Regina King's directorial debut 'One Night in Miami' to close Hamptons film fest

Regina King’s directorial debut, “One Night in Miami,” will be the closing-night film at this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival. The movie is a fictionalized story about a gathering of Black icons in a Miami hotel room in February 1964 to celebrate Muhammad Ali's (then known as Cassius Clay) surprise heavyweight title win over Sonny Liston. The stars include Eli Goree as Clay, Aldis Hodge as NFL star Jim Brown, Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X and Leslie Odom Jr. (“Hamilton”) as Sam Cooke.

Odom will also participate in a virtual live interview as part of the festival’s regular series “A Conversation With …”

King’s well-reviewed film, which held its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week, shows that the Hamptons festival is still seeking buzzworthy titles and Oscar hopefuls despite the pandemic. After theaters sat dark nearly all summer, the festival in August announced that this year’s edition, its 28th, would offer a combination of virtual and drive-in screenings. The festival runs Oct. 8-14.

Other films newly added to the festival include the U.S. premiere of “I Am Greta,” a profile of the 17-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg; “Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation,” which looks at the friendship between the literary icons Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams; “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand as a Nevada woman who hits the road after an economic collapse; and “Time,” a documentary about a woman campaigning to free her husband from a 60-year jail sentence for a crime they committed in a moment of desperation.

For more information go to hamptonsfilmfest.org.