Ava DuVernay’s ’14th’ Documentary to World Premiere at New York Film Festival

Ava DuVernay‘s documentary “14th” will host its world premiere at the New York Film Festival. It will be the festival’s closing night film on Oct. 9 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The timing is poetic because “14th” is the follow-up to DuVernay’s seminal documentary “13th,” which opened the New York Film Festival in 2016. “13th” examined the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment, the abolition of slavery, and argued that loopholes led to today’s mass incarceration of Black Americans. That film was released on the eve of Donald Trump’s first presidency. A sequel, of sorts, “14th” asserts the tenets of the 14th Amendment, which establishes birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law, are now under systematic attack. Through interviews with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), legal experts Sherrilyn Ifill, Robert Chang, and Stacey Abrams, social commentators like Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker, and many others, DuVernay delves into the 14th Amendment’s “foundational principles” as well as the “prohibition for heads of state to engage in acts of insurrection all have been challenged to a dangerous degree in recent years.” Popular on Variety “If ’13th’ asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay said earlier this month when the project was announced. Netflix will release the film on its streaming platform later this year. DuVernay hopes that “14th” leaves audiences “debating, questioning, and, above all, imagining what is still possible.” “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,” said DuVernay. “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. There’s no better place to begin that conversation than NYFF.” DuVernay received an Oscar nomination for “13th.” Her other major credits include films like “Selma,” “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Origin,” and television shows such as “When They See Us” and “Queen Sugar.” “We are honored to close this edition of the New York Film Festival with Ava DuVernay’s supremely timely follow-up to ’13th,’” said Dennis Lim, NYFF’s Artistic Director. “’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.” The New York Film Festival will take place from Sept. 25 through Oct. 12. As previously announced, James Gray’s crime drama “Paper Tiger,” starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, will open the 64th edition of the festival on Sept. 25.