“White Noise,” the latest project from the director and screenwriter Noah Baumbach, will be the opening-night film of the 60th New York Film Festival, organizers announced Tuesday.
The festival, which runs Sept. 30 to Oct. 16, will be holding the North American premiere of the film; its world premiere will open the 79th Venice Film Festival later this month.
Baumbach directed the film and adapted the screenplay from Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel of the same name, which won the American Book Award for fiction that year and focuses on themes of American family life amid repetitive and overwhelming reminders of death.
The film follows a college professor and his family as they are forced to evacuate their home because of an industrial accident. From there, they must cope with the unavoidable and unrelenting reminders of death as stories of sudden fatalities, school evacuations and toxic waste disasters fill the airwaves.
“White Noise” stars Adam Driver as Jack Gladney, a “Hitler studies” professor and father of four. Greta Gerwig plays Babette, Gladney’s wife. Other cast members include Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, Sam Nivola and Raffey Cassidy.
This is Baumbach’s latest collaboration with Gerwig, his partner. They have co-written several movies, including “Frances Ha” (2012) and “Mistress America” (2015), both of which he directed, and “Barbie,” which she is directing and which is set for release in 2023.
Baumbach’s other credits include “The Squid and the Whale” and “Marriage Story,” which both earned him Academy Award screenplay nominations.
In a statement, Baumbach explained that as a child he attended the New York Film Festival with his father and later premiered his first movie, “Kicking and Screaming,” there in 1995. Other Baumbach films have been chosen for the event’s Main Slate over the years, but “White Noise” is the first of his productions to open the festival.
Following the premiere, the movie will be available for streaming on Netflix later in 2022.
