The New York Film Festival (N.Y.F.F.) was founded in 1963, just as the city was preparing to turn Flushing Meadows into the futuristic playground of the 1964 World’s Fair. Both events anticipated where the future—in cinema, in culture—was going. That throughline continues in N.Y.F.F.’s 64th edition, which opens with James Gray’s Paper Tiger, a distinctly New York crime drama set in 1980s Queens and starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Miles Teller. The festival concludes with Ava DuVernay’s 14th, an ambitious follow-up to her 13th. Both titles refer to U.S. amendments; 14th explores 150 years of conflict over the amendment’s promises of equal protection under the law, due process, and birthright citizenship. More than 60 years since its inception, the N.Y.F.F. is still doing what it does best—creating culture, then having plenty to say about it. —Clara Scholl