A curated breakdown of the most anticipated films, buzzy premieres, and conversation-driving titles from Tribeca’s landmark 25th anniversary lineup.

Twenty-five years ago, the Tribeca Film Festival was born as an act of defiance — a declaration that New York City, still reeling from the devastation of September 11, would reclaim its streets, its culture, and its identity through the power of cinema. Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff launched the festival in 2002 not simply to screen movies but to bring people back to Lower Manhattan, to restore something that had been taken. As Rosenthal herself put it this year: "Tribeca began 25 years ago as an act of healing, a mission to reunite our community through the power of storytelling. Today, that purpose feels more urgent than ever."

For its milestone 25th edition — running June 3 through June 14 across venues including the Beacon Theatre, BMCC, SVA, Spring Studios, and Hudson Yards — Tribeca has assembled its most ambitious lineup to date. The 2026 festival features 118 feature films and 86 short films, with 103 world premieres, the most in the festival's history. Fifty-five first-time directors from 44 countries are represented. Forty-eight percent of competition films are directed by women. Fifty percent are directed by BIPOC filmmakers. These numbers tell one story. The names attached tell another: Katie Holmes. Quentin Tarantino. Dustin Hoffman. Alicia Vikander. Martin Scorsese. Oscar Isaac. Questlove. Alicia Keys. Madonna.

This is not a festival playing it safe. It is a festival that has arrived at its 25th year with something to prove — and a lineup that can prove it. Here is every film you need to have on your radar.

Standout Films at Tribeca 2026

**Earth, Wind & Fire | Gala | World Premiere**

Feature Documentary | United States | 119 MINUTES | English

The festival opens with Questlove — coming off his Oscar win for Summer of Soul — turning his lens on one of the greatest groups in American music history. Following Philip Bailey, Verdine White, and Ralph Johnson while excavating the enigmatic life and legacy of founder Maurice White, this promises to be the kind of music documentary only Questlove can make: deeply researched, emotionally overwhelming, and alive in every frame. The perfect way to begin the 25th edition.

Happy Hours | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 60 Minutes | English

The most talked-about film at the festival before a single public frame has screened. Katie Holmes writes, directs, and stars alongside Joshua Jackson — a reunion that carries enormous cultural weight, and a directorial statement that goes far beyond the headline. Constance Wu, Eden Espinosa, Donald Webber Jr., and Joe Tippett round out the ensemble, with Norah Jones composing the original score and Debbie Harry appearing as a special guest. Happy Hours is one of the genuine must-sees of the entire festival.

The Accompanist | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 110 Minutes | English

Zach Woods makes his feature directorial debut with a film that has already generated some of the most enthusiastic industry response of the lineup. Susan Sarandon and Aubrey Plaza lead the cast — two of the most compelling actresses working today — in what looks like a precisely observed, quietly devastating drama anchored by exceptional central performances. Presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as one of the festival's signature premieres. This is the kind of discovery Tribeca was built to deliver.

The Revisionist | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 87 Minutes | English

Alison Brie, André Holland, Tom Sturridge, and Dustin Hoffman star in this story of a novelist who subtly manipulates everyone closest to her as if they were characters in one of her books. The premise has a cold, unsettling precision to it, and the cast is extraordinary. Hoffman's involvement makes this a major cultural event unto itself. Also presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a festival highlight.

Only What We Carry | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United Kingdom, United States | 88 Minutes | English

Quentin Tarantino in front of the camera — in his biggest screen role in years — is the headline. But Only What We Carryis something more than a novelty. Sofia Boutella, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Simon Pegg, and Lizzy McAlpine surround him in director Jamie Adams' drama about a woman who returns home and reconnects with her former instructor, only for the arrival of a third party to surface long-buried truths. An unusual and genuinely electric combination of talent that has the feel of a true festival discovery.

The Last Day | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 100 Minutes | English

Alicia Vikander and Wagner Moura lead Rachel Rose's narrative feature, produced by Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler — two of the most consequential producers in American independent film. Vikander is one of the most carefully selective performers of her generation, and the pedigree behind and in front of the camera makes The Last Day one of the most closely watched films of the festival. Expect significant distribution attention.

