鈥淣ickel Boys,鈥� an adaptation of , will open the 62nd New York Film Festival in September, organizers said Monday.
Filmmaker directed the drama based on the 2019 novel about two Black teenagers in an abusive reform school in Florida in Jim Crow-era Florida. Whitehead used the real , and its victims, as a model. The cast includes Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
鈥溾�橬ickel Boys鈥� signals the emergence of a major filmmaking voice,鈥� said Dennis Lim, the festival鈥檚 artistic director, in a statement. 鈥淩aMell Ross鈥� fiction debut, like his previous work in photography and documentary, searches for new ways of seeing and, in so doing, expands the possibilities of visual language. It鈥檚 the most audacious American movie I have seen in some time.鈥�
Ross is best known for the documentary 鈥淗ale County This Morning, This Evening,鈥� which followed Black residents in Alabama鈥檚 Hale County and was nominated for an Oscar in 2019. The film, from Amazon MGM Studios鈥� Orion Pictures, will open the festival on Sept. 27 before hitting theaters on Oct. 25.
The New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center, runs through Oct. 14.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
