Top 25 Films to Watch at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival
For the 25th anniversary of the Tribeca Festival, a Top 25 list feels especially appropriate. The 2026 edition takes place from June 3 to 14 in New York City, marking a major milestone for a festival that began in the aftermath of September 11 and has since grown into one of the more wide-ranging cultural events on the festival calendar. Tribeca has always occupied a slightly different space than some of the major fall or international festivals. It is rooted in independent film, but it has also built its identity around the broader idea of storytelling as a communal experience.
That expanded identity is especially clear this year. The 2026 programme includes 118 feature films, 86 shorts, and a record 103 world premieres, alongside music, television, podcasts, games, immersive work, conversations, and live performance. That kind of scale can make the festival exciting, but it can also make it difficult to know where to begin. Tribeca is not just offering one narrow lane of festival cinema. It is bringing together celebrity-driven premieres, first-time filmmakers, international discoveries, documentaries, genre work, and films that may not arrive with the loudest advance attention but still have the potential to become some of the festival’s most rewarding finds.
This film festival preview focuses only on feature films, narrowing the broader festival programme down to 25 titles that stand out across narrative, documentary, genre, international, and spotlight sections. The goal is not simply to list the biggest names or the most obvious premieres, but to highlight a range of films that reflect what makes Tribeca interesting in the first place: its mix of established talent and emerging voices, its connection to New York, and its willingness to place intimate personal stories alongside broader cultural conversations.
Below are 25 feature films to keep an eye on at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival, listed from 25 to 1. The list includes Memorizu, Summer War, Via Negativa, Next Life, Sad Girlz, The Long Haul, How to Feed a Dictator, Killing Castro, She Keeps Me Young, and more.
25. Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World)
Section: Gala
What Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World) is About (from Tribeca 2026)
While the legacy of Earth, Wind & Fire is earmarked by some of the most infectiously energetic, awe-inducing performances in history, filmmaker Questlovetakes viewers back to the beginning with this documentary on how the band formed and their journey unfolded — with some psychedelic flair, of course. You learn more about founder Maurice White‘s beginnings from his closest friends and family, how the band expanded in size and scope, and where their taste for the theatrical developed.
Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Why Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World) Might be Worth a Watch
Earth, Wind & Fire would probably sit higher on this list if it were not already one of the most obvious and anticipated titles in the programme. At this point, though, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has earned a certain amount of trust until he gives us reason to think otherwise. His documentary work has shown a real ability to bring together music, archival material, history, performance, and cultural memory without flattening the subject into a standard greatest-hits package. With a band as visually and musically expansive as Earth, Wind & Fire, this should be one of the more celebratory screenings of the festival, but the hope is that it also becomes more than a party: a proper record of a band whose work crossed genres, generations, and artistic forms.
24. Labrador — Autopsy of Silence
Section: International Narrative Competition
What Labrador — Autopsy of Silence is About (from Tribeca 2026)
With keen sensitivity and insight, Inuk mechanic Alupa Tulugak (Christopher Angatookalook) goes about his work in the engine room of the cargo freighter Adeawiktak, all while carrying on a clandestine, after-hours love affair with handsome cook Alex (Alexandre Landry). Yet, Alex is unwittingly bound to First Officer Michelle Comeau (Gabrielle Poulin B.), who uses her authority to extract sexual favors from her subordinate. As the ship takes its last run of the season through the icy waters of the North Atlantic, a shocking act of violence finds Alex dead, throwing the ship into chaos and immediately casting suspicion on Alupa. Hounded by the RCMP and unable to find his place in Canadian society, the Inuk man refuses to reveal what he knows, caught between the inevitable cruelties of settler law and the deep mourning he must now navigate. All the while he’s being guided by the spirit of the man he still loves, determined to keep those secrets held only between themselves and the vast, frigid ocean.
Director: Rodrigue Jean
Cast: Christopher Angatookalook, Alexandre Landry, Gabrielle Poulin B., Jassinth Thiagarajah, Arsaniq Deer
Why Labrador — Autopsy of Silence Might be Worth a Watch
Even with Tribeca being a New York festival, I always make room here for Canadian work when I can, especially a film that places an Inuk character and northern lives in a space where they are still too rarely centred. Labrador — Autopsy of Silence has the framework of a murder mystery, but the real draw is how it appears to fold questions of sexuality, colonial law, race, class, grief, and silence into that structure. Rodrigue Jean has long been a filmmaker willing to challenge norms around identity and desire, and this looks like another project that refuses the comfort of easy categories. The setting alone gives the film a strong visual and emotional terrain, but it is the tension between intimacy and institutional power that makes this one stand out.