Rain Reign | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 100 Minutes | English

Rose is a 12-year-old neurodivergent girl cared for by her struggling single dad and well-meaning uncle. When her beloved dog goes missing during a superstorm, she embarks on a search that will test her family's bonds and her own resilience. Directed by Erika Burke Rossa, produced by Julie Rudd and Nikki Silver, with Paul Rudd, Jeremy Sisto, and Gretchen Mol starring. Intimate, emotionally precise American drama — and Rudd in a role this grounded is something worth paying attention to.

The Leader | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 110 Minutes | English

Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons, and Simon Rex united in a single film is an exceptional dramatic proposition on its own. Director Michael Gallagher assembles this formidable ensemble around a story with genuine moral weight. Four actors at interesting and distinct stages of their careers, operating together. One of the more quietly anticipated narrative films in the lineup.

They Fight | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 93 Minutes | Englishrative

André Holland, Wendell Pierce, and Samira Wiley in a Sheldon Candis-directed drama co-written by Andrew Renzi, produced by Jason Berman and Ben Renzo, with ESPN and Andscape behind it. Holland appears twice at this year's festival — here and in The Revisionist — which tells you everything about the place he occupies in American cinema right now. They Fight is one of the most substantive narrative propositions in the entire lineup.

Clean Hands | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 108 Minutes | English

Zach Braff stars in Jake Allyn's drama, which also brings the real-life subjects of the story onto the screen alongside the cast. A film operating in the space between personal truth and dramatic reinvention — and a reminder that Braff, when given material that fits him, remains one of American cinema's more underappreciated performers.

In Memoriam | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 118 Minutes | English

Marc Maron, Sharon Stone, Talia Ryder, and Lily Gladstone in a Rob Burnett-directed film. Gladstone continues to build one of the most carefully considered and genuinely exciting bodies of work in American cinema. The ensemble here makes In Memoriam one of the more quietly anticipated narrative films of the festival's second weekend.

In the Hand of Dante | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 153 Minutes | English

Martin Scorsese and Oscar Isaac, directed by Julian Schnabel. At 153 minutes, this is the single most ambitious narrative film at the festival — and one of the most eagerly awaited films of 2026. Schnabel's return to fiction filmmaking with this cast is a genuine cinematic event, the kind Tribeca rarely hosts. The reason serious film audiences will be making the trip to New York.

Iconoclast | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 120 Minutes | English

Gabriel Basso directs Kiernan Shipka and Rain Spencer in a film that has generated significant industry attention since its announcement. Presented by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines alongside Happy Hours, The Accompanist, and The Revisionistas one of the festival's highlighted premieres. A film to watch closely.

Next Life | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 112 Minutes | English

Drake Doremus directs Emilia Clarke, Édgar Ramírez, and Jack Farthing in a romantic drama from a filmmaker (Like Crazy, Equals) who has built his career around the ache of human connection. Clarke has been strategic and deliberate about her post-Game of Thrones choices. This is a significant one.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass | Spotlight Narrative | World Premiere

Feature Narrative | United States | 93 Minutes | English

David Wain directs. Ken Marino writes and stars. Zoey Deutch leads. Add Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Joe Lo Truglio and this is one of the sharpest comedy propositions in the entire lineup. The Wain-Marino creative partnership has been producing intelligent, deranged comedy for decades. Gail Daughtry looks like a worthy addition to that canon.

Alice and Steve | Tribeca TV | US Premiere

Television | United Kingdom, United States | 90 Minutes | English

Jemaine Clement and Nicola Walker — two of the most quietly magnetic performers working in television and film respectively — united in a film directed by Tom Kingsley and written by Sophie Goodhart. The kind of film that arrives without much noise and leaves with serious word of mouth.

Odyssey | Spotlight | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 88 Minutes | English

Gary Goetzman, Mary Lisio, and Avi Belkin are among the team behind a film generating significant industry attention ahead of its premiere. Details remain close-held — which often means the film itself is doing the talking. On the radar.

