The New York Film Festival has landed quite the opener. NYFF announced today that this year’s fest will open with Martin Scorsese’s new gangster movie, The Irishman. The expensive Netflix movie uses digital de-aging to tell the story of hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and his relationship with mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

In a press release, New York Film Festival director Kent Jones said of the film:

“The Irishman is so many things: rich, funny, troubling, entertaining and, like all great movies, absolutely singular,” said New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones. “It’s the work of masters, made with a command of the art of cinema that I’ve seen very rarely in my lifetime, and it plays out at a level of subtlety and human intimacy that truly stunned me. All I can say is that the minute it was over my immediate reaction was that I wanted to watch it all over again.”

It's been a while since Scorsese tackled a mob movie, and with De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci coming together, it’s one of our most-anticipated films of the year.

Check out the first images from The Irishman below. The 2019 NYFF runs from September 27 – October 13th. The Irishman hits Netflix and theaters later this year.

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Image via Niko Tavernise / Netflix
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Image via Niko Tavernise / Netflix

Here’s the synopsis for The Irishman:

The Irishman is a richly textured epic of American crime, a dense, complex story told with astonishing fluidity. Based on Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses, it is a film about friendship and loyalty between men who commit unspeakable acts and turn on a dime against each other, and the possibility of redemption in a world where it seems as distant as the moon. The roster of talent behind and in front of the camera is astonishing, and at the core of The Irishman are four great artists collectively hitting a new peak: Joe Pesci as Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino, Al Pacino as Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, and Robert De Niro as their right-hand man, Frank Sheeran, each working in the closest harmony imaginable with the film’s incomparable creator, Martin Scorsese.