23. Death Boom
Section: Escape From Tribeca
What Death Boom is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Starting in 1946, the “Baby Boom” era supercharged our world’s population by bringing an enormous surge of births. With life, however, must come death, and the tens of millions of people born during that time will, naturally and inevitably, pass away. Now, 80 years after the “Baby Boom,” that’s precisely what’s happening. But is the funeral industry prepared for the “Death Boom” or the massive rise of the dead (and not in the zombie film sense)? They’re an industry long settled into the usual tried-and-true means of post-life rites, including traditional burials and cremations. Yet, as the deceased body count continues to escalate, alternate methods may need to be explored.
Director: Jessica Chandler
Cast: Eli Roth, Jessica Chandler
Why Death Boom Might be Worth a Watch
Death Boom earns a place here partly because of the names involved, but also because the subject is difficult to ignore. With Eli Roth, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, and QC Entertainment behind the project, this is likely to be one of the more visible documentaries in the lineup. More importantly, the film appears to be taking a subject many people would rather avoid and turning it into a broader examination of labour, ecology, corporate influence, and the cultural discomfort around death itself. Its focus on the funeral industry and the passing of the Baby Boom generation gives it an immediate hook, but the potential is in how it uses that demographic reality to look at the environmental and emotional cost of traditional death care.
22. In the Hand of Dante
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What In the Hand of Dante is About (from Tribeca 2026)
In the 21st century, writer Nick Tosches is hired by a Mafia don to confirm the authenticity of — and then steal — a priceless manuscript believed to be Dante Alighieri’s original “The Divine Comedy,” written in his own hand. In the 14th century, the great poet agonizes over his epic masterpiece. Elegantly alternating between Nick’s modern-day New York and Dante’s renaissance world in parallel, In the Hand of Dante reveals how greed, faith, desire, and the hunger for meaning and beauty repeat themselves across time as Nick’s search for the manuscript becomes a search for his own identity as author and poet.
Director: Julian Schnabel
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Franco Nero, Benjamin Clementine, Paolo Bonacelli, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa
Why In the Hand of Dante Might be Worth a Watch
In the Hand of Dante is not going to work for everyone. At 153 minutes, with a massive cast and a premise that moves between Dante, art, crime, authorship, and spiritual searching, it has the potential to feel sprawling and uneven. Still, it is hard not to be curious. Julian Schnabel is not a small-scale filmmaker, and the cast here is absurdly stacked: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, and Jason Momoa, among others. It already premiered at Venice and is heading to Netflix, but this feels like the kind of film that benefits from a big screen if you are going to take the swing. And personally, I have always had a strange fascination with Dante, so I am in.
21. Here I’m Alive
Section: U.S. Narrative Competition
What Here I’m Alive is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Over the course of a single night in New York City, a collection of migrants, sex workers, dreamers and survivors move through the city’s digital underbelly, all searching for connection in a world that keeps them at its margins. From lonely video game server rooms to lip-filler beauty parlors, these non-actor subjects hustle and hope their way through an urban landscape that is at once indifferent and electric. Anchored by a dialed-in original soundtrack of internet-fried underground NYC music from BBY Goyard, Harto Falión, and Cooper B. Handy and spiritual jazz from Nate Mercereau and Carlos Niño, the film pulses with a rhythm that is unmistakably, defiantly New York.
Director: Joshua Z Weinstein
Cast: Cheyenne Gallagher, Eddie Torrenegra, Caleb Zuzga, Krystaly Figueroa, Emira D’Spain
Why Here I’m Alive Might be Worth a Watch
If you want a New York film at Tribeca, Here I’m Alive feels built for exactly that space. The premise alone — one night, one city, migrants, sex workers, dreamers, and people trying to survive along the digital margins — gives it a raw, immediate quality. Joshua Z Weinstein may not be a household name, but his track record is substantial, including Menashe, which was released by A24 and earned major independent film recognition. His documentary background also makes him a particularly interesting fit for a neo-realist urban drama, especially one moving through server rooms, beauty parlours, nightlife, and the kinds of spaces that rarely become the centre of a city’s cinematic identity. This could be one of the more vital New York stories in the lineup.
20. Breeder
Section: Escape From Tribeca
What Breeder is About (from Tribeca 2026)
College student Russell (Daniel Doheny) is focused on developing a new game-changing solution to save the endangered bee population from extinction. But there’s a problem: He can’t secure enough funding. That’s before a potential lifeline shows up in the form of a random but tempting financial offer from a poodle breeder named Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), who lives off the grid on an isolated ranch. Russell visits Patti to see if her offer is legit or too good to be true. Unfortunately, after several awkward interactions and a growing sense of unease, he learns that it’s the latter. She’ll give him the cash, but with an added cost: He must breed with her daughter.
