Tribeca’s 25th anniversary lineup leans into star-driven indies, actor-director debuts, sports icons, TV nostalgia, and New York stories from Questlove, Katie Holmes, Zach Woods, Julian Schnabel, and more.
Tribeca’s 25th anniversary lineup leans into what the festival often does best: star-driven indies, actor-director pivots, New York stories, documentary portraits built around recognizable cultural figures, and TV names trying something smaller or stranger than the machinery that made them famous. The festival has always been a tricky mix of red-carpet familiarity and left-field programming, and this year’s slate reflects that balance: feature directing debuts, literary swings, reunion hooks, sports icons, comedy figures, cult histories, and documentaries with broader pop-cultural pull.
There’s plenty of music programming, as usual, but with one major exception here—Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s opening-night Earth, Wind & Fire documentary—this preview centers on narrative premieres, actor-driven indies, and films with a clear cultural or industry hook. That includes Zach Woods making his feature directing debut with “The Accompanist,” Katie Holmes reuniting with Joshua Jackson in “Happy Hours,” Julian Schnabel bringing Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, and Jason Momoa into “In The Hand Of Dante,” Alison Brie turning literary ambition toxic in “The Revisionist,” Emilia Clarke entering a romantic timeline puzzle in “Next Life,” and Marc Maron making one last morbidly funny bid for Oscar recognition in “In Memoriam.”
Below are 25 films to watch from this year’s Tribeca Festival.
“Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial VS That’s The Weight Of The World”
Questlove directs and produces this opening-night documentary about Earth, Wind & Fire, followed by a live performance from the band and The Roots. Questlove’s “Summer Of Soul” proved he could turn archival music history into something alive, political, and joyful. This film traces Maurice White and one of the great American bands from early beginnings to stadium-scale spectacle, with the group’s spiritual, visual, and sonic ambition as the attraction.
Tribeca Section: Gala
“The Accompanist”
Zach Woods makes his feature directing debut with this drama, co-written with Brandon Gardner and starring Susan Sarandon, Everly Carganilla, Aubrey Plaza, and Kevyn Morrow. The film follows 9-year-old Emily after she is removed from her aging grandfather’s care and placed with Sylvia, a witchy, funny, unpredictable older woman. Woods’ comic work has always been rooted in discomfort, and the cast points toward something sharper than standard found-family whimsy.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Happy Hours”
Katie Holmes writes, directs, and stars in “Happy Hours,” a New York romantic drama that reunites her with Joshua Jackson, Mary-Louise Parker, Constance Wu, and Donald Webber Jr. as co-stars. The film follows two former lovers who reconnect years after their relationship ended without closure. The Holmes/Jackson reunion is the easy hook, but the story points toward an adult romance about old chemistry, bad timing, and emotional unfinished business.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“In The Hand Of Dante”
Julian Schnabel directs this literary fantasia, with Oscar Isaac playing dual roles as Dante Alighieri and modern author Nick Tosches. The cast includes Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, and Jason Momoa. The film links the writing of “The Divine Comedy” with a contemporary manuscript-theft story involving a mafia don. It sounds messy, grandiose, and very Schnabel, with Isaac’s double role as the main attraction.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Killing Castro”
Eif Rivera directs “Killing Castro,” a political thriller starring Al Pacino, Diego Boneta, Xolo Maridueña, KiKi Layne, Ron Livingston, Alexander Ludwig, Nicole Beharie, and Kendrick Sampson. The film reimagines Fidel Castro’s 1960 stay in Harlem as a convergence of surveillance, solidarity, and Cold War paranoia. Castro’s real-life move to the Hotel Theresa already has a cinematic charge; the cast gives the story scale and personality.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“The Last Day”
Rachel Rose writes, directs, and produces this New York-set interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” starring Alicia Vikander, Victoria Pedretti, and Wagner Moura. Set on July 4, the film follows two mothers whose lives briefly intersect before moving in different directions. The hook is literary but immediate: one day, one city, private rupture, and public noise. Rose’s visual-art background hints at a mood-driven adaptation rather than a conventional retelling.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“The Leader”
Michael Gallagher writes and directs this Heaven’s Gate drama starring Tim Blake Nelson, Vera Farmiga, Jim Parsons, Simon Rex, and Grace Caroline Currey. The film revisits the cult that convinced dozens of followers to abandon their lives in the hope of being evacuated from Earth. Cult dramas need to explain belief without condescending to it, and Nelson and Farmiga are strong choices for material built around charisma, delusion, conviction, and dread.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Next Life”
Drake Doremus writes, directs, and produces this romantic drama starring Emilia Clarke, Jack Farthing, and Édgar Ramírez. Clarke plays Ivy, whose chance encounter with a jazz musician on a train opens one possible life, while another timeline finds her reconnecting with her ex-fiancé. Doremus has spent much of his career on intimacy, longing, and romantic timing, and this setup gives him a speculative structure without turning the film into sci-fi.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“The Revisionist”
