Some people may consider the New York Film Festival a simple "Best Of" sort of event, but the fact that it compiles selections from earlier film fests and merely showcases them in a competition-free program is what I love about it. For those of us New Yorkers who can't always make it to the highlands of Utah and Colorado or the exotic seaside locales of Italy and Southern France, it's nice to know that major festival highlights will likely make their way to Lincoln Center in late September, early October.

This year, the lineup for the 46th NYFF is being noted for its inclusion of films that previously screened at Cannes back in May. Even Steven Soderbergh's four-hour Che (aka The Argentine and Guerilla), which played to mixed reactions in France, even while picking up a best actor prize for star Benicio Del Toro, has been given a spot. Also featured are Cannes leftovers Waltz With Bashir, Wendy and Lucy, Grand Prix-winner Gomorrah and Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which stars Angelina Jolie and has the honor of being NYFF's centerpiece film. Opening the festival is the Palm d'Or winner The Class, while the closing film is Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which premieres a few weeks prior at the Venice Film Festival.

Other exciting big name films include Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, Wong Kar-Wai's Ashes of Time: Redux, Lucretia Martel's The Headless Woman and Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours. Surprisingly, Charlie Kaufman's Synechdoche, New York, which screened at Cannes, is New York appropriate and is scheduled to open in October, is missing from the lineup.

The complete list of NYFF selections, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, can be found after the jump:

The French educational system will be in the spotlight come late September. The Class, a fictional look at a French high school featuring a real-life teacher, will open the New York Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Directed by Laurent Cantet, The Class won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May and was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics in June.

Critical notices, including one from our own James Rocchi, were quite positive. James wrote in part: "Chronicling a year in the life of a junior high school class in a rougher section of Paris, there's something undeniably French about the film ... But at the same time, these kids and their teacher (Francois Begaudeau) are going through a series of challenges and opportunities that will be familiar to anyone who's ever gone to school." The film is inspired by a novel Begaudeau wrote, based on his own experiences as a teacher.

The festival will also showcase the work of Japanese director Nagisa Oshima (In the Realm of the Senses) and will feature a 30th anniversary presentation of We Spin Around the Night Consumed by the Fire, by Guy Debord, in their "Views From the Avant-Garde" sidebar.

As if often the case with certain festivals, there is no additional information at the official NYFF web site, but eventually I'm sure something will appear. The New York Film Festival runs from September 26 to October 12.

In January, we brought you word of Brian De Palma's newest film, the Iraq war drama called Redacted. Coming from the term used to describe text that has been edited with black bars, the drama details the Al-Mahmudiyah Incident -- where soldiers murdered a young Iraqi girl's parents and younger sister before gang-raping and murdering her as well. The film is currently surfing the film fest circuit, and our Ryan Stewart reviewed it at TIFF. Now the film is being redacted itself.

At the end of his film, the director included disturbing images that were never published by the press, which he had found online. Mark Cuban and Magnolia want them removed. During a recent press conference at the New York Film Festival, IFC captured an argument between De Palma and Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles over the dispute. When De Palma starts to discuss the removal of the images, and his fight to keep them, Bowles jumped in from the back row to argue with him over them, before the film's producer, Jason Kliot, also came on stage to give his two cents. De Palma, meanwhile looks like he can't wait to get out of there and explode.

Ex-Cinematical head and current Spout blogger Karina Longworth contacted Mark Cuban about the argument, and he says: "The film is going to be 'redacted' before we release it. He is using images that have not been cleared... he can absorb 100 percent of the risk and release the film as he sees fit. If he chooses not to, then we will release the movie without the images." But it's not only business, Cuban also swears he won't include them so that family members could accidentally stumble upon the disturbing pictures and see a murdered loved one. I see where he's coming from, but in that case, why would you give De Palma the money to do whatever he wants? It's not like the guy is all about cinnamon hearts and puppies -- this is just like Casualties of War.

I miss many things about living in New York -- the people, the restaurants and bars, Central Park, the smell of baked ass that overtakes the city this time of year (OK, not that last one). But what I miss the most has got to be the film "scene." Getting a coffee and taking the subway to a movie on a Sunday morning always filled me with happiness. NYC also puts on one of the best film festivals in the country -- the cleverly named New York Film Festival. Showcasing 28 films, the fest will be held this year at Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center. Screenings are set for September 28 through October 14th, and this year's lineup is a real doozy. It includes new films from Sidney Lumet (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, with Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman), Catherine Breillat (The Last Mistress, just grabbed by IFC), Todd Haynes (I'm Not There, his Bob Dylan movie), Abel Ferrara (the promisingly titled Go-Go Tales, starring Willem Dafoe), Noah Baumbach (following up the excellent Squid and the Whale with Margot at the Wedding), the ascotted Peter Bogdanovich (profiling one of my favorite bands with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream), and Brian DePalma (an Iraq war drama called Redacted).

Wes Anderson's new film (can't wait!) The Darjeeling Limited will open the NYFF. The Coen Brothers' new one No Country for Old Men (really really can't wait!) will be the "centerpiece" of the festival. And Cannes '07 jury prize-winner Persepolis, an "animated coming-of-age" story directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, will close the fest. Also showcased will be Cannes favorites like Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, Julian Schnabel's French-language The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. In addition, there will be five classic films screened, including John Ford's first major film -- The Iron Horse. Probably the most anticipated of that bunch is Ridley Scott's "definitive cut" of Blade Runner, in honor of that film's 25th anniversary. An evening called "The Technicolor Show" should be a major attraction, as it's introduced by Martin Scorsese. Head over to Yahoo Movies for the full roster.

This Friday marks the triumphant opening of the 44th Annual New York Film Festival, which yours truly has been placed in charge of covering for Cinematical. Though the fest is not open to the public until September 29, I've spent the past week and a half attending press screenings for the many films included within its fantastic lineup. Yes, very fun stuff indeed.

As I repeatedly drag my lazy ass onto a train and commute into the city from my new apartment in Queens, I try to remind myself that, while most of the people around me are probably heading towards some boring corporate job, I'm going to see a movie. However, that thought usually lasts for about five minutes, and then I'm once again the grumpiest person in the world -- the guy you don't want to ask for directions -- until I'm eventually able to inject some much-needed caffeine directly into my brain. (Which reminds me: isn't it about time we start up a "Just Say No to Starbucks" campaign? After a few more screenings, I'll be officially giving them more money per month than I pay to my landlord. Scary, ain't it?)

The 43rd annual New York Film Festival will open on September 23 with a screening of George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck.  The fest will close on October 9 with Cache, the film that won Michael Haneke Best Director honors at Cannes. In between, viewers will be treated to works by, among others, Lars von Trier, Michael Winterbottom, Steven Soderbergh, and Hou Hsai-hsien.

Unintentionally, this year's fest has a pair of loose themes, according to program coordinator Richard Pena. The first is history, specifically "how [it] is treated, re-created and expressed onscreen and in art." For example, both von Trier's and Hsai-hsien's films explore very specific historical periods, as does Goodnight and Good Luck. Secondly, the program features an unusual number of films from Eastern Europe, with Pena says reflects the re-emergence of cinema in places like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Tickets go on sale to Film Society of Lincoln Center members on August 26, while the general public can begin buying on September 11. If you'd like to start planning your obsessive viewing (I'm making my own list as we speak), the full list of films and events can be found here.