The 2025 New York Film Festival has selected Luca Guadagnino‘s After the Hunt as its opening night film.
The movie — which stars Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield — will receive its North American premiere at New York’s Alice Tully Hall on Friday, Sept. 26.
After the Hunt, from Amazon MGM Studios, follows Roberts’ Yale philosophy professor Alma whose personal and professional lives are disrupted after her PhD candidate protégée Maggie (Edebiri) accuses Alma’s longtime friend and colleague Henrik (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. Exploring the murkiness of contemporary morality, the film sees Alma navigating minefields of gender, sexuality, race and institutional power, as she attempts to reconcile her choices with past demons. Directed by Guadagnino from a script by Nora Garrett, After the Hunt also stars Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny.
After the Hunt just earlier this week was selected for the 2025 Venice Film Festival and is set to be released in theaters in New York and L.A. on Oct. 10 before expanding on Oct. 17.
Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All and Queer all screened as part of past New York Film Festivals.
“I have always found the New York Film Festival to be an arbiter of global cinema. For over 60 years it has been a festival that makes audiences open their minds and hearts to the most daring and compelling global cinema from both established and emerging filmmakers,” Guadagnino said in a statement. “To be invited to open the 63rd edition is a tremendous responsibility and honor. I, alongside the incredible cast and crew and our companions at Amazon MGM Studios who made After the Hunt possible, am elated and thrilled to bring to New York our tale of morality and power. My most heartfelt thanks to Dennis Lim and the singular NYFF team.”
NYFF artistic director Lim added, “We are excited to open this year’s festival with Luca Guadagnino’s latest, which confirms his status as one of the most versatile risk-takers working today. Brilliantly acted and crafted, After the Hunt is something rare in contemporary cinema: a complex, grown-up movie with a lot on its mind that also happens to be a deeply satisfying piece of entertainment.”
The 63rd New York Film Festival is set run from Sept. 26-Oct. 13.