**Playing POTUS | Spotlight+ | World Premiere**

Feature Documentary | United States | 92 MINUTES | English

A documentary exploring the art and history of presidential performance — the actors, impressionists, and entertainers who have inhabited the Oval Office on screen — directed by Josh Greenbaum. A timely and genuinely funny premise in the hands of a director who knows how to land it.

**Young Washington | Spotlight Narrative | New York Premiere**

Feature Narrative | United States | 111 MINUTES | English

William Franklyn-Miller, Kelsey Grammer, and Sir Ben Kingsley star in Jon Erwin's historical drama about the early life of George Washington — a figure American cinema has largely left untouched. A bold casting combination around a story that deserves to be told.

Hadestown: The Musical | Spotlight+ | New York Premiere

Feature | United States | 138 Minutes | English

The Tony Award-winning Broadway phenomenon — one of the defining theatrical works of the past decade — comes to screen with its original Broadway cast, followed by a live concert. For theater audiences, this is the event of the festival. At 138 minutes, it is a full, committed cinematic experience that will introduce one of the stage's great recent achievements to the widest possible audience.

**Sara Bareilles: Good Grief | Gala | World Premiere**

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY | UNITED STATES | 91 MINUTES | ENGLISH

A Gala selection that brings the story of one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of her generation to the screen, followed by a live performance from Bareilles herself. Broadway, pop, profound vulnerability, and extraordinary craft. A natural and essential companion to the festival's rich music film programming this year — and one of the more purely celebratory evenings of the entire two weeks.

**Mumford & Sons: The House Band — Spotlight+ | world Premiere**

Feature Documentary | United States | 98 MINUTES | English

The band invites the camera onto the train for what is being described as one of the most purely pleasurable concert documentaries in years, featuring Noah Kahan, Darius Rucker, Lainey Wilson, Maggie Rogers, and several other special guests for the ride. The intimacy between performers captured on and off stage is apparently something genuinely special — a music film that goes far beyond what happens onstage.

Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour — Live in Paris | Spotlight+ | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 115 Minutes | English

Paul Dugdale — one of the most accomplished directors working in music documentary — captures Katy Perry's landmark tour in a film produced by Daniel E. Catullo III and the full Perry team. The best concert films (Stop Making Sense, Homecoming) become canonical. Everything about the assembly of talent here suggests serious ambitions. At 115 minutes, it commits to the full experience.

Imaginal Disk | Spotlight+ | World Premiere

Feature | United States | 53 Minutes | English

Magdalena Bay — Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin — expand the world of their celebrated 2024 album into a bold, visually driven cinematic narrative directed by Amanda Kramer, whose genre-bending aesthetic makes her a natural collaborator for a duo known for building elaborate conceptual universes. At 53 minutes it sits between short and feature, but it is one of the most original and genuinely exciting things at the festival. Nothing else in the lineup looks quite like it.

POPULAR ON THE CINEMA GROUP

Jean-Michel | Documentary Competition | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 95 Minutes | English

A documentary portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, co-directed by Quinn Whitney Wilson and Viridiana Lieberman, with the artist's sisters Jeanine and Lisane Basquiat serving as executive producers. Their involvement gives this film access and moral authority that no outside production could replicate. As a document of one of the 20th century's most important artists, this could be definitive.

Chris & Martina: The Final Set | Spotlight Documentary | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 93 Minutes | English

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Their rivalry defined an era. Their friendship, which survived competition, illness, and everything in between, defied expectation. Netflix is behind this documentary, and the roster of subjects — Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Pam Shriver, Zina Garrison, Roger Goodell, Ralph Lauren, Lynda Carter — is extraordinary. One of the most anticipated sports documentaries of 2026.

Born Melo | Spotlight | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 59 Minutes | English

Carmelo Anthony as subject and executive producer, with his son Kiyan alongside him. At 59 minutes, Born Melopromises to be concentrated and essential — a portrait of one of basketball's most brilliant and complicated careers, told entirely from the inside. Sports documentary filmmaking is at a historic peak right now, and this belongs in that conversation.

Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu | Spotlight | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 80 Minutes | English

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross reunite. Amy Sedaris moderates. Whatever the film delivers, these three in a room together is a cultural event unto itself — a reunion of one of the great creative partnerships in American comedy. One of the more purely joyful propositions at the festival.

Miss Representation: Rise Up | Spotlight Documentary | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 90 Minutes | English

Jennifer Siebel Newsom returns to the form that made Miss Representation a genuine cultural landmark. This time, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton appears as a film participant and Q&A panelist, alongside Safiya Noble and Nina Jankowicz. As a document of this specific political moment, Rise Up arrives with unmistakable urgency and a post-screening conversation that will be one of the festival's most charged evenings.

Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story | Spotlight Documentary | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 79 Minutes | English

Sarah Jessica Parker produces. Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam direct. Robin Byrd — the legend of New York cable access television — is the subject. This could only be made in New York, about New York, by people who understand that the city has always had its own completely singular and unrepeatable universe of celebrity. A film that will generate serious and joyful conversation.

Doc Meets World | Spotlight+ | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 84 Minutes | English

The 30th anniversary celebration of Boy Meets World arrives at Tribeca as the final live performance of Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle's beloved rewatch podcast, with Jason Biggs and Questlove joining as surprise guests for the live taping. For anyone who grew up with the show — which is most of the audience this film will reach — this is a genuinely moving occasion.

Mario | Spotlight | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 88 Minutes | English

A documentary portrait of Mario Cuomo, the three-term New York governor and one of the most eloquent political voices of the 20th century, directed by Teddy Kunhardt. With former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Peg Breen, and Jane Rosenthal among the attendees, the premiere will itself be a New York cultural event.

IX XI | Spotlight | World Premiere

Feature Documentary | United States | 90 Minutes | English

Personal accounts of September 11 — told at the 25th anniversary of the attacks that gave birth to the Tribeca Festival itself. There is no programming choice this year more freighted with meaning. A documentary that exists in direct conversation with everything the festival has been built to represent.

Taxi Driver: 50th Anniversary | Reunions & Retrospectives

Feature | United States | English

Robert De Niro. Martin Scorsese. Fifty years of one of New York City's most essential and enduring films, in the city that made it, moderated by W. Kamau Bell. This is less a screening than a civic ritual. One of the most powerful reminders of why this festival exists in the first place — and a night that no serious New York cinephile should miss.

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**Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell's Kitchen | Closing Night | World Premiere**

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY | UNITED STATES | 95 MINUTES | ENGLISH

The festival closes the same way it opens — with music, with New York, and with a legend. Alicia Keys, raised in Hell's Kitchen and forged entirely by this city, looks back at a singular career in a documentary closing night that brings the 25th edition full circle. The festival begins with one musical institution and ends with another. It is a closing night that has earned its place.

Daft Punk's Electroma: 4K Remaster and 20th Anniversary | Reunions & Retrospectives

Feature | France | English

Daft Punk's 2006 feature film — one of the most singular and strange things two musicians have ever made — returns in a full 4K remaster for its 20th anniversary. A road movie, a science fiction meditation, and an art object, Electroma has spent two decades as one of cinema's great cult discoveries. Its return to the screen is an event for anyone who has ever encountered it.

Bridget Jones's Diary: 25th Anniversary | Reunions & Retrospectives

Feature | United Kingdom | English

Renée Zellweger and director Sharon Maguire return for the 25th anniversary celebration of one of the defining romantic comedies of its era. A film that has aged better than most of its contemporaries give it credit for — and a premiere that will fill whatever room it's in.

TRIBECA TALKS

The festival's conversation programming this year matches the ambition of its film slate. Several events stand apart.

Madonna: Confessions II — In Conversation with Jimmy Fallon | Tribeca Talks

60 Minutes

Madonna premieres Confessions II — the follow-up to her landmark 2006 concert film — in conversation with Jimmy Fallon. Two decades after the original, this is one of the most culturally significant film premieres at any festival this year. The conversation alone would be enough. The film makes it unmissable.

