“The Favourite” – Starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, And Olivia Colman – To Be Featured As Hamptons International Film Festival Friday Centerpiece

Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, starring Academy Award®-winning actresses Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz and Golden Globe®-winning actress Olivia Colman, will serve as the 2018 Hamptons International Film Festival Friday Centerpiece. The film revolves around two cousins competing be the court favorite of Queen Anne.

Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? will screen as the Sunday Centerpiece. The biopic, which stars Academy Award®-nominated actress Melissa McCarthy, is based on the life of writer Lee Israel.

HIFF recently revealed that the Spotlight category will also feature Academy Award®-nominated director Steve McQueen’s Widows, which tells the story of four women who find themselves in financial disarray because of their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Although they originally have nothing in common, they band together in the hopes of finding a brighter future. Spotlight will also include HIFF alum Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy, which will be making its East Coast Premiere. Starring Academy Award®-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet and Golden Globe®-nominated actor Steve Carell, the film, which was adapted from father and son David and Nic Sheff’s best-selling memoirs, explores a son’s struggle with drug addiction and the impact of that struggle on his family.

“We are proud to share the full lineup for this year’s edition and have two of this year’s most anticipated films, helmed by dynamic and exciting female characters, serve as our Centerpieces,” said Anne Chaisson, Executive Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. “We look forward to audiences perusing our film guide and enjoying all the gems that have been selected for one of our strongest slates yet.”

Overall, 47 percent of the films screening during the 26th iteration of the Festival were directed by women – with the Narrative and Documentary Competition slate featuring an even split of female and male directed features.

Narrative Competition will encompass the New York Premiere of Yen Tan’s 1985, the U.S. Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s All Good, Ali Abbasi’s Border, the U.S. Premiere of Zsófia Szilágyi’s One Day, and Dominga Sotomayor’s Too Late To Die Young, while Documentary Competition Films include the World Premiere of Jesse Sweet’s City of Joel, Alexis Bloom’s Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, the East Coast Premiere of Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldon’s Ghost Fleet, and the New York Premiere of Daniel Zimmerman’s Walden, and the East Coast Premiere of Michael Dweck’s The Last Race, which is also screening in the Views From Long Island Section.

Additional Views From Long Island screenings will include Khalik Allah’s Black Mother, the World Premieres of Emily Anderson’s short film Only the Wind is Listening and Ross Kauffman’s Still Plays with Trains.

“We are delighted to bring our audiences films of great importance and understanding with new perspectives through our Signature Programs,” added David Nugent, Artistic Director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. “We hope our audiences can take as much delight in this year’s program as we have in creating it, during yet another groundbreaking year for the film industry.”

The 26th annual Hamptons International Film Festival will take place Thursday, October 4 through Monday, October 8.

For more information, visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.