Alex Vlack writes, directs, and produces “The Revisionist,” starring Alison Brie, André Holland, Tom Sturridge, and Dustin Hoffman. Brie plays Elise, a successful writer who starts manipulating the people closest to her as though they were characters in her book. The return of an old friend tests how far she is willing to go for her art. Brie is well-suited to polished surfaces cracking under pressure, and the film turns creative entitlement into psychological suspense.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“In Memoriam”
Rob Burnett writes, directs, and produces this inside-Hollywood comedy-drama starring Marc Maron, Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, and Sharon Stone. Maron plays a dying man with one final wish: to be included in the Academy Awards “In Memoriam” segment. It is a sharp comic setup because the desire is vain, pathetic, and, in its way, painfully human. Maron’s screen presence has grown more elastic in recent years, and the supporting cast gives the material emotional range.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Only What We Carry”
Jamie Adams writes and directs this improvisational drama, shot in six days on the Normandy coast and starring Sofia Boutella, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lizzy McAlpine, Simon Pegg, Quentin Tarantino, and Liam Hellmann. The film centers on buried secrets and new romantic tensions among a dancer, her sister, her former choreographer, and his visiting friend. Tarantino’s acting appearance is the headline, but Gainsbourg, Boutella, Pegg, and McAlpine make the ensemble just as interesting.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Rain Reign”
Erika Burke Rossa writes and directs this adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s novel, starring Felice Kakaletris, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Sisto, and Gretchen Mol. The story follows Rose, a 12-year-old neurodivergent girl, whose beloved dog goes missing during a superstorm. Her search tests her family’s bonds and her own resilience. The material sits squarely in sincere family-drama territory, but Rudd, Sisto, and Mol give the adult side of the story some welcome heft.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Clean Hands”
Jake Allyn writes, directs, produces, and brings a true-story hook to “Clean Hands,” starring Zach Braff, Esther McGregor, Abigail Spencer, and Lucas Till. Braff plays Kevin Simmers, a narcotics officer whose teenage daughter’s opioid addiction turns a public crisis into a family emergency. The film puts a man trained to fight drugs professionally in a personal crisis where law, love, fear, and helplessness blur.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“The Long Haul”
David Drake writes and directs “The Long Haul,” starring Margo Martindale as CJ, a long-haul trucker who has spent decades running from a dark truth: Cole Sprouse, Stephen Root, and Yalitza Aparicio co-star. Martindale is the reason to pay attention here. She has spent years turning supporting roles into full, complicated lives, and the idea of her leading a road drama about guilt, isolation, and the past catching up has obvious appeal.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“They Fight”
Sheldon Candis directs and co-writes this youth-boxing drama starring André Holland, Wendell Pierce, and Samira Wiley. Holland plays a recently released coach who joins a local gym and helps a group of adolescent boxers chase a national championship. Sports dramas can be formula machines, but boxing remains durable because it reduces conflict to discipline, pain, pride, and bodies under pressure. Holland and Pierce give the mentor side of the story instant credibility.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Iconoclast”
Gabriel Basso writes, directs, produces, and stars in this psychological thriller, with Courtney Eaton, Rain Spencer, and Noah Centineo co-starring. The film follows a reclusive loner whose obsession with a live-streaming influencer leads him to make a series of unsettling choices. Basso has become a streaming-era action lead thanks to “The Night Agent,” but this sounds more contained and unstable: a thriller about isolation, parasocial fixation, and digital self-erasure.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass”
David Wain directs, co-writes, and produces this comedy, with Ken Marino co-writing, producing, and starring alongside Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, and John Slattery. After her fiancé uses their “celebrity sex pass,” Midwestern hair stylist Gail Daughtry sets out on a revenge journey. Wain and Marino have spent decades turning committed stupidity into comic escalation, and this sounds like a broad, showbiz-adjacent farce with enough cast firepower to justify the chaos.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Unidentified”
Haifaa Al Mansour writes, directs, and produces this Saudi crime thriller starring Mila Al Zahrani and Shafi Al Harthi. The film follows one woman’s search for justice after a teenage girl’s body is discovered in the desert. Al Mansour’s “Wadjda” remains a landmark of Saudi cinema, and this procedural setup allows her to build suspense while continuing to examine women navigating restrictive social systems, institutional pressure, and gendered power.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Seven O’Clock Breakfast Club For The Brokenhearted”
Lim Sun-ae writes and directs this Seoul-set romance starring Suzy, Lee Jin-wook, Yoo Ji-tae, and Keum Sae-rok. The film follows two wandering souls as they navigate love, loss, and the search for closure. The title is a mouthful, but the emotional pitch is clear: damaged people, early-morning ritual, and heartbreak as a place people keep returning to until they understand it. The cast gives the film an obvious K-drama and Korean-cinema appeal.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Never Change!”
