I sat down to interview Tribeca Film Festival Director Cara Cusumano to deep dive into the official selection.
We chat about the highlights of the festival, including Quentin Tarantino’s first acting role in 30 years, two Al Pacino films, and some first-time directors backed by multiple Sundance-winning producers. And hidden gems in the official selection.
The rest of this article contains the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival program lineup.
Typically, when you see lineups, it is a long list spread across multiple web pages. What we have done is broken it up into categories:
Cover Story that breaks down the top films at the festival.
Tribeca Industry News, which breaks out the festival films from the major studios.
Tribeca Actor Spotlight, highlighting the top talent at the festival.
Tribeca Tech Section, with a film about AI that caught our attention.
Tribeca Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcasing first and second-time filmmakers.
Tribeca International News, showing the top international filmmakers at Tribeca.
All titles are linked to the Tribeca’s website, which has first look photos.
Enjoy!
To see the full article, you can read it here.
Tribeca Film Festival in NYC is a menagerie of some of the best up-and-coming in indie cinema. And interestingly, there are more studio pics here than at Cannes.
This year’s edition features a robust competition by mostly newcomers, while some of the flashier films, detailed below, are in non-competition sections:
Dir: Rachel Rose (first feature)
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Wagner Moura
Prod Co: Killer Films
Prod Co: Kaplan Morrison (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Josephine)
Synopsis:
On a July 4th in New York, Julia, a writer and mother, encounters figures from her past and a troubled young mother, prompting her to confront her lack of creative purpose and rediscover herself within the life she has.
Dir/Wri: Zach Woods (debut film)
Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Susan Sarandon
Producer: Carlos Zozaya (Gasoline Rainbow)
Section: Spotlight Narrative
Synopsis:
70-year-old Sylvia becomes an unlikely foster parent to 8-year-old Emily, removed from her dementia-stricken grandfather’s care after a near-fatal incident in New Jersey.
Dir: Rob Burnett (The Fundamentals of Caring)
Genre: dramedy
Cast: Marc Maron, Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, Sharon Stone, Justin Long
Synopsis:
What is the one thing that a dying man (Maron) feels will prove his life was worth something? A place in the Academy Awards® “In Memoriam” segment, of course.
This is Burnett’s first feature in a decade. And Maron will play a version of himself.
Prod: Eli Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio
In Tribeca’s Escape from New York section
Synopsis:
Eighty years ago, the “Baby Boom” led to a massive uptick in births. Now, we’re seeing the inevitable end of that surge as those tens of millions of people pass away. This fascinating doc explores the dilemma now facing the funeral industry and the many inventive solutions being pioneered.
Roth hosts, so Death Boom has a macabre tinge.
Tidbits:
Alicia Keys will have a special appearance after the closing night film, Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell’s Kitchen. Sign up here.
The Boy Meets World child stars (Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong) do a live show podcast talkback after the premiere of their Spotlight+ Doc Meets World. Check it out here.
Hillary Clinton in the house. Clinton will give a talkback following the documentary Miss Representation: Rise Up. Sign up here.
Mumford & Sons performance?! Yes, after the world premiere of their Spotlight+ doc Mumford & Sons: The House Band, there will be an acoustic performance. Notably, the doc is produced by Bryan Ling (music supervisor: Good Smart), who started his career as a DJ on Grandma’s Boy (2006). Get tickets here.
THE TRIBECA INDUSTRY NEWS
HBO’s Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS. That’s the Weight of the World) will open the Tribeca Film Festival.
Continuing its pattern of opening-night films centered on musical legends (last year spotlighted Billy Joel), the doc will showcase the humble beginnings of Questlove’s epic, celestial, metaphysical, and pyrotechnical stadium shows.
Followed by a rocking live performance after the screening.
HBO will also world premiere:
Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story
Prod: Caroline Waterlow (ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America)
Here are the other studios showcasing films:
Netflix - 2 films
1x Spotlight Narrative - In the Hand of Dante, directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, and Gerard Butler.
Synopsis:
A handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” makes its way from a priest to a mob boss in New York City, where it is taken by Nick Tosches after he’s asked to verify its authenticity.
The film premiered at Venice.
1x Spotlight Documentary - Chris & Martina: The Final Set
Synopsis:
Tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova reflect on their parallel journeys to sports stardom and their shared experience of cancer treatment.
Paramount’s Republic Pictures - 1 film
1x Spotlight Narrative - Finnegan’s Foursome, directed, written, produced, and starring Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen).
Synopsis:
Two Irish American brothers and their children, all highly competitive golfers, returning to their ancestral homeland.
Disney - 2 films
2x Spotlight Narrative - Hulu’s Never Change! produced by Spider-Man’s Jon Watts
Synopsis:
Former high school seniors reunite in their 30s to complete their education after a tornado abruptly ended their final year in 2005. As they return to the halls of North Meadows High, past relationships reignite and hidden truths surface.
Disney+’s They Fight starring André Holland and Wendell Pierce. Produced by Disney’s Andscape
Synopsis:
Recently released from prison, coach Walt Mangian joins a local youth gym to help a ragtag team of adolescent boxers aspiring to a national championship.
Tidbits:
Angel Studios will premiere Young Washington, co-starring Ben Kingsley and Mary-Louise Parker. Trailer.
Topic Studios (Neon’s Splitsville, A24’s Mother Mary) is the production company for the Tribeca viewpoints doc Matininó. Visually, it looks insane.
Sony Pictures Classics’ Gail Daugherty and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which premiered at Sundance, and Unidentified, which premiered at TIFF, will play at Tribeca in the Spotlight Narrative section.
Not a studio film, but Just Look Up, the climate doc is EP’d by Adam McKay and Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing).
Oscar-nominee documentarian Sam Pollard has The Lorraine about the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
TRIBECA ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Zach Braff embraces his dark side. In the world premiere of Clean Hands, Braff plays a narcotics officer grappling with his 19-year-old daughter’s worsening opioid addiction.
It’s not the first time Braff has delved into much darker material. While not as an actor, he directed the Amazon MGM Studio’s A Good Person (trailer), which centered on Morgan Freeman’s son being killed in a car accident right before his wedding day.
Braff showed a surprising range in the original Scrubs (clip), but it has been hard for him to shake that ever-present shadow of twee. Braff has always had a lot of unappreciated acting chops, and we’re excited to see him do something that stretches his abilities.
Double Al Pacino. The 85-year-old actor appears in two Tribeca projects, Netflix’s In the Hand of Dante and Killing Castro.
The story:
In 1960, Fidel Castro comes to America to speak at the UN. He is invited by Malcolm X to stay in Harlem at the famous Hotel Theresa. Unsure of his intentions, the FBI, CIA and the Mafia, attempt to eliminate him by any means necessary.
It’s a wild piece of unknown history to unearth. No word on who Pacino is playing, but there’s been talk of an undercover cop in the story… it may be too late for a Serpico sequel, but we can always dream.
Tim Blake Nelson plays the Heaven’s Gate cult leader Marshall Herff Applewhite in the new true-crime thriller The Leader. The film, which is world premiering at Tribeca, is inspired by Heaven’s Gate (not the infamous movie), the infamous religious group that committed the largest mass suicide to ever take place in the US.
I’ve now had the pleasure of hosting 2x live events with Nelson and can say with confidence he is ultra-smart. And given his predilection to play oddballs, I can’t imagine anyone better for the role. All the footage of Applewhite looks like he’s on some sort of mind-controlled kids’ TV show. And Nelson can be commanding and goofy all in equal measure.
Vera Farmiga will play the cult’s co-founder.
Mini Tidbits:
David Cross, Thomas Mann, Hasan Minhaj. This hilarious trio stars in the Narrative Competition film Lucy Schulman, which follows a woman who, after a bad breakup, moves back in with her wacky dad. It’s supposed to be very sweet. Written, directed, and starring Ellie Sachs. Produced by Fernando Loureiro (Francis Ha).
