Behind the Scenes at New York Film Festival 2025 (original) (raw)

The Look Book Goes to New York Film Festival

A sliver of the directors, actors, and serious cinephiles who partook in its 63rd edition.

Photo: Frankie Alduino

Meriem Bennani and Orian Yani Barki (pictured above)
Bouchra filmmakers, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Lower East Side

So Bouchra is an animated movie about a queer coyote who comes out to her cardiologist mother?
Orian: It’s a film about a mother-daughter relationship. It’s using real conversations that Meriem had with her mom, recorded by someone else. And it’s about love and acceptance and daughterhood and diaspora.

How’d the screening go?
Meriem: New York is home, so we have a lot of friends and family here — everyone was just very enthusiastic. We had a bit of a biased audience today, but it was amazing.

Did you coordinate your outfits?
Orian: I’m wearing a blazer that belongs to Meriem — a lot of my outfits are things that belong to Meriem.

Meriem: Well, it was hot today. I was going to wear a suit and then I was like, I probably need to not wear a full suit.

Ivy Wolk

Actor, Crown Heights

I know English Teacher season two just came out, which you’re in.

Yes, I’m in episodes one and seven. I have a lot of screen time. They’ve used my face in every promotional material, and I’m like, Let’s pay me more.

Lío Mehiel

Actor, Bedford-Stuyvesant

Renate Reinsve

Actor, Oslo, Norway

Mary Neely

Actor and writer, Fort Greene

Cat Cohen

Comedian and actor, West Village

What is the worst you’ve ever bombed onstage?

Two weeks ago at Texas Christian University. It was 45 minutes of silence. I’m scared of Gen Z, but nothing but respect for the crowd. I love them. I would die for anyone who was there.

Camille Henrot

Artist, Upper West Side

Preston Baffour

Curator, Harlem

Hailey Gates

Filmmaker, Upper West Side

How many times have you been to the festival?

I don’t know if I can count them, but I think the first time I came, I saw Antichrist. There were ambulances outside because multiple people were passing out. It was wonderful. It was thrilling. I was like, Movies are crazy.

Alice Diop

Filmmaker, France

Sophie Rubin

Stylist, Bedford-Stuyvesant

Richard Linklater

Filmmaker, Austin, Texas

What was it like to direct a film completely in French?

Oh, wonderful. To me, when I hear French, it feels like the language of cinema. It’s just the way this film always sounded in my head, even though it’s a language I don’t really know specifically. I was always making a subtitled movie, and the language was the soundtrack to it.

Delphine Selles-Alvarez

Film curator, Prospect Park South

D. D. Wigley

Executive producer, Port Townsend, Washington

What is your go-to movie snack?

I don’t have teeth. There is no such thing as a movie snack for me anymore. It used to be, of course, the best buttered popcorn. My favorite food — again, no teeth, I’m just telling you as a tip — is pesto with radishes.

Christopher Thomas Barnett

Public-relations manager, Harlem

Steve Vogel

Professor emeritus, Columbus, Ohio

Elle Fanning

Actor, Greenwich Village

Mettie Ostrowski

Photographer, Flatbush

Jean-Christophe Folly

Actor, France

How are you liking New York so far?

I’m staying in the Bronx — it’s different in Manhattan, which is a bit more stressful. I took the subway here, and they should turn the AC off on the train because I caught a cold. The AC is really strong here; I don’t know how you do it.

Photographs by Frankie Alduino

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