The 64th New York Film Festival opens today, and its closing night belongs to Ava DuVernay. Her new documentary 14th will receive its world premiere on October 9 at Lincoln Center — ten years after 13th opened the same festival in 2016.
Where 13th examined mass incarceration as an outgrowth of the Thirteenth Amendment, 14th turns to the Fourteenth. The film traces 150 years of the amendment's history, centering on three of its core guarantees: birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law. DuVernay framed the film's question directly. "If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted," she said. "This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now."
Interview subjects include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Senator Jeff Flake, legal scholar Sherrilyn Ifill, Stacey Abrams, and commentators Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker. "NYFF has always been a place where films invite conversation rather than simply applause," DuVernay said of the festival selection.
14th opens in select U.S. and UK theaters on November 27, 2026, and streams globally on Netflix on December 4. The release window places it directly in the Academy's consideration period. 13th won two Emmy Awards and received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2017. Its follow-up enters the awards season without a clear rival in the documentary field.
