New York Film Festival 2013: 13 Movies to Know

12 Years a Slave

This Fox Searchlight film was a late addition to the New York Film Festival. The movie tells the true story of a free black man from upstate New York, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's sold into slavery and has to fight for his freedom. The Steve McQueen-directed film also stars Michael Fassbender as a malevolent slave owner and Brad Pitt as a Canadian abolitionist.

All is Lost

Robert Redford stars as a resourceful sailor alone at sea who has to confront his own mortality after a collision with a shipping container in director J.C. Chandor's Margin Call follow-up. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release the movie on Oct. 18. The film was produced by Zachary Quinto's Before the Door Pictures and Teddy Schwarzman's Black Bear Pictures, among other companies.

Blue Is the Warmest Color

The 2013 Cannes Palme D'Or winner continues its festival screenings (the movie also played at Telluride and Toronto) ahead of an October 25 NC-17 limited theatrical release. The controversial French film focuses on the story of a young lesbian couple and contains an infamous ten-minute sex scene. 

Captain Phillips

The festival kicks off with the premiere of the Tom Hanks-starring, Paul Greengrass-directed film that dramatizes the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates. The Sony film is set to hit theaters on Oct. 11.

Her

The Spike Jonze-directed film will make its world premiere with a closing-night gala screening at the festival. In the futuristic movie, set to hit theaters in limited release on Dec. 18, Joaquin Phoenix plays a man who writes personal letters for other people. He soon becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system and ultimately falls in love with its female voice, "Samantha," supplied by Scarlett Johansson.

The Immigrant

Another Cannes title, James Gray's The Immigrant, stars Marion Cotillard as a Polish immigrant who, after arriving at New York's Ellis Island in 1921, falls prey to a small-time pimp played by Joaquin Phoenix. Jeremy Renner co-stars as a magician who tries to save her.

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Coen brothers' latest film explores the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene through its story of a struggling musician, played by Oscar Isaac, loosely modeled on Bob Dylan mentor Dave Van Ronk. Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Girls' Adam Driver and Justin Timberlake co-star in the French-financed film, which is set to be released by CBS FIlms in the U.S. on Dec. 6.

The Invisible Woman

Ralph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in this adaptation of a 1992 biography that shed light on the author's secret affair with a young actress, played by Felicity Jones. The film will be screened in conjunction with a gala tribute to Fiennes on Oct. 9, a week after the festival's first gala tribute, which will go to Cate Blanchett.

My Name is Hmmm...

Fashion designer Agnes B's directorial debut focus on an 11-year-old girl who's been sexually abused by her father and runs away on a school trip and hides out with a middle-aged man from Scotland, dealing with his own trauma.

Nebraska

SNL alum Will Forte makes a rare dramatic turn in Alexander Payne's black-and-white Palme d'Or-nominated film. In the movie, Forte and Bruce Dern, who won Cannes' best actor award for his role, star as a father and son who travel from Montana to Nebraska to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.

Only Lovers Left Alive

Jim Jarmusch's vampire love story stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a married couple that's been together FOREVER. The Sony Pictures Classics film also screened at Cannes.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The centerpiece gala screening at this year's festival, Ben Stiller's Walter Mitty, is a remake of James Thurber's classic story about a magazine photo manager who escapes his anonymous life by fantasizing about extraordinary adventures. Kristen Wiig stars alongside Stiller, who also directed the movie, which has been generating awards buzz since footage was shown at this year's CinemaCon. Fox plans to release the film on Christmas Day.

The Wind Rises

Retiring anime master Hayao Miyazaki's latest film was inspired by the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed the Zero fighter plane, and follows a Japanese aviation engineer from the early 20th century through the aftermath of World War II.