
Rooney and Kate Mara in Bucking Fastard
Gateway to Orkney
The stage is nearly set for AFI Fest 2026.
The American Film Institute unveiled the full lineup of films that make up the 40th edition of the Canva-presented festival at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre from Oct. 21 to 25. In all, 157 films will screen including five red carpet premieres, 12 special screenings, 13 luminaries titles, 18 discovery titles, 16 from world cinema, 17 documentaries, three after-dark films, four guest artistic director presentations, 45 shorts and 24 films from the AFI Conservatory showcase presented by AMC Global Media.
Among the selections are a number of films that got a boost from fall festival premieres like Lee Chang-dong’s Venice Film Festival Silver Lion grand jury prize winner Possible Love; Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Cannes Film Festival prize-winning All of a Sudden starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto; Werner Herzog’s Venice selection Bucking Fastard starring Kate Mara and Rooney Mara; Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter starring Fred Hechinger, Kit Connor, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Caitríona Balfe; Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiot(s), starring Johnny Flynn and Aimee Lou Wood; Mike Leigh’s San Sebastián Golden Shell winner Tender Loving Care; and the North American premieres of Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales starring Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel and Virginie Efira; and Céline Sciamma’s Tutti Fruitti.

Rooney and Kate Mara in Bucking Fastard
Gateway to Orkney
Other titles include Ilker Çatak’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Yellow Letters; Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, starring Sandra Hüller, who won the Berlinale Silver Bear for best lead performance for her work in the black-and-white film; Sandra Wollner’s Everytime which won an Un Certain Regard prize; Marine Atlan’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week grand prize winner La Gradiva; Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy, winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard special jury prize; Stephanie Ahn’s Bedford Park, which snagged a Sundance U.S. dramatic special jury award for debut feature; and Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea starring Juliette Binoche alongside Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall, who shared the Berlinale Silver Bear for best supporting performance.

Rose
The Match Factory/Courtesy Everett Collection
As previously announced, the roster of films includes Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky starring Anthony Ippolito; Netflix’s animated Ray Gunn from Brad Bird featuring the voices of Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell; Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine starring Rockwell and John Malkovich; Ava DuVernay’s documentary 14th; Diego Luna’s Ashes; Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! starring Pedro Pascal as a gifted cellist; Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas; Florian Zeller’s Bunker starring couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz; Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa with David Oyelowo, Sophie Okonedo and Ayo Edebiri; Simon Stone’s Elsinore starring Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson; Beth de Araújo’s Josephine starring Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and Mason Reeves; Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love starring Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tom Sturridge and Maisy Stella; Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s Mouse starring Okonedo and Katherine Mallen Kupferer; and Leah Nelson’s animated pic about Alzheimer’s, Tangles, featuring an all-star voice cast that includes Seth Rogen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Pedro Pascal and Will Arnett in Behemoth!
Justin Lubin/Searchlight Pictures
The fest opens with the U.S. premiere of Travis Knight’s animated Wildwood, and will feature showings of Sian Heder’s Being Heumann and Netflix’s The Mosquito Bowl from filmmaker Peter Berg and starring Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgard, Ray Nicholson and Berg. Project Hail Mary helmers Phil Lord and Chris Miller are serving as guest artistic directors. They’ll sit for a Q&A following by a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and they’ve hand-picked Harold and Maude, The Muppet Movie and Rififi to screen.
“Our 40th edition of AFI Fest celebrates the cinematic artistry of bold, inspiring filmmakers from around the world,” said Todd Hitchcock, who serves as director of AFI Fest and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. “With more than 80 features and nearly 70 shorts, AFI Fest 2026 will once again light up the screen of the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre with a wide-ranging slate of films that includes highly anticipated awards favorites and a few surprises as well.”
“We’re thrilled to share some of the year’s most compelling films with the film lovers of Los Angeles at the 40th edition of AFI Fest — from red carpet premieres and major works by established auteurs to exciting debuts from emerging talents, this year’s lineup invites audiences to spend five days experiencing worlds beyond their own and making the connections that great art can spark,” said Abbie Algar, director of programming for AFI Fest and AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.
Canva is the exclusive presenting sponsor while FIJI Water serves as the official water sponsor and American Airlines as the official airline. Passes to AFI Fest are now available for purchase, with individual tickets available Oct. 3.
The full lineup can be found here.
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Oscar nominees Margot Robbie and producer Jason Blum have boarded exhibition trade org Cinema United‘s Filmmaker Leadership Council, a strategic group of producers and directors united in a single cause to champion the future of theatrical worldwide. The duo join council leaders Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas, and charter members Ryan Coogler, Brad Bird, Jason Reitman, and Celine Song.
The Filmmaker Leadership Council provides feedback and recommendations on pressing issues facing exhibition today—including consolidation, windows, the promotion and marketing of the cinematic experience, and highlighting innovation and technology. The Council meets quarterly. Former Imax exec Greg Foster is the Council’s Executive Director and a senior consultant for Cinema United.
