Martin McDonough’s Wild Horse Nine, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s French Oscar submission Minotaur, James Gray’s Paper Tiger, and the world premieres of several UK and Irish films are among a lineup of more than 100 features at the 27th annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF, October 15-22).
The aforementioned screen in the southern California festival’s Centrepiece selection of awards contenders alongside the likes of recent Venice opener Ink by Danny Boyle, Guy Nattiv’s Telluride hit The Liberation, Beth de Araújo’s Sundance and Berlin entry Josephine, and the documentary Once Upon A Time In Harlem from David Greaves and William Greaves that also premiered in Sundance.
Rounding out Centrepiece are the world premiere of Danny Peykoff’s punk rock drama …And Out Comes The Wolf, as well as Anton Corbijn’s TIFF premiere A Talent For Murder, Phuong Mai Nguyen’s Cannes entry In Waves, Noah Segan’s Sundance hit The Only Living Pickpocket In New York, and Aaron Burns’s Jimmy Stewart drama Jimmy.
Screening in International Spotlight are Cannes heavy-hitters Fatherland (Pol) from Pawel Pawlikowski and Los Javis’ Spanish Oscar submission La Bola Negra, alongside Hirokazu Koreeda’s Venice entry Look Back, and the world premieres of Jin Gwang-gyo’s South Korean romantic music drama Jeju Olle and Vicky Wright’s Irish drama The Body Is Water.
Receiving their North American premieres are Ali Asgari’s A Bit Of Light (Iran) from Venice; Alexandra-Therese Keining’s A Journey To Piedmont (Swe); Tony Rogers’s How To Talk To Australians; Jan Svěrák’s What A Way To Go (Czech); and There’s A Hole In My Bucket (NZ) co-directed by Royd Tolkien, Robert Cavanah, and Drew Cullingham.
International Spotlight selections include Dallan Shovlin’s Galway Film Fleadh comedy You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead (Ire) and Lance Daly’s 2025 Galway audience award winner Trad (Ire); Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle: Tilting Iron (Fr); Sönke Wortmann’s Empty Nesters (Ger); Mohamed Sadeq’s Ezma (Egy); and Jun Robles Lana’s Sisa (Phil).
Also receiving their world premieres are the UK selections As Far Back As I Can Remember… The Story Of Goodfellas, a documentary tribute to Martin Scorsese’s film from Lisa Downs and Ashley Pugh, and the thriller Better from Daniel Sharp.
Opening and closing night films will be announced at a later date.
Gregg Schwenk, CEO and executive director of NBFF, said: “As we celebrate our 27th year, the Newport Beach Film Festival is thrilled to once again unite audiences with some of the most talked-about films of awards season and an extraordinary group of filmmakers from around the world. Each year, our goal is to create a platform where remarkable stories, bold voices, and audiences come together, and this year’s lineup embodies that spirit beautifully. We look forward to sharing these impactful films with our incredible Orange County community and celebrating the artists behind them.”
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