The Film Society of Lincoln Center has just announced that Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (pictured) by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu will be the Closing Night selection for the upcoming 52nd New York Film Festival, which will take place September 26 – October 12.
The black comedy stars Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts. This marks González Iñárritu’s third time at the festival, having previously screened Amores Perros (2000) and 21 Grams (2003). The Fox Searchlight Pictures and New Regency release is slated to open in select theaters on October 17, 2014.
New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones said: "Birdman is a knockout. It’s consistently surprising and inventive – you think the movie is going in one direction and then Iñárritu shifts gears and takes you somewhere else completely unexpected: the movie is like an intricate machine generating greater and greater amounts of beautiful radiant energy. The entire cast is amazing and they mesh perfectly, but I have to say that Michael Keaton is astonishing. He’s always been a terrific and, in my opinion, underrated actor. Here he gets the role he deserves, and he makes the most of it. And, it’s a great Broadway movie."
