Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke will be the guests of honor at the New York Film Festival's “An Evening With…” events. The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host Hawke September 30 while “An Evening With …Richard Gere will take place October 8, presented by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

In a departure from the tribute format from previous years, “An Evening With…”will include an intimate dinner and a conversation between the guests and NYFF Director Kent Jones, and will benefit the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Hawke will also be attending the festival as a director, on behalf of his documentary Seymour: An Introduction, and Gere stars in the Main Slate selection from director Oren Moverman, Time Out of Mind.

The events honor the work of individuals who have made “significant artistic contributions to film culture, and will continue to do so in the future.” Past honorees include Pedro AlmodĂłvar, David Cronenberg, Nicole Kidman, Richard Peña, and last year’s guests, Cate Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes. The “An Evening With…” dinner events will take place in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center.

Ethan Hawke:

“As an actor Ethan Hawke is adventurous and hasn't gone the route a lot of others have. He has a real allegiance to his craft,” said NYFF Director Kent Jones. “He doesn't go all over just for the money. He's had an exemplary career.”

A multiple Academy Award-nominee as both actor and writer, a Tony nominee for his stage work, and author, Ethan Hawke made his debut at the age of 15 in Joe Dante’s Explorers (1985). Soon afterward he gained recognition as a student in Peter Weir's Dead Poet Society (1989) starring Robin Williams. Hawke established a reputation as a young actor to watch and tapped into the pop culture zeitgeist with Ben Stiller’s 1994 comedy Reality Bites.

In one of the great film partnerships in modern movies, Hawke has teamed up with director Richard Linklater for The Newton Boys (1998), Waking Life (2001), Tape (2001), Fast Food Nation (2006), as well as the critically acclaimed “Before Trilogy,” comprised of Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013), the third installment of which Hawke, Linklater, and co-star and co-writer Julie Delpy received Academy Award and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Hawke and Linklater’s most recent collaboration, the widely acclaimed Boyhood. Shot over 12 years, the film chronicles the life of a child from ages 6 through 18.

“Boyhood is not [at NYFF] but the only reason it's not here is because it came out in June. It's one of the greatest films I've ever seen,” observed Jones. “It was as good as I thought it was going to be and that much greater. I've seen it three times and I look forward to it six more times. Every time I see it his performance gets more impressive to me.” Hawke will be at NYFF with his fourth directorial credit, Seymour: An Introduction. The documentary explores th life and lesson of piano teacher Seymour Bernstein whom Jones noted is an artist who goes beyond teaching technique. “He teaches, but doesn't just teach piano, he teaches the spirituality of making art and that's why Ethan made the movie,” said Jones. “[Ethan Hawke] met Seymour at a dinner when he had his own issues he was struggling with in relation to his own practice and Seymour, through their conversations, helped him.”

Hawke has three other films set for release in 2015, including the Spierig Brothers’ Predestination for Sony; Michael Almereyda’s take on William Shakespeare's Cymbeline, a Lionsgate release; and Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill. Hawke also recently wrapped production on Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's Ten Thousand Saints; Alejandro Amenábar’s Regression alongside Emma Watson; and Blumhouse Productions and Ti West's In a Valley of Violence alongside John Travolta and Taissa Farmiga.

Richard Gere:

“Richard Gere has stayed true to his craft and hasn't twisted himself into a pretzel the way other actors unfortunately do in order to 'stay on top of the game,'” observed Jones about Gere who stars in Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind at this year's NYFF. “But in the process he stays on top of his own game. He's his own man.”

Richard Gere made his feature-film debut in Milton Katselas’s Report to the Commissioner (1975), following success on the London stage, where he was one of the few Americans ever to work at Britain’s Young Vic Theatre, in The Taming of the Shrew. Two years later, he gave a career-making performance as a violent hustler opposite Diane Keaton in Richard Brooks’s Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). The following year he starred in Terrence Malick’s classic Days of Heaven (1978), and then went on to establish himself as a major star with his iconic performances as a jaded male escort in Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo (1980) and a naval cadet involved in a passionate romance in Taylor Hackford’s An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), which garnered him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

Throughout the ’80s Gere appeared in numerous films, including Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club (1984) opposite Diane Lane, Bruce Beresford’s King David (1985), Richard Pearce’s No Mercy (1986), Sidney Lumet’s Power (1986), and Gary Sinise’s Miles from Home (1988). His was on display with his portrayals of a corrupt and amoral cop in Mike Figgis’s Internal Affairs, and as a businessman romancing a call girl played by Julia Roberts in Garry Marshall’s blockbuster Pretty Woman, which earned him his second Golden Globe Best Actor nomination. Gere made his debut as a producer and starred opposite Jodie Foster in Jon Amiel’s Sommersby (1993). Additional career highlights include his performances as a lawyer representing Edward Norton’s altar-boy suspect in Gregory Hoblit’s Primal Fear (1996), a lawyer wrongly accused of murder in Jon Avnet’s Red Corner (1997) and a reporter in Runaway Bride (1999).

In 2002 Gere had a slate of releases with Mark Pellington's thriller The Mothman Prophecies and Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, which reunited him with Daine Lane. He also starred in Rob Marshall's Oscar-winning big-screen version of the musical Chicago, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor. In 2012 he received another Golden Globe nominee for his portrayal of a fast-talking hedge fund magnate in Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage.

In Time Out of Mind, screening in NYFF's official Main Slate selection, Gere portrays a homeless man surviving on the streets of New York City and desperate to connect with his estranged daughter. “He's absolutely amazing in this movie,” noted Jones. “He doesn't do what you'd expect an actor to do when [playing a person who doesn't] have a place to live. In other words it's not a movie about a homeless man but about a guy who slowly and incrementally realizes he's homeless—that's different. He's not acting out the desperation of the situation. He's letting the city and the circumstances and the fact he's homeless flow through his being. That is really rare.”

Gere will next be seen Andrew Renzi’s Franny, with Dakota Fanning, and John Madden’s The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, both due in theaters in 2015.

The Film Society Executive Director Lesli Klainberg said about this year's “An Evening With…” events: “We are very excited to be honoring two men that have built very successful careers enjoying both critical and box-office success, yet—as evidenced by their films at this year’s New York Film Festival are still exploring as artists and doing some of their best work yet.”

[For information on how to purchase tables of 10 or single tickets to either of the “An Evening With…” events, please contact Austin Lee Brown at [email protected] or (212) 875-5285.]