Director: Alex Goyette
Cast: Daniel Doheny, Dot Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, Tanaya Beatty
Why Breeder Might be Worth a Watch
There needed to be room on this list for horror, and Breeder stands out as one of the more unsettling genre swings in the programme. Plus, being shot in Vancouver also makes my Canadian heart happy. What makes Alex Goyette’s path interesting specifically, though, is the digital-first origin story behind it. Before moving into feature work, he built a following through viral YouTube videos and later worked with AwesomenessTV, placing him within a broader generation of filmmakers and creators who learned how to grab attention outside the traditional industry pipeline. That background does not guarantee a strong film, but there is precedent for online-born voices breaking through in more traditional spaces.
19. Unidentified
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Unidentified is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Award-winning writer-director and Tribeca alum Haifaa Al Mansourreturns with a detective story that examines how society’s constraints on women complicate the concepts of victim and perpetrator — and how those complications redefine what justice looks like. When an unidentified young woman’s body is found abandoned in the desert outside of a small town, the investigation brings in amateur sleuth and true-crime podcast lover Noelle (actress Mila Al Zahrani) into the fold, whose drive to solve the mystery pulls her deeper into this twisty murder.
Director: Haifaa Al Mansour
Cast: Mila Al Zahrani, Shafi Al Harthi
Why Unidentified Might be Worth a Watch
Unidentified stands out because of Haifaa Al Mansour, whose career has already reshaped the possibilities of Saudi cinema on the international stage. Her debut Wadjda remains a landmark, both as the first feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and as a film centred on a young female protagonist pushing against the boundaries placed around her. Unidentified appears to continue that line of inquiry through the structure of a crime thriller, following a murder investigation that opens into larger questions about gender, identity, expectation, and the ways violence against women can be hidden or excused by the systems surrounding them. The mystery element gives the film an accessible genre hook, but Al Mansour’s perspective is what makes it feel distinct. This is not just about solving the death of an unidentified young woman; it is about the social conditions that make a woman’s identity so vulnerable to being erased in the first place.
18. Never Change!
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Never Change! is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Due to a bureaucratic loophole discovered decades later, the graduating class of North Meadows High School never officially received their diplomas. Now in their mid-30s, they are legally required to return to finish high school. Old flames, buried secrets and the specific humiliation of being a full-grown adult in a teenage institution collide in this gleefully unhinged ensemble comedy that commits fully to its own absurdity and earns every outrageous laugh along the way.
Director: Marty Schousboe
Cast: John Reynolds, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Carmen Christopher, Jo Firestone, Gary Richardson
Why Never Change! Might be Worth a Watch
A festival list like this needs some room for comedy, and Never Change! has a premise that feels immediately accessible without being completely disposable. The idea of adults in their mid-30s being forced back into high school because of a graduation loophole is absurd, but it also hits uncomfortably close to home for anyone who graduated around that era and is now reckoning with who they became after adolescence (i.e me) John Reynolds, who writes and stars here, brings an interesting comic presence, and the cast around him gives the film a strong ensemble foundation. The danger with this kind of concept is that it becomes pure nostalgia bait, but the best version of it could use that return-to-school setup to poke at arrested development, old embarrassment, and the strange persistence of teenage identity.
17. Playing POTUS
Section: Spotlight+
What Playing POTUS is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Josh Greenbaum’s latest documentary, based on Peter Funt‘s book of the same name, tackles the storied tradition of presidential parody. This film features an assortment of SNL alumni and comedy legends, includingDana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Alec Baldwin, Kate McKinnon and more, who have played presidents and prominent political figures. Tracing the path of presidential impressions begins with light-hearted jokes poking fun at our leaders and culminates with present day threats of censorship and turbulent controversy.
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Why Playing POTUS Might be Worth a Watch
Playing POTUS could easily have been a novelty documentary built around famous impressions, but Josh Greenbaum gives it a more interesting foundation. After Will & Harper, he has already shown an ability to use humour as a way into subjects with real emotional and cultural weight. Presidential parody sits in a strange place in American public life: it is comedy, but it is also criticism, memory, media history, and sometimes a form of political pressure. Those impressions can become inseparable from how audiences remember presidents, candidates, and entire eras of television. That makes the subject richer than a simple collection of SNL clips. If Greenbaum can balance the obvious laughs with a sharper look at performance, image-making, and power, Playing POTUS could be one of the more timely documentaries in the lineup.
