2023 New York Film Festival opens with Natalie Portman-Julianne Moore spellbinder "May December"

The New York Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious and entertaining celebrations of cinema, returned to Lincoln Center for its 61st edition tonight, and to screens across New York City, with films starring Emma Stone, Nathalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Adam Driver, Saoirse Ronan and Michael Fassbender. [Not even today's torrential rains that paralyzed New York City transit could put a damper on the event.] 

With more than 100 films from 45 countries, this year's festival includes new works by such renowned directors as David Fincher ("The Killer"), Michael Mann ("Ferrari"), Todd Haynes ("May December"), Agnieszka Holland ("Green Border"), Sofia Coppola ("Priscilla"), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi ("Evil Does Not Exist"), Wim Wenders ("Perfect Days"), Pedro Almodóvar ("Strange Way of Life"), Richard Linklater ("Hit Man"), Alice Rohrwacher ("La Chimera"), Jonathan Glazer ("The Zone of Interest"), and Aki Kaurismäki ("Fallen Leaves").

Among the films featured are this year's top prize-winners at Venice (Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things," a black comedy starring Emma Stone as a dead woman brought back to life by a mad scientist) and Cannes ("Anatomy of a Fall," Justine Triet's procedural about a woman accused following the mysterious death of her husband). Also showing: the documentary prize-winner at Sundance, "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project."