TRIBECA FESTIVAL 2026 TAKES OVER NYC WITH MADONNA, ALICIA KEYS, TEYANA TAYLOR, FILM PREMIERES, CELEBRITY TALKS, AND RED CARPET MOMENTS
The Tribeca Festival returns to New York City from June 3–14 for its milestone 25th anniversary edition, transforming downtown Manhattan once again into a collision point for film, music, fashion, celebrity culture, and experimental storytelling. This year’s lineup feels especially stacked — balancing major studio premieres, buzzy indie debuts, live performances, music documentaries, fashion-world crossovers, and high-profile conversations featuring everyone from Madonna and Teyana Taylor to Martin Scorsese, Alicia Keys, Sean Penn, and Sean Ono Lennon.
Founded in the aftermath of 9/11 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, Tribeca has evolved far beyond a traditional film festival over the past two decades. What began as a cultural revival project for Lower Manhattan has become one of New York’s defining entertainment and arts events — where film premieres blur into live performances, fashion events, creator culture, and downtown nightlife.
This year’s festival opens June 3 with the world premiere of Questlove’s documentary “Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World),” followed by a live performance from Earth, Wind & Fire and The Roots at the Beacon Theatre. Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the film explores the iconic band’s rise from Chicago beginnings to one of the most influential musical acts in history through rare archival material, metaphysical influences, and the legacy of founder Maurice White.
Music remains one of the strongest threads running through the 2026 lineup. Alongside Questlove’s opening night premiere, the festival includes “Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell’s Kitchen,” a documentary love letter to New York and Keys’ upbringing in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The closing night premiere will be followed by a special appearance from Alicia Keys herself.
Additional music-focused premieres include “Sara Bareilles: Good Grief,” “Frampton,” “Trinity: The Story of the LOX,” “Imaginal Disk” centered on Magdalena Bay, “Noga,” and “Mumford & Sons: The House Band” — many paired with exclusive live performances following screenings. Tribeca’s ability to merge film screenings with one-night-only live events continues to make it one of the most experiential festivals in the world.
One of the festival’s biggest headline moments arrives June 5 when Madonna sits down with Jimmy Fallon for a special Tribeca Talks event at the Beacon Theatre. The appearance is expected to draw one of the festival’s hottest red carpets and further cements Tribeca’s growing dominance in celebrity-driven live conversations. Sean Penn is also slated for a major Tribeca Talks appearance during the festival.
Fashion and film continue intersecting in a major way throughout the festival, particularly through CHANEL’s ongoing partnership with Tribeca and the Through Her Lens initiative. One of the standout events this year is the Through Her Lens Storytellers Series conversation featuring Teyana Taylor.
Presented through the Through Her Lens: The Tribeca CHANEL Women’s Filmmaker Program, the event highlights women shaping the future of filmmaking and creative leadership. Taylor — who has continued expanding her career across acting, directing, choreography, music, and fashion — recently joined the program’s advisory committee alongside names including Jane Fonda, Kerry Washington, Lucy Liu, and Tessa Thompson.
Among the most anticipated documentaries this year is “threeASFOUR: Full Circle,” premiering as part of Tribeca’s Spotlight Documentary lineup. The film follows avant-garde fashion collective threeASFOUR — Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser, and Adi Gil — exploring how fashion, identity, collaboration, and politics intersect within the group’s visionary design practice.
The documentary is directed by Sean Ono Lennon and co-directed by Brian C. Gonzalez, with production by Beth Levison, Lauren Evangelista, and Daniel Sheppard. For The Untitled Magazine and The Untitled Space community, the project carries particular significance. Angela Donhauser (Ange) was previously featured by The Untitled Space in the 2016 solo exhibition “Cardiac Insomniac,” presented in collaboration with threeASFOUR. The exhibition explored Donhauser’s surreal, dreamlike visual language through sculpture, installation, and wearable forms, bridging the worlds of art, fashion, and performance. Brian C. Gonzalez also has longstanding ties to The Untitled Magazine, having directed several films for the publication’s early cinema-focused editions including “BLACK,” “STORM,” and “IT CAN’T BE TRUE,” as well as participating in The Untitled Space’s immersive group exhibition “ART IN MOTION.” Adding another layer of connection, several photographs by The Untitled Magazine founder and editor-in-chief Indira Cesarine are featured within the documentary itself, including imagery from the magazine’s “REBEL” issue featuring Pussy Riot styled in threeASFOUR.
Narrative premieres this year also deliver a heavy mix of prestige indie filmmaking and celebrity-driven ensemble casts. One of the most anticipated is “The Accompanist,” directed by Zach Woods and starring Susan Sarandon, Aubrey Plaza, Everly Carganilla, and Kevyn Morrow. The emotionally charged drama follows a young girl removed from her grandfather’s care and placed with an unconventional foster guardian, exploring themes of chosen family, instability, and survival.
Katie Holmes also returns to Tribeca with “Happy Hours,” which she directs, writes, and stars in opposite Joshua Jackson, marking the pair’s onscreen reunion years after “Dawson’s Creek.” The romantic drama follows former lovers reconnecting years after their unresolved breakup while navigating life, regret, and intimacy in New York City.
Other major narrative premieres include Drake Doremus’ “Next Life” starring Emilia Clarke and Édgar Ramírez; “Only What We Carry” featuring Sofia Boutella, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lizzy McAlpine, Simon Pegg, and Quentin Tarantino; and “The Last Day” starring Alicia Vikander and Wagner Moura.
Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante” is also expected to generate major attention, featuring an all-star cast including Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Jason Momoa, Martin Scorsese, and Gerard Butler.
Documentary highlights extend far beyond music and fashion. “Jean-Michel,” the first documentary created with the full participation of the Basquiat family, offers an intimate portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat through family archives and personal stories. Elsewhere, “House of Criticism” explores legendary New York art critics Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith, while “Hollywood Does Abortion” examines decades of abortion narratives across film and television and their cultural impact.
Tribeca’s growing focus on internet culture and digital media appears throughout the lineup as well. “TikTok Never Dies” follows creators fighting the platform’s proposed U.S. ban and the implications for free speech and social media culture. Meanwhile, “Probably Nothing to Worry About” examines the origins and future implications of artificial intelligence through the lens of the people building it.
The nostalgia factor also runs strong throughout this year’s programming. “Doc Meets World” reunites the cast of “Boy Meets World” for the final stop of their live rewatch tour, while retrospective conversations and anniversary screenings continue Tribeca’s tradition of blending contemporary culture with legacy storytelling.
Celebrity attendance across the festival is expected to dominate New York’s entertainment calendar throughout June, with appearances anticipated from Madonna, Teyana Taylor, Alicia Keys, Sean Penn, Questlove, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Susan Sarandon, Aubrey Plaza, Emilia Clarke, Sofia Boutella, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Oscar Isaac, Sharon Stone, Paul Rudd, Bob Odenkirk, Carmelo Anthony, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mumford & Sons, Peter Frampton, and many more.
At 25 years in, Tribeca continues proving why it remains one of the defining cultural festivals of New York City — one where film, fashion, art, music, politics, celebrity, and internet culture all collide across theaters, galleries, rooftops, conversations, and downtown afterparties.
The 2026 Tribeca Festival runs June 3–14 throughout New York City.
