Hamptons International Film Festival sets Paul Simon interview, documentary screening

Paul Simon will sit for a live interview at this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival to promote the new documentary “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” directed by Alex Gibney.

Simon, 81, is so far the highest-profile guest at the festival, which like many has been hampered by the ongoing actors strike.

With nearly all publicity and promotional work banned under the guidelines set down by the SAG-AFTRA union, actors are largely staying away from red-carpet events such as film festivals. Though Simon has worked as an actor in the past, the strike’s guidelines do allow subjects of documentaries — specifically nontheatrical ones — to promote their films. A similar exemption applied to Sylvester Stallone, the subject of the Netflix documentary “Sly,” who is scheduled to appear Saturday on behalf of that movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“In Restless Dreams,” which runs a reported 3½ hours, traces the entire arc of Simon’s career, highlighting his breakthrough years with Art Garfunkel in the 1960s, his Grammy Award-winning 1986 album “Graceland” and his latest release, “Seven Psalms,” which came out in May.

“Having the truth about me depicted by an observer is very interesting to me,” Simon said of Gibney’s film during a recent appearance at the Toronto festival, according to The Associated Press. “I overestimate myself and I dislike myself to a sufficient degree that I’d rather give it to someone else to document.”

Along with the news of Simon’s appearance, festival organizers on Thursday announced their full lineup of films. A notable addition is the closing night selection, “Maestro,” starring Bradley Cooper as the iconic composer and symphony conductor Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as his wife, Felicia Montealegre. The film is Cooper’s second directorial effort, following 2018’s Oscar-winning “A Star Is Born,” and will be released theatrically by Netflix on Nov. 22.

The other newly announced titles range from small-scale dramas to high-concept comedies. Director Alexander Payne recasts his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti as a grouchy prep school instructor in “The Holdovers,” while “Ex-Husbands” reunites Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette (both of 1985's “After Hours”) as a divorced couple. In “Dream Scenario,” Nicolas Cage plays a biology professor who begins appearing in the dreams of strangers; in “Fingernails,” Jessie Buckley and Jeremy Allen White play a couple whose love is confirmed by a strange new technology. “American Fiction” features Jeffrey Wright as an author whose intentionally lousy novel becomes a literary sensation; “Quiz Lady” stars Awkwafina as a game-show obsessive who goes on a road trip.

The Hamptons International Film Festival runs Oct. 5 through 12. For tickets and more information go to hamptonsfilmfest.org.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman