James Gray's crime drama Paper Tiger will open the 64th New York Film Festival on September 25 at Alice Tully Hall, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Wednesday. The North American premiere follows the film's debut in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Set in 1986 Queens and Brooklyn, Paper Tiger follows two brothers: Irwin (Miles Teller), an engineer with middle-class aspirations, and Gary (Adam Driver), a former NYPD cop. When Gary draws Irwin into an oil-dumping scheme involving Russian criminals near the Gowanus Canal, the fallout reaches Irwin's entire family, including his wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson).
NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim called it "a movie of immense emotional power, at once lovingly realistic and grandly mythic." Gray said: "I'm immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival. This deeply personal film is rooted in New York City."
The selection marks Gray's fourth at NYFF, following The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City of Z (2016, closing night), and Armageddon Time (2022). At Cannes, Johansson was absent from the premiere while filming The Exorcist; Gray reportedly attempted to call her during a standing ovation for the film.
Neon, which acquired North American distribution rights ahead of Cannes, is planning a November 13 theatrical release with a nationwide expansion the following week. The 64th New York Film Festival runs September 25 through October 12.