Marty Schousboe directs “Never Change!,” written by John Reynolds and starring Reynolds, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Carmen Christopher, Jo Firestone, and Gary Richardson. Because of a legal loophole, the Class of 2008 has to return to high school in their mid-30s, bringing adult baggage back into teenage hallways. It is a deliberately stupid premise, which is the point. Reynolds, Firestone, and Black-D’Elia are well-matched to deadpan absurdity and escalating embarrassment.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Narrative
“Bob And David Climb Machu Picchu”
Michael LaHaie directs this documentary following Bob Odenkirk and David Cross as the longtime comedy partners attempt one of the world’s toughest hikes and, inevitably, each other. The film is framed as a meditation on friendship, mortality, and absurd comedy. Odenkirk and Cross are not obvious high-altitude endurance candidates, which gives the premise its hook. It is celebrity access with an actual physical challenge and a built-in comic relationship.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Documentary
“Chris & Martina: The Final Set”
Rebecca Gitlitz directs this Netflix documentary about tennis icons Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The film traces their careers, rivalry, friendship, and shared experience of cancer treatment. Evert and Navratilova’s rivalry was athletic, stylistic, cultural, and symbolic, which gives the documentary more than a standard sports-legend framework. Their rivalry, friendship, and shared experience with cancer give the film a richer frame than a conventional sports documentary.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight Documentary
“Jean-Michel”
Quinn Whitney Wilson and Viridiana Lieberman co-direct this documentary about Jean-Michel Basquiat, made with full participation from his family. Basquiat has been mythologized endlessly—downtown prodigy, art-market comet, fashion image, tragic genius—but family involvement gives the film a potentially different lane. The question is whether it can cut through the familiar crowns, auction records, and shorthand to reach the person underneath. Tribeca’s New York identity makes this a natural venue for a premiere.
Tribeca Section: Documentary Competition
“Playing POTUS”
Josh Greenbaum directs and produces this documentary about presidential impressions and the comedians who have shaped American political image-making. The film stretches from Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, looking at how parody responds to politicians and helps define them. Greenbaum has moved easily between broad comedy and documentary work, and the subject gives him a rich archive of performance, media, power, and political memory.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight+
“Doc Meets World”
Chris Levitus and Zane Rubin direct this documentary, which reunites Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong 30 years after “Boy Meets World.” The film follows their rewatch podcast and national tour, with Tribeca hosting the final live performance of “The Kids Wanna Jump Tour” after the premiere. The nostalgia hook is obvious, but the sharper angle is what happens when actors publicly revisit, reassess, and complicate a beloved sitcom for fans who still want comfort.
Tribeca Section: Spotlight+
Honorable Mentions: “Finnegan’s Foursome” (Spotlight Narrative—Edward Burns writes, directs, and stars in an Irish American golf comedy with Brian D’Arcy James); “Act One” (Spotlight Narrative—Sophia Takal directs Ella Beatty, Ari Graynor, and Nate Mann); “That Friend” (Spotlight Narrative—Harvey Guillén, Billie Lourd, and Josh Brener star in a Palm Springs comedy); “Young Washington” (Spotlight Narrative—Jon Erwin directs William Franklyn-Miller, Mary-Louise Parker, Kelsey Grammer, Andy Serkis, and Ben Kingsley); “Lucy Schulman” (U.S. Narrative Competition—Ellie Sachs directs and stars opposite David Cross, Thomas Mann, and Hasan Minhaj); “Caity” (U.S. Narrative Competition—Lindsay Calleran directs Chiara Aurelia, Morgan Spector, Zach Cherry, and Michelle Mao); “Ponderosa” (U.S. Narrative Competition—Rob Rice directs Jack Dylan Grazer, Alexis Bledel, and Bill Camp); “Born Melo” (Spotlight Documentary—Jake Rogal directs the official Carmelo Anthony documentary); “Mario” (Spotlight Documentary—Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt, and Teddy Kunhardt direct a documentary about former New York Governor Mario Cuomo); “The Lion Queen” (Spotlight Documentary—Alden Nusser and Ben Fries direct an HBO Documentary Films portrait of Jocelyne Wildenstein); “The Lorraine” (Spotlight Documentary—Sam Pollard directs a film about the Lorraine Motel and its owners, Walter Bailey and Loree Bailey); “House Of Criticism” (Spotlight Documentary—Alison Chernick profiles art critics Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz); and “Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story” (Documentary Competition—Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam direct an HBO Documentary Films portrait of New York City public-access icon Robin Byrd).