NYFF 2024: RaMell Ross’ Drama, ‘Nickel Boys,’ Selected As Opening Night Film

It’s that time of year again—fall festival announcement season. Sure, the film world is being dominated with talk of summer films, but we are also preparing for the fall and film festival season. We already know quite a bit about what we’re expecting at Venice and Toronto, but now we have our first film announcement for this year’s New York Film Festival.

This year’s NYFF is kicking off with a powerful film as its Opening Night selection— “Nickel Boys.” The film is directed by RaMell Ross and tells the story of two friends who must survive a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida. The film stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

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“What an absolute honor for ‘Nickel Boys’ to open the 62nd New York Film Festival… a daydream really, for the crew, the cast, and team who’ve committed so wholeheartedly to its vision,” Ross said. “The New York Film Festival in particular constellates much of what one aspires toward through filmic production. Since just after my undergrad when I was wooed by the still and moving image, it has been an extraordinary compendium for global aesthetics.”

Dennis Lim, artistic director of the New York Film Festival added, “’Nickel Boys’ signals the emergence of a major filmmaking voice. RaMell Ross’s 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, and we are excited and honored to open the New York Film Festival with it.”

The 2024 New York Film Festival kicks off on September 27. If you can’t make it to NYFF but still want to see “Nickel Boys,” the film is getting a theatrical release courtesy of Amazon/MGM on October 25.