‘Artificial’ Sets NYFF and London Film Festival Premieres

Luca Guadagnino’s Sam Altman drama ‘Artificial’ receives a Main Slate world premiere at NYFF. Following months of uncertainty about whether it would play festivals at all.

Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s drama starring Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, has landed festival premieres at both NYFF and BFI. The film will have its world premiere in the New York Film Festival’s Main Slate. The film’s NYFF premiere is slated for October 5 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Guadagnino and cast members are expected to attend.

London Film Festival will host a Gala screening on October 11, also with talent expected.

That timing settles a question that’s been floating around the film for months. As recently as early July, a traditional full festival rollout looked unlikely. A surprise screening was seen as the more probable path. Whether the film gets full press conferences and media access at either festival remains unclear.

MGM Dropped The Film Before It’s $50B OpenAI Deal

Artificial has drawn outsized media scrutiny since June. Amazon MGM Studios walked away from the nearly finished $40 million production. It said releasing it through another studio would serve it better. The timing raised obvious questions. The timing raised obvious questions.

Amazon had signed a roughly $50 billion investment and partnership deal with OpenAI in February. Expanding the company’s use of Amazon Web Services. The studio’s decision to shelve a film critical of OpenAI’s own CEO came just months later.

NEON stepped in and acquired the film shortly after, reportedly fielding interest from MUBI and Focus Features along the way. NEON didn’t have to pay a minimum guarantee to acquire it, instead covering prints and advertising costs through a straight distribution deal.

That structure is seen as friendly to the film’s creatives. Amazon likely writing off a significant chunk of its original spend while key cast and filmmakers retain their backend if the film performs.

NEON has committed to a full Oscar campaign, with real optimism among people close to the project that it belongs in this year’s awards conversation.

The studio plans a limited awards-qualifying run in late December, followed by a wider theatrical release in early 2027.

What The Artificial About, And Who’s Playing Who?

Artificial reconstructs the five-day corporate crisis in November 2023, when OpenAI’s board abruptly fired Altman before reinstating him days later following an employee revolt.

Andrew Garfield leads as Altman. Yura Borisov plays Ilya Sutskever, the OpenAI co-founder who moves to oust him. Monica Barbaro plays former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk, reportedly rendered as a fully villainous figure in Simon Rich’s script. Mark Rylance, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, and Angus Imrie round out the cast.

Garfield has said he never reached out to Altman during preparation, building the performance entirely from the screenplay, court transcripts, and public interviews instead.

Andrew Garfield described the role in blunt moral terms, telling Variety that anyone responsible for technology capable of doing

“a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity” needs “a certain ability to dissociate.”

Cooper Hoffman said he was shocked that Amazon would pick up the project, given the company’s industry ties.

Luca Guadagnino & NYFF

Guadagnino isn’t new to NYFF. His previous film, After the Hunt, opened the festival in 2025, making this his second consecutive year with a major NYFF slot.

Simon Rich, creator of Miracle Workers, wrote the script, and produces alongside Rich, Guadagnino, David Heyman, Jeffrey Clifford, and Jennifer Fox. Malik Hassan Sayeed shot the film, longtime Guadagnino editor Marco Costa cut it, and Damon Albarn composed the score and original songs.

Joanthan P. Moustakas

Jonathan P. Moustakas founded The Cinema Group in 2020 during the challenges of the pandemic, after losing the vital ability to find community in theaters and escape through the captivating magic of cinema. Feeling profoundly cut off from the vibrant film community he cherished, he sought to create a welcoming home for dedicated cinema fans while providing engaging, daily curated content that resonates with their passions. Years later, The Cinema Group has blossomed from a small collective of loyal fans into a thriving brand that reaches millions of audiences every month across a diverse array of platforms and mediums.

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