Ava DuVernay’s 14th to close New York Film Festival
The Netflix documentary will have its world premiere Oct. 9, a decade after DuVernay’s 13th opened the festival.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
2 min read
Ava DuVernay is returning to the New York Film Festival with another constitutional heavyweight.
The 64th edition of NYFF has set DuVernay’s Netflix documentary 14th as its closing night film, with a world premiere scheduled for Oct. 9, festival organizers said. The booking comes 10 years after her documentary 13th opened the festival.
The new film is described by NYFF as a follow-up of sorts to 13th, which examined the 13th Amendment’s abolition of slavery and argued that exceptions in the amendment helped shape the mass incarceration of Black Americans.
NYFF said 14th turns to the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, and examines what the festival called an assault on its core protections. According to the festival, those principles include birthright citizenship, due process, equal protection under the law and limits tied to insurrection by heads of state.
“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,” DuVernay said.
DuVernay said NYFF has “always been a place where films invite conversation rather than simply applause,” adding that 14th examines “a promise powerful enough to change a nation” and divisive for more than 150 years. She thanked NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim and the festival team for supporting films that pose difficult questions, and said she was honored to show the film to New York audiences first.
A packed roster of political and legal voices
The Netflix release features a wide group of interview subjects, according to NYFF. They include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat; Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican; former Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican; and Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat.
The film also includes lawyer and former Georgia state representative Stacey Abrams, legal commentators Sherrilyn Ifill and Robert Chang, and social commentators Donald T. Critchlow and Hasan Piker.
Lim praised the documentary as “a movie for the moment that sees through the fog of the present.” He said DuVernay’s film offers “clarity” about how the country reached its current point and what is at risk.
DuVernay’s past work includes Selma, 13th, Middle of Nowhere, A Wrinkle in Time, Origin and the series When They See Us and Queen Sugar. She is an Emmy, BAFTA, Sundance and Peabody winner, as well as an Oscar nominee, and founded the narrative collective ARRAY.
The New York Film Festival will run from Sept. 25 through Oct. 12. James Gray’s Paper Tiger, which premiered at Cannes, will open the festival with its North American premiere.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.