Two other films as part of `12 Years a Slave` director's `Small Axe` anthology will also make their world premieres at 58th edition of NYFF. Steve McQueen's `Lovers Rock` will be the opening night film for the 2020 New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center announced Monday.

The 58th edition of NYFF kicks off on September 25 with the latest from the `12 Years a Slave` director. And `Lovers Rock,` which will make its world premiere, is one of five films as part of an anthology from McQueen called `Small Axe.` All five movies, including `Mangrove,` `Lovers Rock,` `Alex Wheatle,` `Education` and `Red, White and Blue,` are set to premiere on BBC One later this year and on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

Two other films as part of McQueen's anthology, `Mangrove` and `Red, White and Blue,` will also have their world premieres as part of the festival. The full main slate for the New York Film Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

NYFF this year will host outdoor and virtual screenings with some indoor screenings as possible as directed by state and health officials. And some movies will also for the first time screen at two drive-in theaters: the Queens Drive-In at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, created by Rooftop Films, the New York Hall of Science, and Museum of the Moving Image; and the Brooklyn Drive-In at The Brooklyn Army Terminal, created by Rooftop Films and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Specific dates, along with programming and ticketing details for these screenings, will follow in the coming weeks.

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The 58th edition of the New York Film Festival (NYFF) will open with Steve McQueen's `Lovers Rock,` with the festival also playing home to two other features that comprise McQueen's ambitious new `Small Axe` series in its main slate. Learn more about NYFF's brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings over at the link in our bio.⁠ --⁠ #nyff #stevemcqueen #loversrock #smallaxe #film

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`Lovers Rock` tells a fictional story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s. Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the BAFTAs 2020 Rising Star award recipient Micheal Ward. Shaniqua Okwok, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Ellis George, Alexander James-Blake and Kadeem Ramsay also star, as well as Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby, who make their screen debuts.