Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ Selected as 2023 NYFF Spotlight Gala

Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” will be in the Spotlight of this year’s New York Film Festival.

Film at Lincoln Center confirmed to IndieWire that “Maestro” will be part of the Spotlight Gala at NYFF61, with the film making its North American debut with the first film premiere ever held at David Geffen Hall. The venue is usually dedicated just to concert events.

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“The New York Film Festival is proud to present the North American debut of ‘Maestro,’ Bradley Cooper’s tour de force film about the life of renowned conductor, composer, and musician Leonard Bernstein,” Lesli Klainberg, President, Film at Lincoln Center, said in an official statement.

“Maestro” marks Cooper’s directorial follow-up to “A Star Is Born” and focuses on the public and private lives of legendary musician Bernstein, especially his marriage to Felicia (Carey Mulligan). Per the official synopsis, “Maestro” is a “tender, often intensely emotional film about the different faces one wears when living in the public eye, showing the complicated yet devoted decades-spanning relationship between Leonard and Felicia.” The Netflix film features Matthew Libatique’s balletic cinematography and Bernstein’s music, including pieces from others’ that he became associated with through conducting, such as the “Adagietto” from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 featured in the first teaser.

“‘Maestro’ is a bravura achievement for its director and star, a work of conviction and imagination that does justice to the brilliance and complexity of its subject,” Dennis Lim, Artistic Director, New York Film Festival, said in his own statement. “We are honored to have Bradley Cooper’s enthralling film as a gala presentation at this year’s festival, and doubly so to be showing it in a venue that is synonymous with Leonard Bernstein.”

Lim chairs the NYFF Spotlight selection committee along with Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen. This year’s NYFF takes place September 29 through October 15, and will kick off with Todd Haynes’ “May December” opening night. Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Elvis Presley biopic “Priscilla” is the Centerpiece screening, with Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” closing out the festival. Other highlights include Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.”

Click here to see the full lineup.

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