14 MOVIES I’M HYPE TO SEE AT THE 2026 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

Tribeca is always a good place to find the films that feel like they’re about to move from festival curiosity to must-watch territory. For 2026, the lineup is stacked with music legends, sports icons, intimate artist portraits, sharp comedies, and stories about Black life that stretch from Brooklyn to Louisiana farmland to a rapidly changing East Austin.

Naturally, my list is stacked. From Alicia Keys revisiting the city that shaped her to Questlove giving Earth, Wind & Fire the celestial treatment, this year’s festival has more than a few titles worth keeping on the radar. These are the Tribeca 2026 films I’m most excited to see.

Alicia Keys: Girl From Hell's Kitchen

Director: One9

Alicia Keys gets the hometown-origin-story treatment in this documentary tracing her journey from 90s Hell’s Kitchen to Broadway. Through archival footage, family photos, home videos, and Keys’ own reflections, the film follows the making of her hit musical Hell’s Kitchen while digging into the girl behind the icon: a young artist shaped by New York, raised by a single mother, and determined to find her voice.

Airport BLVD

Director: Alejandro Hendricks

Set against the rapidly changing streets of East Austin, this jazz-infused musical follows Xavier as old restaurants close, friends leave, and the home he knew starts slipping out from under him. Alejandro Hendricks’ directorial debut sounds like a soulful love letter and a breakup song at once, tracing adulthood, intimacy, and loss through Black life in a city being remade in real time.

Born Melo

Director: Jake Rogal

This official documentary follows Carmelo Anthony as he reflects on his Baltimore upbringing, NBA superstardom, Hall of Fame legacy, and life after the game. But the heart of Born Melo is his son Kiyan stepping into his own basketball future, giving the film a tender father-son lens beyond the usual sports-doc highlight reel.

Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World)

Director: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Questlove’s latest music doc traces Earth, Wind & Fire from Maurice White’s early vision to the band’s full-blown celestial stadium era. Packed with archival performances, animation, and famous admirers, it’s a joyful tribute to the funk, flair, and spiritual showmanship that made them legendary.

Harvest

Directors: Natalie Baszile and Hyacinth Parker

From Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile and Hyacinth Parker, this intimate documentary follows the Nelson brothers, fourth-generation farmers in rural Sondheimer, Louisiana, as they chase bigger dreams on unforgiving land. With climate change, rising costs, family tension, and legacy all bearing down, Harvest looks like a tender, funny, and emotionally honest portrait of Black farmers trying to hold on and grow at the same time.

In the Hand of Dante

Director: Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel returns with a sweeping, strange, art-drunk thriller starring Oscar Isaac in dual roles as Dante Alighieri and modern-day writer Nick Tosches. Moving between 14th-century Italy and present-day New York, the film turns a stolen manuscript plot into a meditation on greed, faith, desire, and the messy, obsessive pull of making something that outlives you.

Jean-Michel

Directors: Quinn Whitney Wilson and Viridiana Lieberman

As Basquiat’s image keeps showing up everywhere from museum walls to merch, Jean-Michel pulls the focus back to the actual person behind the icon. Told through the eyes of his sisters Lisane and Jeanine, this estate-approved documentary traces his Brooklyn childhood, punk-scene years, and artistic rise with a more intimate, emotionally grounded lens.

Kingston

Directors: Carlos Key and Kalijah Rowe

Set on the polished, prestige-soaked campus of Kingston College, this sharp ensemble drama follows students and faculty colliding under the weight of elitism, social tension, and institutional rot. With messy situationships, first-gen frustration, legacy-kid chaos, and academia catching strays from every direction, Kingston sounds like a campus satire with bite.

March Forth

Directors: Robe Imbriano and Valerie Hong

This mixed-media documentary traces Reginald Dwayne Betts’ journey from being incarcerated in an adult prison at 16 to becoming a poet, lawyer, activist, and MacArthur Genius. Through performance, animation, poetry, and Brian Tyree Henry’s narration, March Forth follows a life reshaped by purpose and Betts’ mission to bring libraries into prisons.

Mouth Full of Golds

Director: Lyle Lindgren

This stylish documentary spotlights Famous Eddie, the Brooklyn fashion icon whose custom grillz helped reshape the face of hip-hop. Blending archival footage with contemporary voices, Mouth Full of Golds traces how a bold piece of jewelry became a cultural flex, an art form, and a global symbol of swagger.

Never Change!

Director: Marty Schousboe

A legal loophole sends the Class of 2008 back to high school in their mid-30s, dragging old flames, buried secrets, and fully adult baggage into the world’s most humiliating do-over. Gleefully ridiculous and proudly committed to the bit, Never Change! is the kind of ensemble comedy that lets nostalgia get messy, stupid, and actually funny.

One Woman One Bra

Director: Vincho Nchogu

Set in rural Kenya, this feature debut follows Star, a 38-year-old woman whose fight to claim her home and land becomes tangled with a deeper search for identity. Anchored by Sarah Karei’s performance, One Woman One Bra is a moving, sharply observed drama about belonging, dignity, and the stories communities choose to protect or rewrite.

The Revisionist

Director: Alex Vlack

Alison Brie stars as Elise, a blocked novelist who starts subtly manipulating the people around her in search of material for her next book. With André Holland and Dustin Hoffman rounding out the cast, The Revisionist sounds like a sharp, anxiety-laced drama about creative ambition, blurred boundaries, and the mess artists make when inspiration becomes an excuse.

They Fight

Director: Sheldon Candis

André Holland leads this redemption-minded boxing drama as Walt Manigan, a recently released ex-con who finds his way back into the world through a D.C. youth gym. With Wendell Pierce, Samira Wiley, and a ragtag crew of teenage fighters in the mix, They Fight looks like a heartfelt sports drama about second chances, chosen family, and the long road home.

Trinity: The Story of The LOX

Director: Bill Horace

This raw, time-capsule documentary traces The LOX from their Yonkers beginnings and Mary J. Blige discovery to the platinum success of Money, Power & Respect. It also digs into the trio’s fight for ownership in a predatory industry, honoring Sheek, Styles P, and Jadakiss as artists whose brotherhood, catalog, and cultural legacy have only gotten stronger with time.

The 25th Tribeca Film Festival will take place in NYC from June 3 through June 14. Whether these end up being favorites or surprises, I’ll be paying close attention when Tribeca rolls around.