Ava DuVernay documentary fourteenthwhich explores the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, will receive its world premiere as the closing night selection of the 2026 New York Film Festival.
The Netflix film, which will be released on October 9, is a follow-up to DuVernay’s 2016 film. thirteenthwhich opened the New York Film Festival that year, explores how the Fourteenth Amendment and its provisions for birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection under the law, and prohibition of sedition by elected officials, became the subject of enduring controversy.
It is scheduled to be released later this year, fourteenth It blends scholarship with current news headlines and features insights from politicians, historians, cultural voices, and legal minds.
“if thirteenth “He was asked who will be locked up, and then the 14th asks who will be counted,” DuVernay said when Netflix announced it. fourteenth Last week. “This is not a film about a bygone time of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back. The film wonders what kind of country is being written under our feet now… while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told.”
The doc features the voices of Democratic and Republican politicians, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Anna Paulina Luna, Sen. Alex Padilla and former Sen. Jeff Flake. The film also features legal experts Sherilyn Ifill, Robert Chang and Stacey Abrams; Commentators Donald T. Critchlow and Hassan Baker. and historians Eric Foner and David Plait.
“Exactly a decade later thirteenth He opened the New York Film Festival, and it’s especially rewarding to be back with him fourteenth “As the 2026 closing night selection,” DuVernay said in a statement. “The New York Film Festival has always been a place where films invite conversation rather than just applause. To that end, fourteenth 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 start this conversation than NYFF. I am grateful for [NYFF artistic director] Dennis Lim and his team believe in work that asks tough questions, and I’m honored to share this film with a New York audience first. On behalf of everyone who worked to tell this story, we hope it leaves people discussing, wondering, and above all, imagining what is still possible.
Lim added, “We are honored to conclude this edition of the New York Film Festival with Ava DuVernay’s follow-up at a very appropriate time for the film… thirteenth. fourteenth It is a film of a moment seen 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 exactly what led us here and what is at stake now.
DuVernay, an Academy Award nominee who has won an Emmy and a Peabody among other awards, directed and produced Array. Spencer Afric, Tammy Garnes and Paul Garnes also produced fourteenth.
DuVernay’s film comes as President Donald Trump has attacked the birthright clause of the 14th Amendment, signing an executive order to severely restrict the constitutional guarantee. In June, the Supreme Court overturned Trump’s order by a vote of 6 to 3.
The 64th New York Film Festival, which will open with the North American premiere of James Gray’s film paper tigeris scheduled to run from September 25 to October. 12.
