Ava DuVernay’s documentary “14th” will make its world premiere at the 64th New York Film Festival on Oct. 9, 2026 as the closing night selection. This year’s festival runs from Sept. 25 through Oct. 12.
DuVernay’s documentary looks at the amendment to the U.S. constitution that defines birthright citizenship and ensures due process and equal protection under the law. It is a continuation of some of the questions she raised in her Oscar-nominated 2016 doc, “13th,” which explored how the mass incarceration of Black Americans is a by-product of the amendment that abolished slavery. It was the opening night film of the 54th New York Film Festival.
In the new film, DuVernay zeroes in on the recent erosion of principals laid out in the 14th Amendment via interviews with prominent figures that include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), legal experts Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang and Stacey Abrams, and social commentators Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker. “14th” analyzes how the Trump administration has pushed United States democracy into a state of crisis, resulting in the further disenfranchisement of Black citizens.
“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 via statement. “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. … On behalf of everyone who worked to tell this story, we hope it leaves people debating, questioning, and, above all, imagining what is still possible.”
“We are honored to close this edition of the New York Film Festival with Ava DuVernay’s supremely timely follow-up to ’13th,’” NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim said, also via statement. “’14th’ is a movie for the moment that sees through the fog of the present. The great gift of this urgent and essential work is its clarity: Ava has made a film that shows us precisely what led us here, and what is at stake right now.”
DuVernay will attend the Oct. 9 screening of “14th” at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
As previously announced, James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” will kick off the festival on Sept. 25.
