![‘Paper Tiger’ Review: Adam Driver, Miles Teller & Scarlett Johansson Anchor James Gray’s Searing New York Crime Drama [Cannes]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/16191815/Scarlett-Johannson-Paper-Tiger-James-Gray.jpg "‘Paper Tiger’ Review: Adam Driver, Miles Teller & Scarlett Johansson Anchor James Gray’s Searing New York Crime Drama [Cannes]")
Fall festival season is upon us, and after the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its opening night world premiere slate, its sister festival in the States has some news of its own. Film at Lincoln Center has revealed that James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” will open the 2026 New York Film Festival. Acquired by Neon for a theatrical release this fall, the dramatic thriller debuted to strong reviews at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival this past May.
This is Gray’s fourth film to screen at NYFF following “The Immigrant” as an official Main Slate selection in 2013, “The Lost City of Z” as the 2016 Closing Night film, and “Armageddon Time” a Main Slate selection and the festival’s 60th Anniversary Screening in 2022. This will be a North American premiere. It also screened at the Sydney Film Festival in June, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival earlier this month, and is set for the Locarno Film Festival in early August.
Set in the enclaves of Queens and Brooklyn in 1986, “Paper Tiger” finds an everyday, working-class engineer, Irwin (Miles Teller), caught up in a scheme with a recent influx of Russian mobsters thanks to his overzealous brother, Gary (Adam Driver), a corrupt ex-police officer. As the situation escalates, Irwin finds himself going to extremes to protect his wife Hester (a fantastic Scarlett Johansson) and his young boys. Gray and his production team have crafted an impressively authentic period film with notable contributions from composer Christopher Spelman and cinematographer Joaquín Baca-Asay.
In a statement, Gray noted, “I’m immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival. This 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—many of whom are New Yorkers—is a privilege. Thank you to the entire New York Film Festival team. It is an honor.”
NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim added, “James 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. ‘Paper Tiger’ 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—one of the great filmmakers, period—of our time.”
Recent opening night films at NYFF include “After the Hunt,” “Nickel Boys,” “May December,” “White Noise,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “The Irishman,” and “The Favourite.”
The NYFF will unveil its centerpiece and closing night films over the next two weeks. At least one is most assuredly a world premiere. The Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival will reveal their complete slates next week.
“Paper Tiger” is set for limited release on November 13. It will expand nationwide on November 20. The 64th New York Film Festival runs from September 25 through October 12.
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