Paul Rudd co-stars in Rain Reign about a 12-year-old, neurodivergent girl cared for by her struggling single dad and well-meaning uncle, but she runs off during a superstorm. Rudd often plays ill-equipped father figures, like his recent performance in Lionsgate’s Power Ballad, but it had him on such a righteous mission that he should do well in this.
3x Emmy winner Margo Martindale plays a long-haul trucker who’s been running from a dark truth for decades in The Long Haul.
Bob Odenkirk climbs a mountain. No, it’s not the next Nobody 3 or Normal 2. It’s a doc called Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, following Odenkirk and David Cross on a crazy hike where they learn a lot about each other.
Quentin Tarantino acts for the first time in 30 years?! Yep, read our cover story breakdown for Only What We Carry.
TECH SECTION
There are several films at Tribeca that delve into AI, including the doc Probably Nothing to Worry About.
However, the one that stuck out to me is Deepfake, which is a feature narrative.
Synopsis:
Rudderless millennial Jane hires a team of Gen-Z consultants to reinvent her life. But what begins as a makeover soon spirals into a sharp social media satire about image, app culture, and the cost of becoming someone else.
Next up, an ever stranger science film: Retrieval (documentary competition).
Synopsis:
If science allowed you to hold onto a piece of someone you lost, would you? When Christina’s fiancé dies suddenly, she faces the unexpected decision of whether or not to carry on his legacy via postmortem sperm retrieval.
Not tech-related by subject matter. But DP turned Director Joshua Z Weinstein is a master technician. His sophomore film is in the narrative competition, Here I’m Alive.
Synopsis:
One night. One city. Migrants, sex workers, and dreamers hustle New York’s digital underbelly in this neo-realist urban epic driven by underground rap and spiritual jazz. Raw, unforgettable and unmistakably New York.
Weinstein was an additional DP on Paramount+’s Predators (2025), a camera op on Pavements (2024), and the DP and director of A24’s Menashe.
TRIBECA INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Producers Rafael Marmor and Christopher Leggett (Netflix’s Will and Harper) have two docs at Tribeca.
Synopsis:
From the rise of NASA to the gripping rescue mission of Apollo 13, told entirely through over 2,500 hours of rare archival material including much never before available to the public. Using rare footage, chronicles Apollo 13’s 1970 crisis through Lovell’s family perspective and global cooperation efforts. After tank explosion damaged vital systems, NASA worked to bring astronauts safely home.
Synopsis:
From Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, Playing POTUS explores how comedians don’t just parody leaders, they help define them. Featuring comedy legends and late-night insiders, this sharp, entertaining documentary reveals how presidential impressions became one of America’s most influential and surprisingly powerful forms of political storytelling.
Directed and produced by Josh Greenbaum (Will and Harper).
What’s really astonishing about Marmor and Leggett is how versatile they are. Playing POTUS reminds me a little of their doc Becoming Bond (2017, also directed by Greenbaum), which focused on the wild way George Lazenby became Bond. It was as much fiction as it was fact, and we have a feeling that with the wild cast of subjects, playing POTUS could be similar.
Allison Rose Carter and Jon Read are some of the top indie producers in the game. They co-produced Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and production supervised and line produced American Honey (2016) and Zola (2020). Now they are producing a new film:
Synopsis:
In this rhythmic psychological thriller, a lonely aspiring teen actress finds herself drawn to an acting teacher who pulls her into a web of desire and control, blurring the lines of seduction and obsession.
Tribeca actor turned director tidbits:
Katie Holmes third feature film is the rom-drama Happy Hours. It’s set in NYC and follows two former lovers reunited years after their relationship ended. Mary-Louise Parker also stars.
Gabriel Basso, the Super 8 actor who recently starred as J.D. Vance in Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy, makes his debut film, Iconoclast, in which he also stars. It follows a reclusive loner’s obsession with a live-streaming influencer, who reshapes his entire existence.
