Film at Lincoln Center announces James Gray’s Paper Tiger as the Opening Night selection of the 64th New York Film Festival, presented in partnership with Rolex. The film will make its North American premiere in a gala debut at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, September 25, with Gray and members of the cast and crew in attendance. Starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson, the film premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Paper Tiger is Gray’s fourth film to be selected for the New York Film Festival, following The Immigrant (2013) as an official Main Slate selection; The Lost City of Z (2016) as the Closing Night film; and Armageddon Time (2022) as a Main Slate selection and the festival’s 60th Anniversary Screening.

Get tickets for Paper Tiger and more with an NYFF64 Opening Night Plus Pass. Limited qualities available!

The gripping, exquisitely foreboding dramas of James Gray reside in the dark space between the American dream and gutting reality. His brilliant new thriller, set in 1986 Queens and Brooklyn, is an authentically drawn New York story and a master class in escalating tension, charting the tragic domestic fallout after family man and engineer Irwin (Miles Teller), who aspires to middle-class comforts, is pulled into a shady deal by his brother, Gary (Adam Driver), a former NYPD cop. Gary thinks he can make a killing on a scheme with Russian criminals dumping oil down by the Gowanus Canal, assisting them to work around regulations; instead Gary ends up endangering his brother, as well as Irwin’s sons (Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel) and wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson), who is going through her own private crisis. Torn between brotherly love and marital loyalty, Irwin discovers he’s ensnared in forces far beyond his control. With its vivid period detail and marvelous, deeply moving trio of lead performances, Paper Tiger is a frightening portrait of pollution in all forms—and the human bonds that can save us from the brink of despair. A NEON release.

“I’m immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival,” said Gray. “This deeply personal film is rooted in New York City; from my upbringing to life-changing family experiences. To be here, at the heart of art and cinema, with our cast and crew—many of whom are New Yorkers—is a privilege. Thank you to the entire New York Film Festival team. It is an honor.”

“James Gray has been a fixture at the New York Film Festival for many years, and we are thrilled to welcome him back as our Opening Night filmmaker with a career-best achievement,” said NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim. “Paper Tiger is a movie of immense emotional power, at once lovingly realistic and grandly mythic, and it confirms that James is one of the great New York filmmakers—one of the great filmmakers, period—of our time.” 

James Gray at NYFF60 in 2022. Photo by Mettie Ostrowski.

Presented by Film at Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival is an annual celebration of the most significant international films of the year. Since 1963, the New York Film Festival has played a vital role in shaping film culture, championing bold and remarkable works by both celebrated auteurs and emerging voices from around the world. NYFF64 takes place from September 25 through October 12, 2026.

James Gray was born in New York City, grew up in Queens, and attended the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. He made his directorial debut in 1994 at the age of 25 with Little Odessa, which received the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Gray then wrote and directed The Yards in 2000, his first feature with Joaquin Phoenix, who would become a frequent collaborator and go on to star in his next three films: We Own The Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008), and The Immigrant (2013), all of which screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Gray’s The Lost City Of Z (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland, was released in theaters by Amazon and Bleecker Street in 2017. Disney/Fox’s Ad Astra, directed by Gray and starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones, had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival and was released in theaters in 2019. Focus Features’ Armageddon Time (2022)—which Gray directed, wrote, and produced—was inspired by his own childhood in 1980s Queens and had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. 

The NYFF Main Slate selection committee is chaired by Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director, and includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, and Rachel Rosen.

NYFF64 is generously supported by Festival Co-Chairs Susan and John Hess, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Susannah Gray and John Lyons, and Nanna and Dan Stern; Vice-Chairs Jack Heller and Tara and Roy Kelleher; and Supporters Hillary Koota Krevlin and Glenn Krevlin, and Marcia DB Levy and William G. Levy.

Secure your tickets for Opening Night and more with Passes, limited quantities on sale now. NYFF64 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 15 at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date. Become an FLC Member by August 28 to secure NYFF64 pre-sale access and discounted tickets year-round. NYFF64 Press and Industry accreditation is now open through August 14.

Sign up for forthcoming NYFF announcements, including Main Slate, Spotlight, Currents, Revivals, and Talks.

