Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut and Tom McCarthy’s A Statement set for NYFF 2026

Tom McCarthy’s A Statement, Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut and Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid are among the films selected for the 2026 New York Film Festival’s Spotlight lineup.

McCarthy’s A Statement will have its world premiere at the festival. The Sony Pictures Classics ensemble drama is set around a 1980 conference focused on the emerging threat of climate change. The film stars Paul Giamatti, John Turturro, Paul Rudd, Amy Ryan, Evan Peters and Tatiana Maslany.

The Spotlight lineup also includes New York premieres for Firstman’s Club Kid and Eisenberg’s The Debut. The latter marks Eisenberg’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated film A Real Pain and is described as a musical project.

Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord is also part of the lineup. The film, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other selections include Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro, and Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard. Herzog’s film will screen after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and marks his return to the New York Film Festival following Fitzcarraldo’s closing-night selection in 1982.

The Spotlight programme will also feature Maiken Baird’s Edward Said: Between Worlds, Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette, Jonathan Glazer’s Joy of Joys and Albert Serra’s Sixteen Moments of My Life.

The 2026 New York Film Festival will include 10 short films in the Spotlight section, several of which will have their world premieres.

The festival, which announced its main slate last week, will run from Sept. 25 to Oct. 12. Godzilla Minus Zero is scheduled as the Spotlight gala’s world premiere.