NY Film Festival: Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘The Room Next Door’ to Have U.S. Premiere as Centerpiece Selection

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door , starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, will receive its U.S. premiere as the centerpiece selection for the 2024 New York Film Festival on Oct. 4.

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The film, an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through , marks Spanish auteur Almodóvar’s first English-language feature and follows best-selling writer Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton) as they rekindle their friendship after losing touch. As they immerse themselves in past memories, anecdotes, art and movies, Martha makes a request that will test their renewed bond.

“I am delighted that The Room Next Door will be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival,” said Almodóvar. “This festival has been my bridge to New York audiences for decades, so it only felt natural that the two protagonists go see a film at the Alice Tully Hall in one of the scenes of the movie. It was very moving for me to shoot in a place that holds so very dear memories to me, and where I hope to keep on treasuring them in a not so distant future.”

NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim added, “Few filmmakers are as closely associated with the New York Film Festival as Pedro Almodóvar, and it is a true pleasure to present his first English-language feature as this year’s centerpiece selection. The Room Next Door is the work of an artist at the height of his powers: a wise, exquisitely acted, achingly beautiful film that feels perfectly calibrated to this moment.”

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The Room Next Door , a Sony Pictures Classics release, is Almodóvar’s 15th New York Film Festival selection, with a record nine picks receiving gala presentations. Almodóvar’s past festival films include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Bad Education, Volver, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, Broken Embraces, Parallel Mothers, The Flower of My Secret, The Skin I Live In, Julieta, Pain and Glory, The Human Voice and Strange Way of Life .

The 62nd New York Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 27-Oct. 13.

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