16. The Revisionist
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What The Revisionist is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Elise Keller (Alison Brie) is a successful writer working on what will hopefully be her next best-selling novel. Only one problem: She’s stuck with a bad case of writer’s block. When her long-time friend John (André Holland) returns to their hometown, Elise thinks she has a perfect solution: John can look after her husband Jacob’s (Tom Sturridge) aging father David (Dustin Hoffman) and record their conversations for potential inspiration. But as individual relationships deepen and the line between fiction and reality blurs, secrets are unearthed, boundaries are crossed, and the foursome finds themselves forever changed.
Director: Alex Vlack
Cast: André Holland, Alison Brie, Tom Sturridge, Dustin Hoffman
Why The Revisionist Might be Worth a Watch
On cast alone, The Revisionist is one of the more immediately attractive titles at this year’s Tribeca. André Holland, Alison Brie, Tom Sturridge, and Dustin Hoffman give the film a strong floor, but the premise is what really makes it interesting. I am always drawn to films that blur the lines between the real and the unreal, especially when that instability comes through writing itself. A novelist manipulating the people around her in search of inspiration could easily become self-indulgent, but it also opens the door to a sharp psychological study of authorship, control, and artistic exploitation. As a writer, the question of how far someone will go to achieve their art is always fascinating.
15. Only What We Carry
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Only What We Carry is About (from Tribeca 2026)
“I can create a dancer out of no one.” This single sentence, written by her former choreographer Julian Johns (Simon Pegg), drives famed Moulin Rouge performer Charlotte Levant (Sofia Boutella) to a place of deep insecurity and volatility. Traveling home to Deauville with her sister Josephine (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the siblings find themselves changed and challenged through their deepening relationships with a wealthy benefactor (Quentin Tarantino), a young couple (Lizzy McAlpine and Liam Hellmann), and Julian himself.
Director: Jamie Adams
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lizzy McAlpine, Quentin Tarantino, Simon Pegg, Liam Hellmann
Why Only What We Carry Might be Worth a Watch
Only What We Carry has an immediately interesting creative tension. On one hand, it brings together a striking cast, including Sofia Boutella, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lizzy McAlpine, Simon Pegg, and Quentin Tarantino. On the other, Jamie Adams is working in the loose, improvisational style that has defined much of his career, reportedly shooting the film over only six days in France. That kind of process can be risky. Without the structure of a conventional screenplay, everything depends on trust, instinct, atmosphere, and whether the actors can find something truthful inside the looseness. Adams’ films have not always landed evenly, but the method remains compelling because it leaves room for accidents, awkwardness, and emotional discoveries that can be harder to manufacture in a more tightly controlled production.
14. The Accompanist
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What The Accompanist is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Emily (Everly Carganilla), a young child who lives with her loving grandfather in New Jersey, is starting to be affected by the advancement of her caretaker’s dementia. When a novice Child Welfare agent (Aubrey Plaza) comes to assess the situation, she extracts Emily from her home in a panic and places her in the care of Sylvia (Susan Sarandon), a kind but mischievous old woman. As the two spend more time together, their bond grows deeper, but the mysteries of Sylvia’s past threaten to unravel their future.
Director: Zach Woods
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Everly Carganilla, Aubrey Plaza
Why The Accompanist Might be Worth a Watch
The Accompanist has a simple but effective hook: Susan Sarandon in a substantial role. That alone is enough to make the film worth paying attention to, especially since she has not always had the strongest material in recent years. The other major point of interest is Zach Woods, making his feature directorial debut after becoming familiar to many viewers through Silicon Valley and The Office. Actor-turned-director debuts can go in any direction, but Woods has always had a sharp sense of discomfort, timing, and awkward emotional pressure. Paired with Aubrey Plaza and young performer Everly Carganilla, this could become a small, character-driven film that surprises people if it finds the right balance between eccentricity and genuine feeling.
13. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is About (from Tribeca 2026)
When Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) is asked who her celebrity free pass is, she says her fiancé Tom (Michael Cassidy) because he was the quarterback at their local high school. After being prodded by her best friend and coworker Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), she reluctantly chooses Jon Hamm. But when Tom gets caught in the act with his celebrity crush, Gail and Otto jet off to Los Angeles in desperate search of the “Mad Men” star. Along the way, they become fast friends with a ragtag group of Hollywood misfits while suddenly being pursued by a mysterious organized crime leader (Sabrina Impacciatore) in search of a missing briefcase.
Director: David Wain
Cast: Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Michael Cassidy, Sabrina Impacciatore, Fred Melamed
Why Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Might be Worth a Watch
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass feels like one of the few films in the lineup openly built around the idea that comedy does not need to apologize for being comedy. David Wain and Ken Marino have been friends and collaborators since meeting at NYU in the late 1980s, and Wain is still best known for the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer. Their own description of the premise gets at the appeal: the celebrity sex pass is a stupid idea, almost proudly so, but they lean into that stupidity rather than trying to dress it up as something more respectable. After premiering at Sundance and being picked up by Sony Pictures Classics, the film arrives at Tribeca with a strong cast led by Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Ken Marino, and Sabrina Impacciatore, along with several familiar faces from the broader Wain/Marino comedy world.
12. Act One
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Act One is About (from Tribeca 2026)
What would you be willing to do to achieve your dreams? After lonely aspiring teen actress Hannah (Ella Beatty) is passed over for a role in her senior year high school play, she decides to take a class at “Act One Studios,” an acclaimed dramatic acting company known for bringing success to its young performers. There, she meets Melanie (Ari Graynor), a magnetic acting instructor, who, unlike Hannah’s dysfunctional family, believes in her future success as an artist completely. What starts as a rhythmic and hallucinatory story of finding where you belong quickly takes a thrilling turn.
Director: Sophia Takal
Cast: Ella Beatty, Ari Graynor, Nate Mann, Elizabeth Reaser, Sinclair Daniel, Robert Sean Leonard, Tavi Gevinson
Why Act One Might be Worth a Watch
Act One may not be working with a completely new psychological-thriller concept, but that is not necessarily a problem. Stories about performance, mentorship, power dynamics, and obsession have endured because the setup remains effective when handled with precision. Sophia Takal is the real point of interest here. Black Christmas did not fully work, but her earlier film Always Shine showed a far more compelling command of tension, rivalry, and unstable identity. This project sounds closer to that territory, with a young aspiring actress pulled into the orbit of a charismatic teacher. With Ella Beatty, Ari Graynor, Elizabeth Reaser, and Tavi Gevinson in the cast, the film has the right pieces for something sharp, uncomfortable, and psychologically messy in the best way.
11. The Lion Queen
Section: Spotlight Documentary
What The Lion Queen is About (from Tribeca 2026)
You might not know Jocelyne Wildenstein’s name, but if you lived in New York in the ‘90s, you’ve almost certainly seen her face. Born in Switzerland, Jocelyne began her high-society career hobnobbing with European filmmakers before marrying into the Wildensteins, a powerful family of New York art dealers. As a Wildenstein, Jocelyne was controversial, developing a passion for plastic surgery that cemented her outsider status within this wealthy and well-connected clan. That’s when Jocelyne caught her husband in bed with a 21-year-old Russian model, triggering the divorce case that would make her famous.
Director: Alden Nusser and Ben Fries
Cast: Jocelyne Wildenstein, George Rush, Alissa Bennett, Rachel Corbett
Why The Lion Queen Might be Worth a Watch
The Lion Queen could easily become a documentary built around spectacle, because Jocelyne Wildenstein has spent decades being reduced to a tabloid image. The more interesting version of this film is the one that looks past the “Catwoman” caricature and asks how that image was created, circulated, and maintained. The involvement of Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, and Josh Safdie is also notable, given how often their work has focused on people trapped inside pressure, performance, and public self-destruction. Directors Alden Nusser and Ben Fries also bring experience from documentary work connected to major outlets such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, which points toward a more considered approach than the subject might otherwise receive. If the film can avoid the easy cruelty of the Wildenstein myth, it could become one of the more unexpectedly humane nonfiction titles at Tribeca.
10. The Leader
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What The Leader is About (from Tribeca 2026)
In the 1970s, Marshall Herff Applewhite (Tim Blake Nelson) and Bonnie Lu Nettles (Vera Farmiga) began telling people they were extraterrestrial beings sent to Earth to guide humanity to the next level of existence. Dozens believed them, abandoned their families, dropped out of society and waited to be evacuated from the planet. This is the true and almost unbelievable story of Heaven’s Gate, one of the most notorious cults in American history, brought to vivid, harrowing life by two actors at the top of their game.
Director: Michael Gallagher
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey, Simon Rex
Why The Leader Might be Worth a Watch
The Leader will likely draw interest because of the subject alone. Cult stories remain one of the most reliable fascinations in documentary and streaming culture, but this is not a documentary; it is a narrative feature built around the true story of Heaven’s Gate. This gives the film room to dramatize belief, persuasion, delusion, and vulnerability from the inside rather than simply explaining them from a distance. The cast is also very strong, led by Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey, and Simon Rex. Nelson is best known to many as an actor, but his earlier work as a filmmaker and playwright suggests he has a serious understanding of morally difficult material. That makes this one worth watching beyond the obvious shock value of the subject.
