The New York Film Festival, which takes place from September 30-October 16 this fall, has just announced that “20th Century Women” starring Annette Bening will be the Centerpiece selection.

Directed by Mike Mills, “20th Century Women” is, as NYFF describes, a “behaviorally rich new comedy [that] keeps redefining itself as it goes along, creating a moving group portrait of particular people in a particular place (Santa Barbara) at a particular moment in the 20th century (1979), one lovingly attended detail at a time. The great Annette Bening, in one of her very best performances, is a single mother raising her teenage son (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann) in a sprawling bohemian house, shared by an itinerant carpenter (Billy Crudup) and a punk artist with a Bowie haircut (Greta Gerwig), and frequented by her son’s rebellious friend (Elle Fanning). ‘20th Century Women’ is warm, funny, and a work of passionate artistry.”

“I was taken aback by ‘20th Century Women,’” said NYFF Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones. “It’s made with an extraordinarily unusual level of craft and attention to detail, human and visual, which is now all but extinct.”

Last week, it was announced that Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) had secured the Opening Night spot at the fest for her documentary “The 13th.” It’s the first ever non-fiction film to open the fest, and DuVernay is the first female filmmaker in 12 years to open NYFF.

Tickets for the 54th New York Film Festival will go on sale September 11.