Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari,’ Starring Adam Driver, to Close New York Film Festival

Michael Manns racing drama Ferrari is set to close the 61st annual New York Film Festival. The sports biopic, starring Adam Driver as automotive mogul Enzo Ferrari, will make its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on Oct. 13.

Michael Mann (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans) directed Ferrari, which is adapted from the 1991 biography The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. The film, which was shot on location in Ferraris hometown of Modena, dramatizes the life of the Italian entrepreneur and one-time Formula 1 racer at a professional and personal fulcrum. Shailene Woodley, Gabriel Leone, Patrick Dempsey and Jack OConnell round out the cast.

Its a great honor to close the esteemed New York Film Festival with Ferrari, Mann said.

Neon is releasing the film, which will premiere at the at the 80th Venice International Film Festival in September. It lands in theaters on Dec. 25. STX Entertainment and its partners will distribute the movie internationally.

Michael Mann has made many remarkable movies but perhaps never one as simultaneously thrilling and moving as Ferrari, said Dennis Lim, artistic director of the New York Film Festival. Not just a feat of virtuosity, this is a grand and striking evolution of his career themes and his most deeply personal work. We are honored to welcome him to the festival for what Im sure will be a closing night for the ages.

New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center, takes place from Sept. 29 through Oct. 15. As previously announced, director Todd Haynes soapy romantic drama May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, will be its opening night screening. Sofia Coppolas biographical drama Priscilla has been tapped as the Centerpiece selection.