The 58th New York Film Festival is going virtual, and outdoors.
Adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers of the festival revealed more details as to how movie lovers can attend this year's festival safely as well as the first couple films that makeup the 2020 lineup.
"The 58th edition of the New York Film Festival will focus on outdoor and virtual screenings with indoor screenings as possible and directed by state and health officials," the festival's website said Monday.
Outdoor screenings will be held at the Queens Drive-In at Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the Brooklyn Drive-In at The Brooklyn Army Terminal. NYFF is partnering with the New York Hall of Science, the Museum of the Moving Image as well as the New York City Economic Development Corporation for this year's programming.
"This exciting and historic partnership is intended to act as a cooperative effort to bring films safely back to New Yorkers and to highlight the power of cinema to build community and camaraderie among our fellow citizens as New York emerges from an incredibly challenging period," the NYFF's organizers said.
The festival's opening film, "Lovers Rock," comes from director Steve McQueen. His recent films include "12 Years A Slave" and "Widows." The aforementioned festival opener is part of the "Small Axe" anthology series.
An official synopsis says the series is "set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a different story involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will despite rampant racism and discrimination."
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"Mangrove" and "Red, White and Blue," two other films in the series, will be apart of the festival's Main Slate. The full lineup along with ticketing information is said to be announced in the coming weeks.
Last year's opening night film was "The Irishman," directed by Martin Scorsese.
