Scratch the three big New York Film Festival debuts — Ang Lee‘s Life of Pi, David Chase‘s Not Fade Away and Robert Zemeckis‘s Flight — and a lot of what’s left are films that first screened at last May’s Cannes Film Festival and/or will show at the Toronto Film Festival.

Among the Cannes hand-me-downs are Michael Haneke‘s Amour, Cristian Mungiu‘s Beyond The Hills, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani‘s Ceasar Must Die, Leo Carax‘s Holy Motors, Pablo Larrain‘s No and Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone In Love. The Toronto-first titles include Noah Baumbach‘s Frances Ha, Sally Potter‘s Ginger and Rosa, Roger Michell‘s Hyde Park on Hudson and Brian De Palma‘s Passion.

This is just a slapdash reaction. I haven’t really sunk into the slate. For those who didn’t attend Cannes or who won’t be in Toronto, it’s a very strong roster. But for me, the only NYFF films I’m really cranked about are Not Fade Away, Flight and Olivier Assayas‘s Something In The Air, which will debut at the 2012 Venice Film Fesitval.

The 50th annual New York Film Festival runs from 9.28 through Sunday, 10.14.