9. She Keeps Me Young
Section: U.S. Narrative Competition
What She Keeps Me Young is About (from Tribeca 2026)
In Doron Max Hagay’s bitingly astute and exceptionally hilarious homage to female middle-aged friendship, Michelle and Kelly have a mutually supportive, enmeshed relationship despite their lifestyle differences. Single, blunted Michelle struggles to assert herself following her husband’s mysterious disappearance while Kelly yearns for the wilder days of her youth when the responsibilities of a husband and baby didn’t tame her flirtatious fire. But when Michelle begins an unlikely acquaintance with a forthright, open-minded teenage girl, their dynamic curdles. Her new friend awakens a sense of vitality in Michelle and as her confidence builds, it provokes the ire of Kelly.
Director: Doron Max Hagay
Cast: Patti Harrison, Kate Berlant, John Early, Blair Beeken, Katy Fullan, Shay Rudolph
Why She Keeps Me Young Might be Worth a Watch
She Keeps Me Young has one of the strongest comedy ensembles on this list, even if the cast is not built around the usual household names. Patti Harrison is reason enough to pay attention; her work on I Think You Should Leave remains some of the funniest and strangest television comedy of the last several years. John Early adds another layer of interest, partly because I still think back to speaking with him at Sundance a few years ago, where our conversation touched on his own appearance on that same show. That connection is not the whole reason to see the film, but it does help frame the kind of comic sensibility at work here: sharp, awkward, socially specific, and willing to push behaviour into absurd territory. Director Doron Max Hagay is best known for work connected to Saturday Night Live, and this feels like a strong opportunity for him to break through in feature form.
8. Killing Castro
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What Killing Castro is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Set against one of the most volatile flashpoints of the Cold War, Killing Castro unfolds in 1960 New York, where a convergence of forces — including the CIA, FBI and the Mafia — begins to close in on Cuban leader Fidel Castro following his arrival at the United Nations. Featuring Al Pacino as a CIA operative orchestrating a covert plan to eliminate Castro, the film traces a city drawn into a tightening web of political tension and surveillance. When Castro (Diego Boneta) unexpectedly relocates to Harlem’s Hotel Theresa at the invitation of Malcolm X (Kendrick Sampson), the pressure electrifies the global stage. A young translator (Xolo Maridueña), finds himself caught between duty and proximity, his growing curiosity complicating the boundaries between surveillance and trust, while a hotel worker (KiKi Layne) becomes an unwilling participant in a widening political web.
Director: Eif Rivera
Cast: Al Pacino, Diego Boneta, Xolo Maridueña, KiKi Layne, Ron Livingston, Alexander Ludwig, Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson
Why Killing Castro Might be Worth a Watch
Killing Castro takes one of the stranger political episodes of 1960s New York and turns it into a historical thriller. Fidel Castro’s visit to the United Nations, his move to Harlem’s Hotel Theresa, the involvement of Malcolm X, and the overlapping presence of the CIA, FBI, and Mafia already give the film a loaded dramatic foundation. Then you add Al Pacino as a CIA operative, and the New York connection becomes impossible to ignore. We will see how director Eif Rivera, who has had major success in music videos, is able to bring his strong visual sense to colour, space, and movement to the big screen. If that eye translates into a political thriller, Killing Castro could have the energy and visual charge to make a familiar historical figure feel newly cinematic. And hey, DJ Khaled is also a producer here, for better or for worse?
7. How to Feed a Dictator
Section: Spotlight Documentary
What How to Feed a Dictator is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Through testimonies from the kitchens of five of global history’s most notorious dictators — Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet and Kim Jong-il — How to Feed a Dictator provides an insider’s perspective as to what it was like to serve as core members of these regimes, be it by choice or by force.
Director: Andrew Neel
Why How to Feed a Dictator Might be Worth a Watch
A major reason How to Feed a Dictator stands out is the cinematography. Ethan Palmer is one of the film’s directors of photography alongside Raphael Laski, and Palmer’s work on Plainclothes was a huge part of why that film became one of my favourites at Sundance in 2025. I also had the chance to interview Palmer as part of that festival coverage, which made me even more interested in how carefully he approaches visual texture, intimacy, and atmosphere. The film is built around private chefs who cooked for dictators, which means the images need to hold two realities at once: food, luxury, and access on one side, violence, fear, and political brutality on the other. That contrast could make How to Feed a Dictator more than a collection of bizarre historical anecdotes.
