Jacob Elordi is bringing his blue suede shoes to the Big Apple…
Film at Lincoln Center has set Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, starring the 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor as Elvis Presley, as the Centerpiece selection for the 61st New York Film Festival.
The A24 film starring Cailee Spaeny as Elvis’ wife, Priscilla Beaulieu, will make its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on October 6.
The festival runs from September 29 to October 15, opening with Todd Haynes’ May December starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
Never has there been a more obsessed-over icon than Elvis Presley, yet no one knew him more tenderly than Priscilla, whose story as Elvis’s romantic partner and only wife has rarely been told from her perspective.
Coppola, who often depicts women living complicated lives behind closed doors, follows Priscilla’s love affair with Elvis, played by Elordi, from her early years as a teenage army brat in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland.
“I am honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with my new film and to be telling Priscilla Presley’s story, the unseen side of a great American myth,” said Coppola. Her screenplay was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me.
Coppola’s On the Rocks (2020) and Marie Antoinette (2006) were NYFF selections.
“Priscilla is a culminating triumph for Sofia Coppola, a filmmaker with a singular gift for illuminating the interior lives of her characters,” said Dennis Lim, the festival’s Artistic Director. “It’s a showcase for a pair of star-making performances and a work of tremendous empathy and emotional nuance. We are looking forward to welcoming Sofia back to the festival with one of her very best films.”
Coppola was the second woman to win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled (2017). Her other films include directorial debut The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003 Oscar, Best Original Screenplay), Somewhere (2010 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), The Bling Ring (2013) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015).
She served as producer on Fairyland (2023). She also directed a production of La Traviata at the Rome Opera House alongside Valentino and production designer Nathan Crowley.
Priscilla’s cinematography was handled by Philippe Le Sourd, with original music by Phoenix.
