The 27th annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) has announced its 2026 lineup. The festival will screen more than 100 feature films and 250 shorts from 21 countries from October 15 to 22 in Orange County. Tickets are on sale now, and the Opening and Closing Night films will be announced later.
NBFF has positioned itself as a key Southern California stop for awards hopefuls, and this year’s Centerpiece section makes that clear. Highlights include James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, and Danny Boyle’s Ink, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy. Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine features John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas, with Tom Waits and Parker Posey. According to the festival, many guild members attend the Centerpiece screenings.
“As we celebrate our 27th year, the Newport Beach Film Festival is thrilled to once again unite audiences with some of the most talked-about films of awards season and an extraordinary group of filmmakers from around the world,” said Gregg Schwenk, NBFF’s CEO and executive director.
Centerpiece Films
- …And Out Comes the Wolf (USA), dir. Danny Peykoff (World Premiere)
- A Talent for Murder (UK), dir. Anton Corbijn
- In Waves (France), dir. Phuong Mai Nguyen (Southern California Premiere)
- Ink (UK), dir. Danny Boyle (Southern California Premiere)
- Jimmy (USA), dir. Aaron Burns (West Coast Premiere)
- Josephine (USA), dir. Beth de Araújo
- The Liberation (USA), dir. Guy Nattiv
- Minotaur (France), dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
- Once Upon a Time in Harlem (USA), dirs. David Greaves and William Greaves
- The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (USA), dir. Noah Segan
- Paper Tiger (USA), dir. James Gray
- Wild Horse Nine (USA), dir. Martin McDonagh
International Spotlight
The International Spotlight section brings in titles from Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Poland’s Oscar submission, Fatherland, from Paweł Pawlikowski, is in the section, along with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Look Back and Ali Asgari’s A Bit of Light, which is having its North American premiere. Jeju Olle and The Body Is Water will premiere worldwide. Tolkien fans should keep an eye on There’s a Hole in My Bucket, a documentary co-directed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s great-grandson Royd Tolkien, which is having its North American premiere.
A girl and a young woman lie side by side and gaze upward in Look Back.
Documentaries and More
The rest of the lineup leans heavily into documentaries. Ron Howard’s Avedon and Nanette Burstein’s Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff are scheduled. So is Mark A. Altman’s The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World. Several docs will have their world premieres: As Far Back as I Can Remember… The Story of Goodfellas, the smooth-jazz documentary Smooth World, and Sock It to Me: The Legend of George Schlatter. Music fans also get Frampton and Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart. Other notable titles include Who Killed Alex Odeh?, the open-water swimming doc Don’t Be Prey, and Cecil B. DeMille, the Inventor of Blockbuster.
The festival draws more than 50,000 attendees each year and bills itself as the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California. Screenings are paired with nightly parties featuring more than 60 culinary partners. NBFF Honors and additional films will be announced in the coming weeks.
For tickets and the full lineup, visit newportbeachfilmfest.com.
