Clint Eastwood’s ‘Hereafter’ Will Close The 2010 New York Film Festival; Fest Adds ‘Meeks Cutoff,’ ‘Carlos,’ Certified Copy’ & More

EW just gave us a first look at Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” last Friday and now the New York Film Festival has announced that the interconnected, near-death-experiences drama will close the fete on October 10th.

NYFF has already announced its opening night film, David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” and its centerpiece film, Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” and under some new creative management, the festival is really flexing its muscles this year. The move is not a total surprise in that it has an existing relationship with Eastwood and premiered “Changeling” in 2008.

Written by Peter Morgan (“The Queen,” “Frost/Nixon”), “Hereafter” follows three plotlines: Matt Damon plays a psychic in San Francisco who can’t connect emotionally with his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) and wants nothing to do with his powers; Cecile DeFrance plays a French TV journalist/talk show host who has a near-death experience in the 2004 tsunami and the third character is a young boy whose twin brother dies in an accident (twins played by unknowns Frankie and George McClaren). Slowly as the script evolves, their lives interconnect. Oh and don’t let the photo fool you, Howard’s role is actually pretty minimal in the film. Lyndsey Marshal and Richard Kind round out the cast.

According to a press release we just received, The NYFF has also unveiled the rest of its 2010 slate which is, not surprisingly, arthouse-heavy and includes many a Cannes 2010 film like Oliver Assayas’ five-hour opus “Carlos,” Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy” starring Juliette Binoche, Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Kelly Reichardt’s neo-Western “Meek’s Cutoff” starring Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, and many more. The entire line-up is after the jump.

The 48th New York Film Festival main-slate:

Opening Night
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, David Fincher, 2010, USA, 120 min

Centerpiece
THE TEMPEST, Julie Taymor, 2010, USA, 110 min

Closing Night
HEREAFTER, Clint Eastwood, 2010, USA, 126 min

– ANOTHER YEAR, Mike Leigh, 2010, UK, 129 min
– AURORA, Cristi Puiu, 2010, Romania, 181 min
– BLACK VENUS, (Venus noire), Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 166 min
– CARLOS, Olivier Assayas, 2010, France, 319 min
– CERTIFIED COPY (Copie conformé), Abbas Kiarostami, 2010, France/Italy, 106 min
– FILM SOCIALISME, Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, Switzerland, 101 min
– INSIDE JOB, Charles Ferguson, 2010, USA, 120 min
– LE QUATTRO VOLTE, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010, Italy, 88 min
– LENNON NYC, Michael Epstein, 2010, USA, 115 min
– MEEK’S CUTOFF, Kelly Reichardt, 2010, USA, 104 min
– MY JOY (Schastye moe), Sergei Loznitsa, 2010, Ukraine/Germany, 127 min
– MYSTERIES OF LISBON (Misterios de Lisboa), Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France, 272 min
– OF GODS AND MEN (Des homes et des dieux), Xavier Beauvois, 2010,
France, 120 min
– OKI’S MOVIE (Ok hui ui yeonghwa), Hong Sang-soo, 2010, South Korea, 80 min
– OLD CATS (Gatos viejos), Sebastian Silva, 2010, Chile, 88 min
– POETRY (Shi), Lee Chang-dong, 2010, South Korea, 139 min
– POST MORTEM, Pablo Larrain, 2010, Chile/Mexico/Germany, 98 min
– REVOLUCION, Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Embecke, Amat Escalante, Gael Garcia
Bernal, Rodrigo Garcia, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, Carlos Reygadas,
Patricia Riggen, 2010, Mexico, 110 min
– THE ROBBER (Der Räuber), Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany, 90 min
– ROBINSON IN RUINS, Patrick Keiller, 2010, UK, 101 min
-SILENT SOULS (Ovsyanki), Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia, 75 min
-THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (O estranho caso de Angélica), Manoel de Oliveira,
Portugal, 97 min
TUESDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS (Marti, dupa craciun), Radu Muntean,
Romania, 99 min
UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL PAST LIVES (Lung Boonmee raluek chat),
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010, UK/Thailand, 113 min
– WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Somos lo que hay), Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico, 90 min