The 45th New York Film Festival runs Sept. 28th to Oct. 14th.

NEW YORK, June 28, 2007—The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces that Wes Anderson’s film The Darjeeling Limited will open the 45th New York Film Festival, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men will be honored as the festival’s Centerpiece. Two other notable titles in this year’s festival slate are also confirmed: Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu; and LEE Chang-dong’s Korean feature, Secret Sunshine, which stars Cannes’ Best Actress recipient, JEON Do-yeon.

Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited stars Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman in an emotional comedy about three brothers re-forging family bonds on a train ride across the vibrant and sensual landscape of India. Anjelica Huston is also featured in the film, co-written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Schwartzman. Anderson, Scott Rudin, Coppola and Lydia Dean Pilcher produced the film, which will screen on Friday, Sept 28. Fox Searchlight will release The Darjeeling Limited in New York on September 29.

Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy, the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a mesmerizing thriller about the violent chain reaction that follows a hunter’s discovery of several dead bodies, a major stash of heroin and $2 million in cash. The film—starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson and Kelly MacDonald and adapted by the Coens—simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headline. Scott Rudin produced the film with the Coen Brothers. Robert Graf and Mark Roybal served as the executive producers. The film will debut on Saturday, Oct. 6. Miramax will release No Country for Old Men in November.

An illegal abortion is the controversial center of the emotionally and cinematically thrilling 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, as two women negotiate for the dangerous procedure in Romania during the final days of the Ceaucescu regime. The Cannes winner features powerful performances by Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu in the lead roles. It is impeccably shot by Oleg Mutu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), directed and written by Mungiu, and produced by both men. IFC First Take will release the film.

Secret Sunshine, writer/director LEE Chang-dong’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2002 film Oasis, captures the unraveling emotions of a single mother who moves to her husband’s hometown Miryang after his death and is soon facing another tragedy. The film features JEON Do-yeon, in her award-winning performance as the mother Sin-ae, and SONG Kang-ho (The Host).

The 45th New York Film Festival continues the Film Society’s tradition of showcasing the most provocative and engaging new films by the world’s finest directors. The Darjeeling Limited is the third Wes Anderson film to be screened in the festival, after Rushmore in 1998 and The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001. The Coens’ Miller’s Crossing opened the 28th New York Film Festival in 1990, while their first film, Blood Simple, was screened at the festival in 1984. LEE Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy screened at the Film Society’s New Directors/New Films series in 1999.

This is only the third time two American productions have been the Opening Night and Centerpiece films in the New York Film Festival since 1995, when the Centerpiece showcases began. In 2002, Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River opened the festival, with the Centerpiece going to Errol Morris’ documentary The Fog of War. Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt opened the festival the year before, with Punch-Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson as the Centerpiece.

Due to ongoing renovations at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, this year’s New York Film Festival screenings will be held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center. Opening Night will also be held at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

The 45th New York Film Festival’s selection committee is comprised of Richard Peña, chairman and program director at the Film Society; Scott Foundas, film editor and critic, L.A. Weekly; J. Hoberman, film critic, The Village Voice, and visiting lecturer at Harvard University; Kent Jones, associate director of programming at the Film Society and editor-at-large of Film Comment magazine; and Lisa Schwarzbaum, film critic, Entertainment Weekly.

As previously announced, this year’s festival sidebar will honor director and screenwriter Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, a renowned member of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, who solidified his place as a master filmmaker with his 1969 classic, Macunaima. Additionally, during the festival, the Film Society will salute New Line Cinema’s 40 years of extraordinary filmmaking at a black-tie gala to benefit the Film Society’s campaign to build a new film center. New Line Cinema’s Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne will be honored at the event on Friday, Oct. 5, at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Advancing this mandate today, the Film Society hosts two distinguished festivals: the New York Film Festival, which annually premieres the best films from around the world and has introduced the likes of François Truffaut, R.W. Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, and Wong Kar-Wai to the United States, and New Directors/New Films, co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art, which focuses on emerging film talents. Since 1972 when the Film Society honored Charles Chaplin, the annual Gala Tribute celebrates an actor, filmmaker or industry leader who has helped distinguish cinema as an art form. Additionally, the Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming at its Walter Reade Theater and offers insightful film writing to a worldwide audience through Film Comment magazine.