Luca Guadagnino’s 'Artificial' gets major New York Film Festival premiere

Luca Guadagnino’s 'Artificial', starring Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, will premiere at the New York Film Festival

Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, a drama about OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, will have its world premiere at the New York Film Festival in October.

The film will premiere on October 5 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall as part of the 64th edition of the New York Film Festival, which runs from September 25 to October 12. Guadagnino and members of the cast are expected to attend the premiere.

Andrew Garfield stars as Altman, with Monica Barbaro portraying former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. Yura Borisov plays OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, while Ike Barinholtz portrays Elon Musk. The cast also includes Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman and Chris O’Dowd.

Artificial focuses on the turbulent period surrounding Altman’s controversial removal from OpenAI and his subsequent return to the company. The film is directed by Guadagnino and produced by David Heyman, Jeffrey Clifford, Jennifer Fox, Simon Rich and Guadagnino.

Neon acquired the film after Amazon MGM decided in June that it would be better released by another studio. The decision attracted attention because Amazon had recently announced a major partnership with OpenAI, including a reported $50 billion investment.

Several distributors reportedly showed interest in Artificial before the film ultimately moved to Neon.

New York Film Festival artistic director Dennis Lim praised Guadagnino’s approach to the story, describing the film as a timely exploration of the rise of artificial intelligence that combines dark humour with a sense of urgency.

Guadagnino has previously brought several films to the festival, including Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All, Queer and After the Hunt.

The 2026 festival will also screen films including James Gray’s Paper Tiger, Ava DuVernay’s 14th, Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero.