Crowds poured into Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall for the October 6 world premiere of writer-director David Chase’s first feature, “Not Fade Away” at the New York Film Festival. Chase, creator of HBO’s critically-acclaimed drama series “The Sopranos,” told the audience before the screening that the movie shares with the series a focus on a New Jersey Italian-American family, but “Not Fade Away” is more music than mobster: The film, set in the 1960s, follows the formation of a band by a group of high school friends. “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini plays the lead singer’s disapproving father. The soundtrack is punctuated with songs by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones—many of which were performed by the actors themselves—which had moviegoers clapping in their seats.

“Not Fade Away” was selected from more than 2,500 film submissions received by the New York Film Festival this year, which drew record numbers for its 50th anniversary. Last night’s event drew the entire cast of the film except for Gandolfini, at home with his pregnant wife.