“We are thrilled and honored to welcome two leaders like Margot and Jason to this influential group,” said Michael O’Leary, President and CEO of Cinema United. “Margot is a global superstar and the voice of a generation who loves movies on the big screen. Jason is beloved by fans around the world for creating incredible—and scary—experiences in theatres. They are both well-known, fierce advocates of the theatrical experience. I want to thank them both for their commitment, and I look forward to working closely with them to advance this great industry together.”
“It’s an absolute honor to have Margot and Jason join the Filmmaker Leadership Council,” said Council Chair Bruckheimer. “Their combined impact on this industry is enormous, and I know they will help our efforts immensely.”
“For me, the magic of cinema starts with the cinema itself,” Robbie said. “Storytelling in this format can be incredibly powerful, and I truly believe movie theatres are essential to our art form. I couldn’t be more grateful and excited to be able to work with such a powerful group of creatives to continue to drive the theatrical experience forward.”
Blum added, “Movie theaters are where fans are made. Bold, creative voices are bringing young audiences back to the movies, and that’s exciting. Turning moviegoing into a habit takes all of us, and this Council gives us a way to do that together.”
This week, Blum will speak to members of exhibition as part of a live conversation at Cinema United’s annual Fall Summit gathering in Los Angeles.
Robbie is a 3x Oscar nominated actress and producer. She starred in Warner Bros’ highest grossing movie ever, Barbie, which made over $1.4 billion worldwide. She stared earlier this year in Warner Bros/MRC’s feature take of classic novel Wuthering Heights. She next stars and produces Warners’ Ocean’s prequel which is shooting in Monaco under the direction of Bradley Cooper who also stars.
Three-time Oscar nominee Blum leads Blumhouse Atomic Monster. Blumhouse has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures and has produced the highly-profitable Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious, and Sinister franchises which have grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide on combined budgets under $40 million. This past summer Blumhouse Atomic Monster had two movies which grossed over $900M combined on very low budgets: A24’s highest grossing movie ever Backrooms and Focus Features’ highest grossing movie ever, Obsession.
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EXCLUSIVE: As the worlds of entertainment and brands move closer together, The Now Agency has a plan to scale content.
The New York-based social media agency is launching a social distribution network (SDN), which is aimed at helping brands push their content towards a network of more than 50,000 third-party publishers.
“Great content alone is no longer enough to win on social,” said Gabe Feldman, co-founder and Managing Partner of The Now Agency. “Brands need to think just as critically about how that content is engineered to break through the discovery mechanisms that determine its reach, and how distribution can scale that reach beyond a brand’s owned channels.”
In effect, the social distribution network will allow content such as podcasts, interviews, live streams, YouTube programing and other types of long-form content to reach vetted third parties, who turn the content into social-native clips and distribute them through their own channels. The content will span the entertainment, lifestyle, sports and culture spaces.
The Now Agency says content discovery that was once tied to a creator or brand’s follower base, but that platforms are now sharing based on signals such as watch time, engagement, discussion and shares.
“The opportunity isn’t simply to produce more content,” added Jonathan Chanti, Co-Founder of The Now. “It’s to build a system that gives every strong piece of content more chances to find its audience. Social distribution should be treated as infrastructure, not an afterthought.”
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EXCLUSIVE: Will the real Ben Reilly please stand up? Prime Video is closing in on an order for a new series set in Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters based on the popular Clone Saga storyline from the Marvel Comics, more specifically the second Clone Saga story arc that focuses on two Spider-Man clones, Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker, sources tell Deadline.
Reps for Amazon MGM Studios and Sony TV declined comment.
The new series, written by American Born Chinese creator Kelvin Yu, will succeed Spider-Noir, which was recently canceled by Prime Video after one season. It starred Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly whose alter ego was the title character. In the comic books, Spider-Man Noir is Peter Parker, with the identity switched for the TV series because of rights carveouts.
Details about the new series are scarce.
In the comics, Ben Reilly is a successful, stable Spider-Man clone whose name is a combination of the first name of Peter’s uncle Ben and the maiden name of his aunt May and who develops a superhero identity of his own, the Scarlet Spider. Kaine Parker is the flawed first clone of Spider-Man.
Sources caution that, while the comics serve as source material and inspiration, there may be significant changes in the screen adaptation.
There is some conflicting information, with some saying that the TV series would follow Ben and Kaine as they grapple with their newly discovered identities as clones while also facing other clones. (Another clone in the comics becomes the villain Spidercide.)
Others claim that the series may alter Ben and Kaine’s origins as clones, and they could take on new identities.
In what is considered Clone Saga’s most controversial twist in the books, Ben Reilly at one point is declared the real Spider-Man and Peter Parker the clone, a switch that was eventually reversed after backlash from fans.
Like Spider-Noir, the new series falls under the multi-title deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television aimed at generating a suite of TV series based on IP from Sony’ Universe of Marvel Characters, most of them in the world of Spider-Man. It also will have a linear debut on Amazon’s MGM+ platform followed by a streaming release on sibling Prime Video.
Amy Pascal, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who oversee the universe for Sony TV and executive produced Spider-Noir, are expected to also executive produce the Clone Saga series with Yu.
As Deadline reported at the time of the Spider-Noir cancellation earlier this month, Amazon and Sony TV were continuing to develop multiple projects under the pact, with one of them nearing a series order.
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