One of the most anticipated movies of the year is Alfonso Cuarón’s “ROMA” which Netflix will debut on its streaming service and in theaters later this year. The semi-autobiographical work was supposed to debut at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival in competition but was pulled after a dispute between Netflix and the powers that be at Cannes. Now, we know at least one place where “ROMA” will debut, the 2018 New York Film Festival.
Cuarón’s follow up to the Oscar-winning “Gravity,” the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced “ROMA” will be the centerpiece NYFF screening at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, October 5, 2018.
In a statement from the festival, the auteur noted, “I am honored ‘ROMA’ has been selected for the Centerpiece slot at this year’s New York Film Festival. NYFF has a longstanding history of celebrating meaningful and compelling filmmaking and it felt right to return to the festival with ‘ROMA’ —an incredibly personal, illuminating, and transformative project for me.”
The festival also gave more details about the film describing it as “set in Mexico City in the early ’70s, we are placed within the physical and emotional terrain of a middle-class family whose center is quietly and unassumingly held by its beloved live-in nanny and housekeeper (Yalitza Aparicio). The cast is uniformly magnificent, but the real star of ‘ROMA’ is the world itself, fully present and vibrantly alive, from sudden life-changing events to the slightest shifts in mood and atmosphere. Cuarón tells us an epic story of everyday life while also gently sweeping us into a vast cinematic experience, in which time and space breathe and majestically unfold. Shot in breathtaking black and white and featuring a sound design that represents something new in the medium, ‘ROMA’ is a truly visionary work.”
Roma, or Colonia Roma where the film is set, is a neighborhood in Mexico City that has become an increasing hipster enclave over the past few years.
While “ROMA” is going to get a notable gala at NYFF it will not have its world premiere there. The NYFF premiere is only qualified s a “New York Premiere.” Instead, it is expected to debut a month earlier at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. Of course, Venice has not even announced it’s opening night film yet which makes this NYFF announcement even more intriguing. Venice revealed its 2017 opener, “Downsizing,” on July 14, 2017 and with the announcement clock ticking a number of potential openers have already been ruled out.
Besides Venice, “ROMA” is also expected to screen at Telluride and Toronto. By letting FSLC make this announcement now it lets the venerable New York institution have a moment in the sun as it may be the fourth festival “ROMA” screens at. NYFF, Venice and Toronto are expected to announce its slates over the next 10 days. Telluride famously does not reveal it’s selections until the day before the festival starts, but the qualifiers put for Venice and Toronto almost always give their program away.
From an awards perspective, “ROMA” is expected to be Mexico’s Foreign Language Film entry and Netflix is already planning a serious Oscar campaign pushing it for multiple categories including Best Director and Best Picture. It will likely compete with Paweł Pawlikowski’s celebrated “Cold War” for Best Foreign Language Film.
The 2018 New York Film Festival runs from September 28 to October 14.