AFI Announces I PLAY ROCKY and Brad Bird’s RAY GUNN as Red Carpet Galas
- Details
- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Friday, 25 September 2026 11:38
- Written by AFI
Today, AFI announced I PLAY ROCKY and RAY GUNN will complete the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year's AFI FEST presented by Canva. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.
AFI also announced that 14th, ASHES, BEHEMOTH!, BITTER CHRISTMAS, BUNKER, CLARISSA, ELSINORE, JOSEPHINE, THE MAN I LOVE, MOUSE, TANGLES and WILD HORSE NINE will be featured in the Special Screenings section. Festival passes, which include the opportunity to access tickets to the Red Carpet Premieres, are available now at FEST.AFI.com.
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"AFI FEST is where the world tells stories in the beating heart of Hollywood," said Bob Gazzale, AFI President and CEO. "This year, we are proud to celebrate 40 years of bringing artists and audiences together to be inspired in a powerful sense of community."
Red Carpet Premieres
I PLAY ROCKY - Academy Award®-winning director Peter Farrelly (GREEN BOOK, AFI FEST 2018) tells the electrifying true story of an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn't just meant to write 1976's ROCKY — he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. The film is produced by Toby Emmerich, Michele Weiss, Christian Baha and Paul Currie.
RAY GUNN - A decades-in-the-making passion project from Oscar® winner and visionary Brad Bird, RAY GUNN is a retro-futuristic neo-noir mystery, featuring the voice talents of Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits.
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Special Screenings
14th - From one of the most influential filmmakers of our time, Ava DuVernay, comes an urgent confrontation with a shattered America and its unfinished promise.
ASHES (CENIZA EN LA BOCA) - Multi-hyphenate director/producer/actor Diego Luna adapts Mexican writer Brenda Navarro's acclaimed novel for his fourth feature, a powerful and unconventional immigration drama about a young Mexican woman who journeys to Spain with her brother to join the mother who left them behind as children.
BEHEMOTH! - A gifted cellist, Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), returns home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road. Music, which has been the constant, all-consuming river of his life, begins to carry Alex on an adventure that will change him forever. As he works a series of film projects, the cues trigger flashbacks that tell us why he's stayed away so long and why he's really come back. Utilizing an unprecedented nine composers, BEHEMOTH! is a love letter to movie scoring and the dizzying power music holds on our memories and imaginations.
BITTER CHRISTMAS (AMARGA NAVIDAD) - Eye-popping sweaters and interiors, the dramatic effect of a Chavela Vargas song, the sizzling screen presence of Rossy de Palma. Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar plays the hits before smashing his own playbook in this brilliant piece of autofiction, following the parallel stories of two self-obsessed filmmakers who contemplate the limits of inspiration.
BUNKER - Oscar® winners Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz square off in this marital thriller from Oscar®-winning filmmaker Florian Zeller. Renowned architect Miguel (Bardem) and editor Sofia (Cruz) find their 17-year marriage in jeopardy when a tech billionaire offers Miguel a Faustian bargain: design a bunker for the mogul and his oligarch friends to survive the inevitable social upheaval that will target them first.
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CLARISSA - With a star-studded ensemble cast, Arie and Chuko Esiri (EYIMOFE, AFI FEST 2020) relocate Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" to contemporary Lagos, turning its meditation on memory, desire, class and privilege into a distinctly Nigerian story.
ELSINORE - Andrew Scott gives a bravura performance as Ian Charleson, a gifted actor best known for his roles in CHARIOTS OF FIRE and GANDHI, who played Hamlet in a legendary 1989 National Theatre production before dying of AIDS in 1990. ELSINORE's outstanding cast includes Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Monica Dolan and Peter Mullan.
JOSEPHINE - Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the 2026 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Competition, Beth de Araújo's remarkable sophomore feature is a profound examination of childhood innocence lost, the cascading effects of violence and the limits of parental protection.
THE MAN I LOVE - In Ira Sachs' 1980s NYC musical drama, self-proclaimed "theater artist" Jimmy George (Rami Malek) draws lovers, friends and family into his orbit but leaves them spinning as his larger-than-life personality diminishes before their eyes.
MOUSE - When her world is turned upside down, high school senior Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) forms a complicated relationship with her best friend's mother (Sophie Okonedo), who presents a stark and dreamy contrast to Minnie's own working-class, single-parent household.
TANGLES - Leah Nelson, in her feature directorial debut, adapts Sarah Leavitt's acclaimed graphic memoir "Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me" into one of this year's most heartfelt animated films, by turns moving and surprisingly mirthful.
