{"id":297710,"date":"2026-07-16T15:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297710\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:39:15","slug":"paper-tiger-to-open-2026-new-york-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297710\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Paper Tiger’ to Open 2026 New York Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Gray\u2019s \u201cPaper Tiger<\/a>\u201d will open the 64th New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

The film, which debuted in competition for the Palme d\u2019Or at Cannes in May, will have its North American premiere at the festival\u2019s Alice Tully Hall on Friday, Sept. 25, ahead of its Nov. 13 theatrical release from Neon.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sian\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival,\u201d Gray said in a statement. \u201cThis 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\u2014many of whom are New Yorkers\u2014is a privilege. Thank you to the entire New York Film Festival team. It is an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Gray, \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d stars Adam Driver and Miles Teller as brothers Gary (a former cop) and Irwin (an engineer) Pearl, who become involved in a scheme with the Russian Mafia in 1980s Queens. Scarlett Johansson stars as Irwin\u2019s wife, Hester.<\/p>\n

This marks the fourth time one of Gray\u2019s features has been selected for NYFF. His 2013 film \u201cThe Immigrant\u201d and 2022\u2019s \u201cArmageddon Time\u201d were both chosen as Main Slate selections at the festival, while \u201cThe Lost City of Z\u201d served as the closing night feature in 2016. \u201cArmageddon Time\u201d was also selected as the festival\u2019s 60th Anniversary Screening at the landmark festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames 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,\u201d NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim said in a statement. \u201c\u2019Paper Tiger\u2019 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\u2014one of the great filmmakers, period\u2014of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three of the last 10 films to open NYFF \u2014 \u201cNickel Boys,\u201d \u201cThe Irishman\u201d and \u201cThe Favourite\u201d \u2014 went on to become Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards. Three more \u2014 \u201cMay December,\u201d \u201cThe Tragedy of Macbeth\u201d and \u201c13th\u201d \u2014 received nominations in other categories. (Steve McQueen\u2019s \u201cLovers Rock\u201d was not eligible for Oscars, despite opening NYFF in 2020, because it was part of the \u201cSmall Axe\u201d anthology series.)<\/p>\n

Luca Guadagnino\u2019s \u201cAfter the Hunt\u201d kicked off the festival last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaper Tiger\u201d will open NYFF on Friday, Sept. 25. NYFF64 will run until Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\""Coward"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gray\u2019s \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d will open the 64th New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center announced Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22730,113253,9,24,55,54,14115,56,94810,113252],"class_list":["post-297710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-film-festivals","tag-james-gray","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-film-festival","tag-ny","tag-nyff","tag-paper-tiger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}