HIFF Returns with Exciting Slate of Films & Events for 2024

The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) returns with its 32nd edition this week, October 4-14 on screens in East Hampton and Sag Harbor. The full slate of programing has been announced and it’s going to be another exciting year of fantastic films representing 50 countries, including 86 features and 61 shorts, eight world premieres, five North American premieres, 11 U.S. premieres, nine East Coast premieres, and 20 New York premieres. Of all the film selections, 45% are directed by women.

This year’s events will kick off on Friday, October 4 with the East Coast premiere of R.J. Cutler’s documentary feature Martha, profiling businesswoman, domestic doyenne and noted former Hamptonite Martha Stewart. The festival will also host the East Coast premiere of Netflix’s The Piano Lesson as this year’s Centerpiece Film, set to screen on Saturday, October 5. Directed and co-written by Malcolm Washington, and featuring an ensemble cast including honorary Academy Award winner Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, and Ray Fisher, the film is an adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.

The East Coast premiere of Searchlight Pictures’ Nightbitch will screen as the festival’s Closing Night presentation on Sunday, October 13. From writer/director Marielle Heller and starring Academy Award nominee Amy Adams and Scoot McNairy, the film follows a woman who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom when her new domesticity takes a surreal turn.

This year’s “A Conversation With…” series will feature discussions with Demi Moore, Andrew Garfield and Montauker Liev Schreiber.

HIFF announced that Clarence Maclin will receive this year’s Breakthrough Performer Award, following a Special Screening of A24’s Sing Sing on Sunday, October 13. Directed by Greg Kwedar, the film tells the powerful story of Divine G (Academy Award-nominee Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison for a crime he didn’t commit, who finds purpose by acting in a theater crew with other inmates. When a wary outsider (Clarence Maclin) joins the group, the men decide to stage their first original comedy. Maclin portrays a younger version of himself in this feature debut. He was incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility for 17 years, where he participated in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts prison arts program. Since his release he’s served as a youth counselor, creative arts specialist, and gang intervention specialist at Lincoln Hall Boys Haven in Somers, NY.

This year’s Spotlight screenings include the New York premiere of MUBI’s Bird, directed by Andrea Arnold, Apple’s Blitz, directed by Steve McQueen, the New York premiere of Focus Features’ Conclave, directed by Edward Berger; Netflix’s Emilia Perez, directed by Jacques Audiard; Roadside Attractions’ Exhibiting Forgiveness, the directorial debut of renowned artist Titus Kaphar; the New York premiere of NEON’s The End, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer; Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend; Bleecker Street’s Hard Truths, directed by Mike Leigh; the world premiere of Rachel Feldman’s Lilly; Pablo Larraín’s Maria (about opera singer Maria Callas); the East Coast premiere of Vertical’s The Order, directed by Justin Kurzel; the New York premiere of NEON’s Presence, directed by Steven Soderbergh; Sony Pictures Classics’ The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar; Sony Pictures’ Saturday Night, directed by Jason Reitman; and the North American premiere of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions’ Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants; and A Real Pain directed by actor Jesse Eisenberg, Bad Shabbos directed by Daniel Robbins, and the U.S. premiere of We Live In Time by John Crowley.

“Coming out of last year’s strikes, I’m thrilled for the festival to return in full force for 11 days of dynamic programming attended by prolific filmmakers and talent from around the world,” HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent said in an announcement. “With a slate inclusive of multiple world, North American, and U.S. premiere screenings, our team has curated an exciting lineup for East End audiences to be amongst the first to preview some of this year’s most compelling and buzzed-about films.”

The Narrative Competition section of this year’s festival will also include the North American premiere of IFC Films’ Armand, directed by Halfdan Ullman Tøndel; the New York premiere of Metrograph Pictures’ Gazer, directed by Ryan J. Sloan; the North American premiere of Metrograph Pictures’ The Kingdom, directed by Julien Colonna; the U.S. premiere of Sideshow and Janus Films’ Vermiglio, directed by Maura Delpero; and the New York premiere of Anu Valia’s We Strangers.

The Documentary Competition section of this year’s festival will include the East Coast premiere of Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s Grand Theft Hamlet, about two theater actors staging a production of Hamlet in the online digital world of Grand Theft Auto; Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s Porcelain War, following three Ukrainian artists who find beauty as they defend their culture and country while creating intricate porcelain figurines; the U.S. premiere of Marah Strauch and Bryce Leavitt’s Space Cowboy, following skydiving cinematography pioneer Joe Jennings; the U.S. premiere of Viktor, directed by Olivier Sarbil, about a young deaf man in Kharkiv, seeking purpose during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and the world premiere of Heidi Levitt’s Walk With Me, profiling Levitt’s husband as he develops symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and how they managed it.

In the Films of Conflict and Resolution Signature Program, the festival will screen Antidote, directed by James Jones; the East Coast premiere of Lucian Read’s Lions of Mesopotamia; and Kino Lorber’s Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat, directed by Johan Grimonprez. The program also includes the New York premiere of Homegrown directed by Michael Premo; and Porcelain War, which is also in the Documentary section.

The Air, Land, and Sea Signature Program will also present the New York premiere of Apple’s The Last of the Sea Women, directed by Sue Kim; the New York premiere of The White House Effect, directed by Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos; and Grasshopper Film’s Nocturnes, directed by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan.

The Compassion, Justice, and Animal Rights Signature Program includes the U.S. premiere of Todd Bieber’s American Cats: The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly; Joshua Zeman’s Checkpoint Zoo; and the New York premiere of Sally Atiken’s Every Little Thing.

The 2024 HIFF narrative jury members are Joanna Arnow, filmmaker, writer and actor and creator of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (HIFF 2023); comedian and writer Wyatt Cenac, best known for his work on The Daily Show; and Sag Harbor Cinema Executive Director Genevive Villaflor. Meanwhile, Sundance Institute Board Chair Ebs Burnough (The Capote Tapes, HIFF 2019), and documentary filmmaker Rachel Fleit (Introducing, Selma Blair, HIFF 2021) will make up this year’s Documentary Jury.

Films will screen at Regal UA East Hampton Cinema (30-38 Main Street), Sag Harbor Cinema (90 Main Street), Guild Hall in East Hampton (158 Main Street), and East Hampton Middle School (76 Newtown Lane).

Learn more, including details about each film, and the full schedule of movies in all sections, at hamptonsfilmfest.org.