Mini Tidbits:
Best Picture Oscar-winning producer Samantha Quan, EPs Via Negativa. The film, playing in the US Narrative Competition, follows a young priest facing a crisis of faith. He sets off on a road trip to heal when he picks up a wounded coyote.
Shanghai’s Before Sunset. In the narrative competition film Ephemera, set in post-pandemic Shanghai, a Chinese-American actress, Asher, asks out her Hip Hop dance teacher, Tori, sparking an electric, city-wide romance that must end by sunrise.
Like that scene in 500 Days of Summer, but the entire movie. In Next Life, directed by Drake Doremus (A24’s Equals), Emilia Clarke meets a handsome jazz musician on a train. The film follows two separate realities, one where she falls in love with the stranger, and the other where she reconnects with her ex.
First-time director Alex Vlack amasses a cast with Alison Brie, André Holland, and Dustin Hoffman. His film is The Revisionist, about a novelist who manipulates the people in her life like a book. We could see Brie being hilarious in that role.
Sundance and Berlin’s Take Me Home will make its NY Premiere. The film took the US Dramatic Screenwriting award this year at Sundance.
Greg Kohs, who directed the original Song Sung Blue documentary on which the Focus Features’ film with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson is based, brings a doc to Tribeca in the Spotlight section: The A-Word: The Future of Aging, about the science of extending lifespan.
An interesting doc that won’t be on the Food Network. How to Feed a Dictator centers on 5 chefs who have fed dictators and their experience of being morally compromised.
Fun doc synopsis: Stealing Magic: Someone is stealing the secrets behind magicians’ greatest tricks and selling them on illicit websites. An unlikely team of illusionists on an international caper to track down the culprits. I hope it turns out like the wild Sundance doc Tickled.
The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono is Sean Ono Lennon. He has a doc in Spotlight called threeASFOUR: Full Circle.
Cheyenne Cage (prod: Omni Loop) produces the narrative debut of production designer Cheyenne Cage (Couple Therapy, art director: The Miseducation of Cameron Post). Mother Future Self is about an experimental dance camp in rural Maine, where two friends’ reunion goes horribly wrong.
TV director Doron Max Hagay (Hacks, SNL) makes his feature debut with She Keeps Me Young, playing in the Narrative competition.
Genre director Mickey Keating (Sundance’s Carnage Park) is back with Crooks in the Viewpoints section, centering on a timeless Chicago for a pulpy, streetwise crime thriller.
TRIBECA INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Ramin Bahrani (Dir: 99 Homes, EP: Neon’s The End) produces Zejtune, from Malta, Germany, and Qatar. The film is having its North American Premiere in the international documentary competition section.
Synopsis:
To sever ties with her homeland once and for all, Mar must traverse Malta to claim her inheritance. Guided by a charismatic, octogenarian troubadour, she finds herself softening to the country’s charms.
Another film that caught my attention…
Labrador — Autopsy of Silence playing in the International Narrative Competition.
Synopsis:
As a cargo ship sails through a storm off the coast of Basse-Côte-Nord, a cook is found murdered on board. From the perspective of Alupa Tulugak, an Inuk mechanic and friend of the victim, this story reconstructs the events as a thriller.
Directed by Rodrigue Jean.
This one sounds heavy but powerful:
Synopsis:
After losing their childhood best friend, Yalda and Lou are left to clear out Solveigh’s apartment. In Alisa Kolosova’s bittersweet love letter to female solidarity, the two women must confront the most important lingering question while they sift through memories: Who should take custody of Solveigh’s five-year-old daughter?
One film to look out for in the Viewpoints section is Crocodile. It follows a young Nigerian art collective that creates DIY sci-fi films with homemade equipment, documenting their lives while exploring fantastical alternate realities. An energetic celebration of creativity and resourceful storytelling.
See the full list of 2026 Tribeca films here.
Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.
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