6. The Long Haul
Section: Spotlight Narrative
What The Long Haul is About (from Tribeca 2026)
CJ (Margo Martindale), a seasoned truck driver who has spent her years traversing the American Southwest, has meticulously constructed a life of distance from her past. However, a letter from the parole board threatens to dismantle the walls she has painstakingly built. CJ, facing the prospect of retirement and a reckoning she has evaded for years, must finally find the courage to pause and contemplate her future.
Director: David Drake
Cast: Margo Martindale, Cole Sprouse, Stephen Root, Yalitza Aparicio, Jefferson White, Wes Studi
Why The Long Haul Might be Worth a Watch
Margo Martindale has been excellent for so long that it is almost strange to remember how rarely she gets placed at the centre of a film. The Long Haul gives her that opportunity at 74, and that alone makes it one of the more appealing performance-driven titles in the lineup. The premise sounds slow, subtle, and internal, using the life of a long-haul trucker as a way to explore loneliness, regret, distance, and the emotional cost of always moving. It is also the feature debut of writer-director David Drake, which adds some uncertainty but also some intrigue. With Cole Sprouse, Stephen Root, Yalitza Aparicio, Jefferson White, and Wes Studi in support, the film has the cast to make that quiet register work.
5. Sad Girlz
Section: International Narrative Competition
What Sad Girlz is About (from Tribeca 2026)
In Fernanda Tovar’s feature debut, she takes a serious and sympathetic look at the challenges faced by modern youth. Teenage girls La Maestra (Rocío Guzmán) and Paula (Darana Álvarez) are the best of friends and rank at the top of the school swim-team. Everything seems on track for the two to take the team trip to Brazil, until one night when they go to a party and something happens to Paula. La Maestra is torn between seeking vengeance for her friend as she believes is right, or supporting Paula’s wishes to keep the situation quiet and pretending it never happened.
Director: Fernanda Tovar
Cast: Rocio Guzman, Darana Alvarez, Tatsumi Milori, Tomás García-Agraz, Mónica del Carmen
Why Sad Girlz Might be Worth a Watch
Sad Girlz is one of the smaller international titles arriving at Tribeca with real momentum behind it. The film had its world premiere in the Generation 14plus section at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won both the Crystal Bear Youth Jury Generation 14plus Best Film and the Grand Prix International Jury Best Film. Fernanda Tovar also comes from a compelling creative background, with ties to Mexico’s Colectivo Colmena and a previous short, “My Age, Yours, and the Age of the World,” selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2022. The subject matter could easily become heavy-handed, but the early recognition suggests a film shaped by sensitivity, tenderness, and a real understanding of how teenage friendship can become both refuge and battleground.
4. Next Life
Section: Spotlight+
What Next Life is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Ivy (Emilia Clarke) boards a train headed towards her goddaughter’s christening. In a rush, she spills her coffee on a handsome stranger (Édgar Ramírez), a jazz musician with an adventurous spirit, sparking an unexpected romance. Or, maybe, she doesn’t spill her coffee. Maybe she goes to the christening alone and instead reconnects with her ex-fiance (Jack Farthing), her former corporate boss and the man she always thought was the love of her life. Which life gives Ivy everything she wants, which love is truer, and how is she supposed to know which one to choose?
Director: Drake Doremus
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Jack Farthing, Édgar Ramírez
Why Next Life Might be Worth a Watch
Next Life is a little harder to pin down, which is part of the appeal. It has been described through the language of science fiction, romance, and drama, and the premise suggests a film built around alternate paths, time, and the emotional consequences of a single moment going differently. I am admittedly a sucker for films that play with time, especially when the device is used to examine regret, longing, and possibility rather than just as a gimmick. Drake Doremus has already had real indie success with Like Crazy, and this feels like familiar terrain for him in a more speculative register. The jazz element is also a draw, with Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective making his first acting appearance.
3. Via Negativa
Section: U.S. Narrative Competition
What Via Negativa is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Father Dan (Young Mazino) is a young priest wrecked by the passing of his childhood friend, Paul. Now bereft with guilt and burdened by trauma from his own past, Dan sets off on a solitary pilgrimage out West. Along the way, he accidentally hits a coyote — only for it to become an unexpected companion on a journey filled with small towns, open country and encounters with strangers who push him to a life-changing reckoning.
