Ten years after Ava DuVernay opened the New York Film Festival with “13th,” the filmmaker is returning with its follow-up. Film at Lincoln Center has selected “14th” as the Closing Night film of the 64th New York Film Festival, where it will make its world premiere on October 9 at Alice Tully Hall.
The festival will open on September 25 with the North American premiere of James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson. The film premiered in competition at Cannes earlier this year.
The Netflix documentary examines the 14th Amendment and the long political battle over its guarantees of birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law, along with its prohibition against insurrectionists holding public office. The film traces those fights from Reconstruction through the current political moment.
READ MORE: James Gray’s ‘Paper Tiger’ To Open The 2026 New York Film Festival
DuVernay has assembled an ideologically varied group of participants, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Anna Paulina Luna, Jeff Flake, Alex Padilla, Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang, Stacey Abrams, Donald T. Critchlow, and Hasan Piker.
“Exactly a decade after ‘13th’ opened the New York Film Festival, it feels especially meaningful to return with ‘14th’ as the 2026 Closing Night Selection,” DuVernay said. “‘NYFF’ has always been a place where films invite conversation rather than simply applause. To that end, ‘14th’ attempts to interrogate a promise powerful enough to change a nation—and controversial enough to divide it for more than 150 years.”
“14th” follows DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated “13th,” which connected the abolition of slavery under the 13th Amendment to the mass incarceration of Black Americans. The new film turns to a constitutional amendment whose meaning and enforcement remain at the center of fights over citizenship, voting rights, presidential power, and civil liberties.
“‘14th’ is a movie for the moment that sees through the fog of the present,” NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim said. “Ava has made a film that shows us precisely what led us here, and what is at stake right now.”
The 64th New York Film Festival runs from September 25 through October 12. “14th” premieres October 9 with DuVernay and participants from the documentary scheduled to attend, and Netflix will release the film later this year. “13th” earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, so expect the streamer to position “14th” as a major contender in this year’s documentary race.
Born in Chile, raised in Canada, now living in Brooklyn, NY, Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2007. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, MuchMusic, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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