those still to screen are Bernardo Bertolucci’s second feature Before the Revolution (1964), Wim Wenders’ The American Friend (1977), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979).

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The Times of Bill Cunningham

Among the New York Film Festival’s world premiere screenings, The Times of Bill Cunningham approaches the beloved New York street photographer from a new avenue. Mark Bozek’s film uses a 1994, wide-ranging interview with Cunningham as its departure point. Cunningham, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 87, is brought back to life in the film, recounting his childhood years, move to New York, introduction to photography and passion for fashion. “Sex and the City”‘s Sarah Jessica Parker narrates.

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Convergence

Introduced in 2012, the New York Film Festival again presents Convergence. Built like a festival within a festival, the Convergence sidebar is where cinematic explorers find interactive experiences in the form of virtual reality, immersive cinema and AI. This year’s program includes a virtual cinema section, a virtual reality documentary program, a VR arcade for sampling several different projects, and a lab where you can engage and converse with an AI system. This year’s buzziest titles are VR documentary My Africa, narrated by Lupita Nyong’o; animated VR arcade projects Battle Scar, which is set in New York’s 1970s punk scene, and Cycles, Disney’s first foray into VR shorts; and What Goes Up/Must Come Down, a combo VR and video installation about the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival.

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At Eternity’s Gate + Free Talks*

The New York Film Festival has a sweet tooth for Julian Schnabel. This year will mark the filmmaker’s third visit to the festival, having presented both Before Night Falls (2000) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) in years past. has been given the coveted closing night slot for his latest creation, At Eternity’s Gate. The film stars Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh and offers a new perspective on the last days of the artist’s life.

Additionally, both Dafoe and Schnabel will be doing free talks at the festival during the closing weekend. Dafoe will be sitting down with NYFF Director Kent Jones on Saturday, October 13 at 2pm, while Schnabel will be joined by At Eternity’s Gate screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, for a discussion on process also on Saturday, October 13 at 12pm.

For At Eternity’s Gate showtimes go here.

*updated to include recently announced talk with Julian Schnabel and Jean-Claude Carrière

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Encore Screenings

The last weekend of the NYFF features a parade of the best and most popular offerings from the previous two weeks of the festival. If you missed Joel and Ethan Coen’s western-filled anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Alfonso Cuarón’s poignant masterpiece Roma, Daniel Schmidt and Gabriel Abrantes’ highly original Projections’ entry Diamantino, or Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliant The Favourite, we recommend trying to catch them. Other noteworthy reruns include Jafar Panahi’s understated 3 Faces, Christian Petzold’s existential drama Transit, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree.

And, please note that even though tickets might not be able to be purchased in advance, the stand by line is definitely worth a try. They do usually let people in off of it.

Photo Credit: Image above courtesy of the New York Film Festival/Godlis.