There are few rising filmmakers we here at IndieWire get more excited about than Beth de Araújo, who first captured our hearts (and our anxieties) with her first film “Soft & Quiet.” For her sophomore film, de Araújo remains compelled to tell unnerving stories that are ripped from real-life events. In the case of “Josephine,” that also means real-life events that actually happened to the filmmaker when she was a child.

Per the film‘s official synopsis, it “follows the psychological fallout after eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves) witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park. As she acts out, her parents (Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan) struggle with helping their daughter cope, while facing their own fears around the topic and how to address it with their child.”

Tatum and Chan, who both give stunning performances, also produce the film. The real find, however, is newbie Reeves, who offers a nuanced and heartbreaking performance as the titular character. In her very first on-screen role, Reeves brings a nuanced, brave, and deeply intuitive performance as the titular character, an eight-year-old San Francisco resident who witnesses a horrific crime and has to deal with the emotional fallout. De Araújo and her casting director cast a wide net to find Josephine, and ultimately discovered Reeves at a local farmers market in San Francisco, near where the filmmaker herself grew up.

As I wrote out of the film’s premiere at Sundance 2026, “de Araújo’s approach to portraying on-screen violence only furthers that heartsick feeling: straightforward, unsparing, and absolutely devoid of any possibility of being compared to ‘torture porn.’ What we see, what Josephine sees, is something no person should ever witness or experience. And that’s the root of the film’s power: how do we talk about things that we should not have words for?”

After winning big at Sundance — where the film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, and topped our own critics’ poll — the film will next screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, where we assume it will gather still more fans.

Sumerian Pictures will release “Josephine” in theaters on Friday, November 20. Watch the film’s first trailer below.

The latest film from Oscar-winning Spotlight director Tom McCarthy, A Statement, will receive its world premiere at the 2026 New York Film Festival, it was announced today.

The Sony Pictures Classics film, an ensemble piece about a 1980 conference on the threat of climate change, boasts an ensemble cast including Paul Giamatti, John Turturro, Paul Rudd, Amy Ryan, Evan Peters and Tatiana Maslany.

Additionally, the festival’s Spotlight lineup, unveiled today, includes buzzy titles like Jordan Firstman’s Cannes sensation Club Kid and Jesse Eisenberg’s upcoming musical follow-up to A Real Pain, The Debut, both of which will receive their New York premieres at the fest.

The festival will also screen Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; Noah Segan’s Turturro starrer The Only Living Pickpocket in New York; Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and marking his return to the NYFF after Fitzcarraldo was the closing night selection in 1982; Maiken Baird’s Edward Said: Between Worlds; the late Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette, a behind-the-scenes look at Sofia Coppola’s 2006 feature; Jonathan Glazer’s Joy of Joys documentary about the recording of a star-studded charity album helping kids in conflict zones; and Albert Serra’s Sixteen Moments of My Life.

The Spotlight slate also features 10 short films, including world premieres from acclaimed filmmakers.

The 2026 New York Film Festival, which unveiled its main slate last week, is set to run from Sept. 25-Oct. 12.

Over the past several weeks, the New York Film Festival has gradually unveiled one of its most exciting slates in years. First, there were notable premieres such as “Behemoth!” and “Godzilla Minus Zero,” then the announcement of a Kleber Mendonça Filho short about Jafar Panahi that would kick off the new NYFF Encounters program, and a main slate that included new works from Mike Leigh, Andrew Haigh, Chris Rock, and more.

It will all lead off with James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” a Cannes hit and formidable Oscar player that was previously announced as the opening night film.

Now, the festival is rolling out its complete Spotlight slate, which promises to be a feast for East Coast cinephiles. Highlights include the world premieres of Jonathan Glazer’s new documentary “Joy of Joys” and Tom McCarthy’s environmental ensemble drama “The Statement.”

The slate also includes a selection of international festival hits making their way stateside, including Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or-winning “Fjord,” Jordan Firstman’s acclaimed debut “Club Kid,” and Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” which will premiere at Venice a few weeks earlier. And Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut” will make its New York premiere at NYFF following premieres in Toronto and, presumably, Telluride.

After more than two weeks of cinema, the festival will close with Ava Duvernay’s new documentary “14th,” a follow-up to her “13th” that explores the origins and future of birthright citizenship.

The 64th New York Film Festival runs from September 25 – October 12. The complete Spotlight slate can be found below.

Spotlight Gala: “Godzilla Minus Zero” (Takashi Yamazaki)

“Bucking Fastard” (Werner Herzog)

“Club Kid” (Jordan Firstman)

“The Debut” (Jesse Eisenberg)

“Edward Said: Between Worlds” (Maiken Baird)

“Fjord” (Cristian Mungiu)

“Iron Boy” (Louis Clichy)

“Joy of Joys” (Jonathan Glazer)

“Making Marie Antoinette” (Eleanor Coppola)

“One More Time” (Cindy Kleine and André Gregory)

“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” (Noah Segan)

“Sixteen Moments of My Life” (Albert Serra)

“A Statement” (Tom McCarthy)

Spotlight Shorts

“South of Tehran” (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

“Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo” (Kamal Aljafari)

“A Stolen Movie” (Camilo Restrepo)

“Torino Shadow” (Jia Zhangke)

“Screening Room” (Morgan Fisher)

New York Shorts

“The People’s Beach” (J. Wortham)

“ee” (Heather Landsman)

“The House Call” (Eliza Barry Callahan)

“A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere” (Fanny Texier)

“New York Never Let Me Down” (Charlotte Wells)