Films to Potentially Check Out at the 2026 Tribeca Festival

It’s Tribeca Festival time! Yes, the 2026 incarnation of Tribeca is getting underway this week, with both in person and virtual screenings (plus, as always, perhaps some things I may have links for ahead of time). The festival always has interesting movies contained within, taking advantage of playing at a unique point in the cinematic calendar. Pre-COVID, the fest was slightly earlier in the year, but the principle still remains. Regardless, coming once again this year hot on the heels of the Cannes Film Festival, it’s now Tribeca’s time to shine! To commemorate the start of this feast for Big Apple cinephiles, I wanted to highlight some of the most interesting titles about to unspool in New York.

As always, there’s no shortage of titles to choose from. Below, you can see two dozen of the movies playing this year at Tribeca. I also added some honorable mentions as well, so there’s actually extra picks this year as well. Much like last year’s piece (found here), it’s meant to just whet your appetite a bit for the festival’s offerings. If you’re in New York City, be sure to try and check out something at the fest, as it’s far more accessible than several other ones, which is always nice…

Here now are some of the many titles to look out for at the 2026 Tribeca Festival:

Honorable Mentions: Born Melo, Caity, Cotton Fever, Doc Meets World, Frampton, Just Look Up, Killing Castro, Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, They Fight, Take Me Home, Time Warp, and Unidentified

The Accompanist

Act One

Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell’s Kitchen

Clean Hands

Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World)

Finnegan’s Foursome

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

Happy Hours

Hollywood Does Abortion

Iconoclast

In Memoriam

In the Hand of Dante

The Leader

Lucy Schulman

Mario

Miss Representation: Rise Up

Mumford & Sons: The House Band

Next Life

Playing POTUS

Ponderosa

Rain Reign

The Revisionist

That Friend

Young Washington

The thing about Tribeca, for better and worse, is that the titles are on the smaller side. So, the higher profile films this year are still relatively modest, though something like Twinless last year can continue to build upon its Sundance buzz. Last year also featured a few gems for me in Are We Good?, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, and Oh, Hi!, so those alone should show you some of what Tribeca is capable of. This year? I’m particularly interested in Clean Hands, Finnegan’s Foursome, Hollywood Does Abortion, In Memorium, The Leader, and Playing POTUS, though there’s plenty of other intriguing titles. For example, I’ve already seen Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, so that’s one review you can count on soon.

Ultimately, the Tribeca Festival is, as always, for cinephiles in New York City. The movies speak for themselves, as they always do. I’ll be taking them in, and if you live nearby, I hope you do, too. Festivals are meant for film lovers, after all, so make use of it. I’ll provide some recommendations, and the above list is a guidepost, but peruse the fest however you see fit…

Stay tuned for our coverage of the 2026 Tribeca Festival!