This year’s AFI Festival is just around the corner, and its organizers found the perfect movie for the opening ceremony. Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On the Basis of Sex will be the first film to screen during the prestigious festival.
The opening night gala screening will take place on November 8, and the full lineup is yet to be revealed. Director Mimi Leder is one of the first women to ever be admitted to the AFI Conservatory, so it’s quite symbolic her movie will get to open the festival.
The premiere of On the Basis of Sex will also mark the 25th anniversary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Leder believes her film couldn’t come at a more important moment in history nor be shown at a more relevant place than AFI Fest. She expressed her hopes that a lot of young women will “find inspiration to realize their own unlimited potential” after seeing this biopic.
Bob Gazzale, president and CEO of the American Film Institute, said its AFI’s honor to shine a proper light upon Leder and this landmark film, starring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer.
“AFI was founded to celebrate excellence in the art form and to ensure it for future generations, On the Basis of Sex brings these dual mandates together as one – a story essential to our times and a triumph for one of the first female directors at the AFI Conservatory,” said Gazzale.