Storytellers: Keke Palmer with Whoopi Goldberg

60 Minutes

Two of the most distinctly New York entertainers of their respective generations in conversation at the Tribeca Storytellers series. Palmer has spent the past two years becoming one of the most compelling public voices in American culture. Goldberg needs no introduction. This will be sharp, warm, and completely unscripted in the best possible way.

Storytellers: Bruce Springsteen Receives The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award

The Boss receives the festival's most meaningful honor — named for Harry Belafonte, whose own legacy of art and activism set the standard. Springsteen accepting this award, at this festival, at this moment in American life, is not a small thing.

Tribeca at 25: A Conversation with Co-Founders Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro

The two people who built this festival sit down with filmmaker and journalist Matt Tyrnauer to reflect on its founding as an act of urban renewal and radical optimism — the risks taken, the near-failures, the reinventions, and the cultural moments that defined it. A conversation about what New York looked like in 2002, what it looks like now, and where both the festival and the culture are headed next. Twenty-five years of stories, told by the people who lived them.

Storytellers: Dwyane Wade with Jenna Bush Hager

Dwyane Wade has spent his post-playing career becoming one of the most articulate and thoughtful voices in American sports and culture. In conversation with Jenna Bush Hager, this has the feel of something genuinely substantive — a conversation about identity, family, and public life that goes well beyond basketball.

TRIBECA AT 25: FREE OUTDOOR SCREENINGS AT HUDSON YARDS

One of the 25th anniversary edition's most generous gestures is its free outdoor screening series at Hudson Yards — Tribeca at 25: Celebrating the Stories We Share — which revisits landmark premieres, audience favorites, and breakthrough discoveries from across the festival's history. Three titles anchor the series.

The Last Play at Shea | Free Outdoor Screening

Feature Documentary | United States | English

The intersecting histories of a stadium, a baseball team, and a music legend. Billy Joel — Long Island's own — was the last performer to play Shea Stadium, and this documentary charts those final concerts alongside the storied history of the New York Mets, set to Joel's music and featuring guests including Tony Bennett and Roger Daltrey. A New York story told through three New York institutions at once.

The Short History of the Long Road | Free Outdoor Screening

Feature Narrative | United States | 94 Minutes | English

Sabrina Carpenter stars as Nola, a teenager whose home is the open road with her self-reliant father and their van — two nomads against the world. When that existence is upended, she has to reckon with whether life as an outsider is her only option. Director Ani Simon-Kennedy's feature is exactly the kind of intimate, quietly powerful American filmmaking the festival was built to champion. One of the great Tribeca discoveries returning to the screen.

Jane Austen's Period Drama | Free Outdoor Screening

Short Narrative | United States | 13 Minutes | English

England, 1813. In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor mistakes the blood for an injury — and it becomes immediately clear that his expensive education has missed a spot. Thirteen minutes. Completely perfect.

Dior and I | Free Outdoor Screening

Feature Documentary | France | 90 Minutes | English, French

Frédéric Tcheng's documentary enters the House of Christian Dior for an intimate, privileged look at the creation of Raf Simons' first Haute Couture collection as artistic director. A film about pressure, craft, legacy, and the seamstresses whose work made all of it possible. One of the great fashion documentaries — and a fitting addition to an outdoor series celebrating 25 years of Tribeca discovery.

Twenty-five years is a long time for any cultural institution to survive and thrive. Most film festivals that launch in moments of crisis recede once the crisis passes. Tribeca did not recede. It evolved — from a neighborhood revival project into one of the most genuinely significant film festivals in the world, one that champions independent voices, launches awards conversations, and consistently puts New York at the center of the global film conversation in the weeks before summer.

This year's lineup reflects all of that history while refusing to trade on it. The films here are not nostalgic. They are urgent, strange, ambitious, commercial, experimental, intimate, and enormous. They represent 44 countries and 55 first-time directors. They star some of the most recognizable names in American culture and introduce talents that audiences have not encountered yet. They span music and sports, personal history and national reckoning, high drama and pure comedy.

The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival is, by any measure, the most expansive and exciting edition in recent memory. It runs June 3–14.

Tickets and full programming are available at tribecafilm.com/festival.

Whatever films you see this summer, make sure some of them are these.