NEW YORK (AP) - International films may be more important than ever since terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said Richard Pena, chairman of the New York Film Festival's selection committee.
"Certainly, the recent tragic events of Sept. 11 perhaps showed us in horrible detail just what a small world we live in and how, in fact, events going on in very, very far places have direct results and direct effect on our everyday lives,'' said Pena, who's also program director of The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
"So one of the ways to deal with that might be for us to get to know people in other parts of the world as best we can - not only to defend ourselves, but perhaps to understand what the world might look like to other people.''
With films from 20 countries, the 39th annual festival began Friday and runs through Oct. 14.
Pena said in the days after the attacks, festival planners and Lincoln Center authorities discussed canceling the festival, rescheduling it or postponing certain events, such as the opening night party.
"And I think as time went on, I think the general feeling was: The more that we try to get back to some version of normalcy, the better,'' he said.
This year includes several must-see movies, Pena said, but cinephiles may want to catch those that haven't been picked up by a U.S. distributor and may not appear here for a while, such as "I'm Going Home'' by 92-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. "Something like 'Mulholland Drive,' I think is really a fantastic film. It may be David Lynch's best film,'' he said. "But on the other hand, it's going to open really wide everywhere.''
The festival - with 27 features and 16 shorts - begins with Jacques Rivette's "Va Savior,'' about an actress who returns to Paris for a production and realizes she still has feelings for an old love, and ends with Jean-Luc Godard's "In Praise of Love,'' a film within a film.
In between: movies about an aging actor ("I'm Going Home''), a middle-class man who loses his job ("Time Out'') and a Holocaust survivor ("Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.''), among others.
One of the highlights is the world premiere of "The Royal Tenenbaums,'' Wes Anderson's first film since the critically acclaimed "Rushmore,'' which made its debut at the New York Film Festival in 1998. Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson star as a family of geniuses in a bizarre version of New York.
Lynch's thriller "Mulholland Drive,'' starring Naomi Watts as a Hollywood ingenue, is the festival's centerpiece movie. Lynch shared best director honors for the movie at the Cannes Film Festival with Joel and Ethan Coen for "The Man Who Wasn't There.''
This year's winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Italy's "The Son's Room,'' screens toward the end of the festival. Nanni Moretti directs and stars as a psychoanalyst dealing with his son's death in a diving accident.
American independent filmmaker Richard Linklater, perhaps best known for 1991's "Slacker,'' experiments with technology with "Waking Life.'' The writer-director shot live-action footage on digital video, then transformed the images into cartoon animation.
The New York Film Festival is known for showing films that go on to become Academy Award winners and nominees. Last year alone, the festival offered "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,'' "Before Night Falls,'' "Pollock'' and "Dancer in the Dark.''
That prestige is not lost on Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel, whose first film, "La Cienaga'' ("The Swamp''), is showing next week. The movie is a bleak depiction of two wealthy families who sit around a decaying vacation house, doing little more than sleeping and drinking.
"For me, it's a great honor because I know that it's a very selective festival,'' said Martel, who won awards for "La Cienaga'' at this year's Berlin and Sundance festivals. "I know I am so blessed to be here.''
