August is upon us, and you know what that means: it’s film festival season! The first premieres and lineups are starting to get announced, and while the New York Film Festival has already chosen the world premiere of Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead as its closing film and the world premiere of Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk as its opening movie, the fest today unveiled its centerpiece selection: Steve Jobs. Per the New York Times, festival director Kent Jones had this to say about the film:
In a statement, the event’s director, Kent Jones, described the film as “extremely sharp,” adding, “It’s wildly entertaining, and the actors just soar — you can feel their joy as they bite into their material.”
Directed by Danny Boyle and scripted by Aaron Sorkin, the drama stars Michael Fassbender as the Apple innovator and largely consists of just three scenes set around the launch of three big Apple products. The language regarding the screening of Steve Jobs at NYFF 2015 is careful not to dub this a world premiere, which means the highly anticipated drama will likely first play elsewhere. That means we should look for it to have its official debut at either Venice, Telluride, or the Toronto International Film Festival. I’m selfishly hoping for the latter since I’ll be there, but Telluride may be more likely.
Wherever it debuts, the selection of Steve Jobs as the centerpiece at NYFF is mighty impressive and will mark one of many roadstops during the Universal film’s sure-to-be-aggressive awards campaign. With producer Scott Rudin in tow it’ll no doubt be a formidable contender, so look for early word out of its premiere and NYFF screening to further illuminate its chances.
Regardless, you can look for regular updates on all the awards candidates in my Oscar Beat column here on Collider, which will be picking back up here very soon. Steve Jobs will open in theaters on October 9th, and the New York Film Festival kicks off September 25th.
