Hamptons Film Festival Sets 2026 Lineup Around Wicker and Live Talks
The 34th Hamptons International Film Festival runs October 2–12 with Wicker closing the program and conversations led by Amanda Seyfried, John Turturro, Jesse Eisenberg and Ron Howard. Its packed slate turns the East Coast stop into an awards-season meeting point for premieres, repertory screenings and filmmaker access.
The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced the full program for its 34th edition, running October 2–12, 2026, with Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s Wicker as the closing-night film on October 12. Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki and Peter Dinklage lead the Sundance-launched fantasy. For film readers, the draw is as much the access as the titles: Amanda Seyfried, John Turturro, Jesse Eisenberg and Ron Howard will appear in the festival’s Conversations With series, tying major screenings to in-person discussions.
Wicker Closes, I Play Rocky Opens
Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky remains the opening-night selection, while Wicker brings the festival to a close. The closing film’s cast gives Hamptons a recognizable final-night event, but the festival’s programming also makes room for films arriving from other major showcases and a small group making world premieres on Long Island.
Deadline reported that the festival’s timing — immediately after Toronto, Venice and Telluride and overlapping with the New York Film Festival — has made Hamptons a useful stop as awards season gathers momentum. The schedule places the festival in a crowded autumn corridor, yet its identity is clear: a place where audiences can see likely conversation-starters and then hear directly from the people who made them.
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Seyfried and Turturro Anchor the Centerpiece Screenings
Tim Blake Nelson’s The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd will receive its U.S. premiere October 3. Seyfried stars with Scoot McNairy, and she will speak at East Hampton Middle School on October 4 after the screening.
Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York screens October 10. Turturro leads a cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price and Tatiana Maslany, then joins a conversation at Guild Hall on October 11.
Eisenberg’s The Debut, which he wrote and directed, screens October 9 before his Guild Hall conversation on October 10. Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey and Eisenberg star. Howard’s Avedon, a documentary about photographer Richard Avedon, receives its East Coast premiere before Howard’s own Guild Hall appearance on October 10.