WILD HORSE NINE -Director Martin McDonagh continues his exploration of the complexities of male friendship, this time between two CIA agents who are stationed in Chile shortly before Pinochet's coup. The stellar cast includes Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and an excellent John Malkovich, who delivers a nuanced, humorous turn of existential dread.
AFI Fest Presented By Canva Announces 2026 Festival Passes Now On Sale
As previously announced, the 40th edition of the Institute's annual film festival will take place October 21–25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in the heart of Hollywood. The festival will open with the U.S. premiere of WILDWOOD, feature the World Premiere of THE MOSQUITO BOWL as a Red Carpet Premiere and close with BEING HEUMANN from Oscar® winner Siân Heder. Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will serve as this year's Guest Artistic Directors and participate in "An Evening with Phil Lord and Chris Miller," followed by a screening of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
Passes to AFI FEST 2026 are now available for purchase online at FEST.AFI.com.
Festivalgoers can choose from the Star Pass, Patron Pass and the new Marquee Pass. The AFI FEST Star Pass features access to all screenings (excluding Red Carpet Premieres), early screening selection and theater access, access to the AFI FEST Festival Lounge, AFI FEST merch and free rush access. The Patron Pass features all the benefits of the Star Pass, plus access to Red Carpet Premieres and priority screening selection and theater access.
The full festival lineup will be unveiled on September 29. Individual tickets will be available for purchase on October 3.
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AFI FEST is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival for the Live Action, Animated and Documentary Short Film categories for the annual Academy Awards®. AFI FEST is also a qualifying festival for consideration for the British Short Film categories of both the BAFTA Film Awards and the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).
AFI is a nonprofit, donor-powered organization. Join AFI's Premiere Circle to support the American Film Institute and enjoy access to exclusive one-of-a-kind opportunities at AFI events, including AFI FEST. To learn more, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Canva, the all-in-one visual communication and collaboration platform, returns as the exclusive Presenting Sponsor of AFI FEST 2026. Built to empower everyone across the entertainment industry, from screenwriters and directors to producers, production teams and studios, Canva helps bring ideas from early concept to screen. Entertainment professionals use Canva to pitch projects and secure buy-in, develop storyboards and mood boards, plan productions, collaborate with cast and crew, create marketing campaigns and promotional assets, and build presentations that bring creative visions to life.
Canva will be integrated throughout AFI FEST including hosting industry networking events and hands-on training workshops for filmmakers, while powering the festival's digital and printed materials. Entertainment professionals can explore resources to pitch projects, plan shoots and bring creative visions to life at canva.com/entertainment.
To learn more about AFI FEST, visit FEST.AFI.com.
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About the American Film Institute (AFI)
The American Film Institute (AFI) is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. Established in 1967, AFI launched the first comprehensive history of American film and sparked the movement for film preservation in the United States. In 1969, AFI opened the doors of the AFI Conservatory, a graduate-level program to train narrative filmmakers.
The Conservatory, which counts Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Ari Aster, Deniese Davis, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch and Rachel Morrison as Alumni, is ranked one of the top film schools in America. AFI's enduring traditions include the AFI Life Achievement Award, which honors the masters for work that has stood the test of time; AFI AWARDS, which celebrates the creative ensembles of the most outstanding screen stories of the year; and scholarly efforts such as the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and the AFI Archive that preserve film history for future generations. AFI exhibition programs include AFI FEST presented by Canva and year-round exhibition at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland. AFI Movie Club is a destination for movie lovers from around the world to celebrate and engage with the art form every day. Other pioneering programs include workshops aimed at elevating emerging storytellers and technology, including AFI DWW+ and the AFI Cinematography Intensive Workshop.
Read about all of these programs and more at AFI.com and follow us on social media at Facebook.com/AmericanFilmInstitute, YouTube.com/AFI, X.com/AmericanFilm,
TikTok.com/@americanfilminstitute and Instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.
About AFI FEST presented by Canva
Celebrating its 40th edition, AFI FEST presented by Canva is a world-class event showcasing the best films from across the globe. This year's edition takes place in Los Angeles from October 21-25, 2026. With an innovative slate of programming, the five-day festival presents screenings, panels and conversations featuring both master filmmakers and new cinematic voices. AFI FEST includes high-profile films with Q&As featuring the films' cast and crew and a robust lineup of fiction and nonfiction features and shorts, providing a one-of-a-kind experience for movie fans. Additional information is available at FEST.AFI.com.
Connect with AFI's film festival at Facebook.com/AFIFEST, X.com/AFIFEST, Instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute, TikTok.com/@AmericanFilmInstitute and YouTube.com/AFI.
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About Canva
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