LET the festivities begin. Starting at about 7:30 tomorrow night, a black-tie assemblage of celebs and ordinary movie fans will stroll down the red carpet at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall for the opening of the 46th edition of the New York Film Festival.
The opening selection is Laurent Cantet’s “The Class,” which took the top prize at Cannes in May and provides an inside look at French education.
It’s one of 28 films from 18 nations on the festival’s main slate, ranging from high-profile crowd-pleasers to classics awaiting discovery.
Most talked about is Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,“ a four-hour, two-part biopic featuring Benicio Del Toro as the Argentine revolutionary. He won the best actor prize in Cannes, and there’s talk about an Oscar nomination.
There’s also a lot of chatter about the fest’s closing film, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,“ with Mickey Rourke (yes, Mickey Rourke) getting Oscar buzz for his lead performance.
Any film directed by Clint Eastwood is a hot ticket, and his 1928-set “Changeling,“ the festival’s “centerpiece,” is no exception. Angelina Jolie headlines.
What would a New York Film Festival be without a slate of French exports? This year, they fill four slots.
In addition to “The Class,” they are: Arnaud Desplechin’s “A Christmas Tale,“ starring Catherine Deneuve; Agnes Jaoui’s “Let It Rain”; and always-reliable Olivier Assayas’ “Summer Hours,“ with Juliette Binoche.
Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong’s Mr. Cool, is flying in with “Ashes of Time Redux,“ his reworking of his own 1994 martial-arts thriller, featuring Brigitte Lin (who also will be at the festival) and Maggie Cheung (who, sadly, won’t be).
Also of note are Brit Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky,” the portrait of a 30-something spinster, and Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy,“ with Michelle Williams.
Sidebars include the annual “Views From the Avant-Garde” and a 26-film salute to Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, ranging from the notorious “In the Realm of the Senses” (1976) to the oddball “Max Mon Amour” (1986), in which Charlotte Rampling falls in love with a chimpanzee.
The festival runs through Oct. 12, with most screenings at the Ziegfeld (54th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues). For more details, visit filmlinc.com.