Director: Hannah Peterson
Cast: Young Mazino, MiMi Ryder, Tony Hale, Zoë Winters, Keith Kupferer, Stanley Simons, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Mamoudou Athie, Jee Young Han
Why Via Negativa Might be Worth a Watch
Hannah Peterson returns to Tribeca after The Graduates, a film that was dark and heavy but also controlled and effective. Via Negativa appears to be working in a similar emotional register, following a priest in crisis after the death of a childhood friend. The road-trip structure gives the film a natural sense of movement, but the more interesting element is the way grief, faith, guilt, and landscape appear to be folded together. The film was shot on 35mm, which immediately raises my interest. For a story built around spiritual dislocation, open country, small towns, and a wounded coyote becoming an unexpected companion, the texture of film could give the images a physical presence that feels right for the material. With Young Mazino, Tony Hale, Zoë Winters, and Mamoudou Athie in the cast, Via Negativa has the pieces to become one of the more visually and emotionally resonant American titles in the lineup.
2. Summer War
Section: International Narrative Competition
What Summer War is About (from Tribeca 2026)
Chile, 1989. Udo, an American wargaming champion, arrives at a sunny beach resort for a peaceful vacation with his girlfriend. When another tourist mysteriously disappears at sea, Udo decides not to search for his missing friend but to instead invite a mysterious local to play his wargame of choice — a tabletop game where players simulate the European theater of World War II. It’s a choice that begins to erode the boundary between game and reality, transforming the sunny beach into something far more dangerous — a reflection of Udo’s own obsession with strategy and control, and his inability to conceive of violence as anything other than imaginary and theoretical.
Director: Alicia Scherson
Cast: Dan Beirne, Lux Pascal, Aline Kuppenheim, David Gaete, Agustin Pardella
Why Summer War Might be Worth a Watch
The world needs more Dan Beirne. He remains one of the most underrated actors working right now, and he was absolutely brilliant in Paying for It, among many other films. That already makes Summer War worth attention, but the larger context is even more intriguing. Alicia Scherson adapts Roberto Bolaño’s The Third Reich, relocating the story to Chile during a fragile political transition and using a tabletop wargame as a way to explore obsession, masculinity, paranoia, simulated violence, and the ways history keeps pressing into the present. The Chilean coast also appears to give the film a striking visual identity. On paper, this is a fascinating collision of artists, literature, politics, and psychological unease.
1. Memorizu
Section: International Narrative Competition
What Memorizu is About (from Tribeca 2026)
After his father-in-law Makoto fractures his leg, young professional Yuta travels from his home in Tokyo to a rural town in Kyushu to take care of the older man and help out in his old-fashioned photo studio. Leaving behind his wife and daughter in Tokyo, Yuta stays in contact through exchanged smartphone videos and photographs. As little details of daily life accumulate through this succession of recordings and memories, their lives as a family are brought gently and vividly to light.
Director: Miiku Sakanishi
Cast: Moeka Hoshi, Issey Ogata, Yu Kashii, Masayo Umezawa, Tasuku Emoto
Why Memorizu Might be Worth a Watch
Putting Memorizu at number one is a bit of a risk, because it is not one of the obvious high-profile titles in the lineup. But sometimes the quieter film is the one that speaks to you most directly before you can fully explain why. Miiku Sakanishi is my age, this is his debut feature, and the whole project seems built around ideas that already feel close to my own relationship with images: memory, family, time, ordinary life, and the strange emotional power of photographs and video fragments.
Sakanishi’s earlier short, “For a While,” was an eight-minute film about an elementary school-age boy and girl spending time in a park. He has described it as having barely any story, which is part of what makes his approach interesting. He seems less interested in forcing drama onto ordinary moments than in asking how those moments can be seen, recorded, and remembered. That carries directly into Memorizu, where a family remains connected through smartphone videos and photographs while an older photo studio sits at the centre of the story. The contrast between casual phone images and formal studio photography feels especially rich. A smartphone image can be taken almost without thinking, while a film photograph or studio portrait carries intention, ritual, and a sense of permanence.
The personal context around Sakanishi makes the film even more compelling. His late father, Isac Sakanishi, directed music videos, and Sakanishi grew up around video shoots and moving images before eventually choosing film himself. That history gives Memorizu an added emotional charge because the film is not only about how images connect people across distance. It also seems to be coming from a filmmaker thinking through inheritance, absence, and the way a person can remain present through the images they leave behind.
I’m also drawn to the filmmakers Sakanishi has cited as influences: José Luis Guerín, Abbas Kiarostami, Sofia Coppola, and Edward Yang. That group suggests a cinema built on observation, composition, small gestures, and emotional implication rather than conventional plotting. His interest in windows, frames, stillness, and time flowing through an image sounds exactly like the kind of visual language that could make Memorizu feel quietly powerful. If the film can turn everyday recordings, family distance, and the act of looking into something formally precise and emotionally open, it could be the discovery of the festival.