New York Film Festival Opening Night Films

2026 Paper Tiger (James Gray, U.S.)
2025 After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino, U.S.)
2024 Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross, U.S.)
2023 May December (Todd Haynes, U.S.)
2022 White Noise (Noah Baumbach, U.S.)
2021 The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, U.S.)
2020 Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen, U.K.)
2019 The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, U.S.)
2018 The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/U.K./U.S.)
2017 Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, U.S.)
2016 13TH (Ava DuVernay, U.S.)
2015 The Walk (Robert Zemeckis, U.S.)
2014 Gone Girl (David Fincher, U.S.)
2013 Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, U.S.)
2012 Life of Pi (Ang Lee, U.S.)
2011 Carnage (Roman Polanski, France/Poland)
2010 The Social Network (David Fincher, U.S.)
2009 Wild Grass (Alain Resnais, France)
2008  The Class (Laurent Cantet, France)
2007  The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, U.S.)
2006  The Queen (Stephen Frears, U.K.)
2005  Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, U.S.)
2004  Look at Me (Agnès Jaoui, France)
2003  Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, U.S.)
2002  About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, U.S.)
2001 Va savoir (Jacques Rivette, France)
2000  Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, Denmark)
1999  All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
1998. Celebrity (Woody Allen, U.S.)
1997  The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, U.S.)
1996  Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, U.K.)
1995  Shanghai Triad (Zhang Yimou, China)
1994  Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, U.S.)
1993  Short Cuts (Robert Altman, U.S.)
1992  Olivier Olivier (Agnieszka Holland, France)
1991  The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, Poland/France)
1990  Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, U.S.)
1989  Too Beautiful for You (Bertrand Blier, France)
1988  Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
1987 Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, Soviet Union)
1986  Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, U.S.)
1985  Ran (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
1984  Country (Richard Pearce, U.S.)
1983  The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, U.S.)
1982  Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
1981  Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, U.K.)
1980  Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, U.S.)
1979  Luna (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/U.S.)
1978  A Wedding (Robert Altman, U.S.)
1977  One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Agnès Varda, France)
1976  Small Change (François Truffaut, France)
1975  Conversation Piece (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
1974  Don’t Cry with Your Mouth Full (Pascal Thomas, France)
1973  Day for Night (François Truffaut, France)
1972  Chloe in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, France)
1971  The Debut (Gleb Panfilov, Soviet Union)
1970  The Wild Child (François Truffaut, France)
1969  Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, U.S.)
1968  Capricious Summer (Jiří Menzel, Czechoslovakia)
1967  The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria)
1966  Loves of a Blonde (Miloš Forman, Czechoslovakia)
1965  Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
1964  Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, Soviet Union)
1963  The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)

ABOUT ROLEX AND CINEMA
Rolex celebrates human achievement as a journey marked by milestones, emotions and defining moments. For more than half a century, the brand has partnered some of the world’s most talented artists and leading cultural institutions to promote excellence and the transmission of artistic heritage, creating a link between the past, present and future.

Through the Perpetual Arts Initiative, a broad portfolio of arts that extends through architecture, cinema, dance, music, literature, theatre and visual arts, the brand confirms its long-term commitment to global culture.

The company has had close ties with the film industry for decades, its watches playing a role in numerous films, including Oscar®-winning masterpieces. Since 2017, Rolex has supported the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving as Proud Sponsor of the Oscars®, hosting the event’s Greenroom, as well as supporting the Governors Awards, which recognize lifetime achievement and humanitarian efforts in the film industry. Rolex also sponsors Film at Lincoln Center as Official Partner and Exclusive Timepiece.

The company promotes achievement through Testimonees such as James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Zendaya, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Martin Scorsese and Jia Zhang-Ke. It also assists in the preservation of film history for future generations as a Founding Supporter of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, as a partner of The Film Foundation and through its support to the National Film and Television School in the UK.

For more information, please visit Rolex and Cinema.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER
Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates cinema as an essential art form and fosters a vibrant home for film culture to thrive. FLC presents premier film festivals, retrospectives, new releases, and restorations year-round in state-of-the-art theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. FLC offers audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.  

Founded in 1969, FLC is committed to preserving the excitement of the theatrical experience for all audiences, advancing high-quality film journalism through the publication of Film Comment, cultivating the next generation of film industry professionals through our FLC Academies, and enriching the lives of all who engage with our programs.

Rolex is the Official Partner and Exclusive Timepiece of Film at Lincoln Center. 

Support for the New York Film Festival is also generously provided by Benefactor Partner The New York Times; Contributing Partners Britbox, Kino Film Collection from Kino Lorber Media Group, Epson America, Inc., Dolby, MUBI, Manhattan Portage, and Thompson Central Park New York; Media Partners Variety, Deadline, WABC-TV, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, The WNET Group, and The Envelope by the Los Angeles Times. Additional support is provided in part by the NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. For more information, visit filmlinc.org and follow us here for updates.

For press inquiries regarding Film at Lincoln Center, please contact:
John Kwiatkowski, Film at Lincoln Center, [email protected]
Eva Tooley, Film at Lincoln Center, [email protected]