Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ to Grace New York Film Festival as Centerpiece Selection

Graceland is coming to New York City. Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated A24 film Priscilla, which follows the life and times of Elvis’s wife, Priscilla Presley, will make its North American premiere at New York Film Festival as the centerpiece selection on October 6 at the Alice Tully Hall. 

Based on Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me, Priscilla stars Mare of Easttown’s Cailee Spaeny and Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as the famous Couple. While Elvis may have been the King of Rock and Roll, Coppola’s Priscilla thrusts his first and only wife into the spotlight, following the teenaged Priscilla Ann Wagner from her childhood as an army brat stationed in West Germany to Graceland with Elvis and beyond. “I am honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with my new film and to be telling Priscilla Presley’s story, the unseen side of a great American myth,” said Coppola, whose previous films Marie Antoinette (2006) and On the Rocks (2020) were both NYFF selections. 

Priscilla marks the second major Presley-centric film in as many years, following Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, starring Austin Butler, which scored eight nominations at the 2023 Oscars (yet notched zero wins). Priscilla also comes after a complicated year for the Presley family. On January 12, Elvis and Priscilla’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, died at the age of 54. A legal battle ensued over the Presley estate involving Priscilla and her granddaughter Riley Keough; it was recently resolved. “They have reached a settlement. Families are happy,” said Priscilla’s lawyer Ronson Shamoun in a statement. “Everyone is happy. Unified and together and excited for the future.”

Whether Spaeny or Elordi will be able to attend Priscilla’s North American premiere is up in the air. The current SAG-AFTRA strike prohibits actors from promoting their work, which includes attending premieres and film festivals. Nevertheless, New York Film Festival is set to run from September 29 to October 15 and will open with Todd Haynes’s May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.