'Joker' Screening, Extended Version of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Cotton Club' Set for NY Film Fest

Additionally the annual Lincoln Center event will feature the world premiere of 'American Trial: The Eric Garner Story.'

While Warner Bros.' highly anticipated Joaquin Phoenix starrer Joker wasn't previously announced as an official part of the lineup for the New York Film Festival, Todd Phillips' origin story of the famed Batman villain will, in fact, screen at the annual fall event.

Joker will get a special "sneak preview" screening at the New York Film Festival, it was announced Friday, following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and North American premiere at Toronto ahead of its Oct. 4 theatrical release.

The screening will be followed by an extended Q&A with Phoenix, Phillips and the film's creative team.

Additionally, it was announced Friday that the NYFF, presented by Film at Lincoln Center, will screen an extended, restored version of Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, dubbed The Cotton Club Encore, for which the iconic director recovered lost negatives to restore sound, image and the movie's intended length. Coppola will participate in a Q&A at the festival.

The NYFF will also feature the world premiere of American Trial: The Eric Garner Story, which depicts the fictional unscripted trial of recently fired NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner's 2014 death by police chokehold in Staten Island. The judge is played by an experienced defense lawyer and Pantaleo is played by the only actor in the cast, Anthony Altieri, in a film directed by Roee Messinger that features the testimony of real-life witnesses and friends of Garner, including his widow Esaw Snipes, and the participation of two real legal teams. This screening, followed by an extended panel with the director and a number of the film's participants, will be free to the public.

The NYFF will also feature a screenwriting master class with Olivier Assayas and talks with Martin Scorsese, whose latest work The Irishman will have its world premiere as the festival's opening night film; Pedro Almodovar; Bong Joon-ho; and Mati Diop.

The 57th New York Film Festival is set to take place from Sept. 27-Oct. 13.