AMHERST — Playwright Annie Baker’s feature film directorial debut, featuring location shoots in Amherst, Hadley and Leverett in summer 2022, will be shown at the 61st annual New York City Film Festival this fall.

The festival, running from Sept. 29 to Oct. 15 at Lincoln Center and other venues, includes 32 films.

“Janet Planet” is the title of the movie by Baker, a 1999 Amherst Regional High School graduate. According to a plot description, the film focuses on a child’s summer before sixth grade, the time spent at a home in the woods with her acupuncturist mother and the three adults who enter their lives. Set in 1991 in western Massachusetts, the film stars Zoe Ziegler as Lacy, Julianne Nicholson as Janet, as well as Elias Koteas, Sophie Okonedo and Will Patton.

Filming was done at sites including Mount Pollux, the glacial drumlin in Amherst, the Hampshire Mall and an ice cream stand in Hadley, and a home on Teawaddle Hill Road in Leverett.

An article published in Men’s Journal cites “Janet Planet” as one of five “titles to watch” at the festival:

“Debut films are always exciting to keep tabs on during festival season, particularly those from people who have made their living in theater. ”

Baker, an associated professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is already an acclaimed playwright who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play “The Flick.” She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017.

The film festival opens with “May December” by director Todd Haynes and starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and closes with director Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, while the Centerpiece screening is director Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.”

]]>