BEHEMOTH! (2026): Tony Gilroy’s Return to Form Film Slated as the Centerpiece of the New York Film Festival

Behemoth! To Be the Centerpiece of the 64th New York Film Festival

Pedro Pascal‘s latest film, Behemoth!, is scheduled to have its world premiere as the centerpiece of the 64th Annual New York Film Festival.

Filmmaker Tony Gilroy was at the top of his game when he made the Oscar-nominated 2007 George Clooney masterpiece, Michael Clayton. Now, Gilroy has employed a modern-day heavy hitting actor, Pedro Pascal, to play the lead in his latest dramatic picture, Behemoth! which will screen as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival.

Tony Gilroy is a master craftsman whose work is always probing and the latest film he has made features a cast of great actors – Pascal, Olivia Wilde (of The Invite), Will Arnett (of last year’s NYFF closing night selection, Is This Thing On?) and the superb Eva Victor (of Sorry, Baby fame). This film will also showcase the wonderful character actress, JoBeth Williams from arguably the early 1980’s best scary movie, Poltergeist.

Behemoth! could remind one of a recent Dustin Hoffman movie, Tuner, which was a movie driven in large part by music, but Gilroy’s film is expected to even more polished and more Oscar-nomination worthy. Pascal will play a musician (a cellist) whose life comes to a crossroads due to the formidable events that occur in Gilroy’s character-driven picture which is expected to make a huge impact on audiences at the New York Film Festival this year.

It was previously announced that the closing night selection of the 64th New York Film Festival will be the world premiere of the great Ava DuVernay’s 14th. We previously reported that the star-driven film, Paper Tiger, will be the opening night selection at the prestigious NYFF.

Last year’s centerpiece of the New York Film Festival was Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother and the year before that it was The Room Next Door. What makes this new world premiere of Behemoth! so special is that the movie is driven by the arts and will be unveiled by Lincoln Center which is perhaps the definitive essence of true artistry and integrity.

Pascal is a hopeful for Best Actor this year and it is expected that his performance will be as strong as Clooney’s was in Michael Clayton. Pascal has often been overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That shouldn’t happen this year as his work in Behemoth! is expected to be of the highest caliber.

Searchlight is the studio behind Behemoth! and plans to release the prestige film in December around the holiday season where the Oscar-worthy movies of the year tend to hang out in theaters while enticing Academy Awards voters. Set on the West Coast, expect the high-profile forthcoming movie to shake up the East Coast when it premieres at the 64th New York Film Festival.

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