Hamptons International Film Festival 2026: ‘I Play Rocky,’ Bob Balaban and Major Premieres Lead Lineup

HIFF returns Oct. 2-12 with Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, Chris Rock’s Misty Green, honors for Bob Balaban, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and a star-packed slate of premieres.

Fall in the Hamptons means fewer beach crowds, cooler nights — and the start of one of the East End’s most anticipated events: the Hamptons International Film Festival.

The 34th annual HIFF festival runs Oct. 2-12, bringing 11 days of premieres, screenings, filmmaker conversations and awards to the East End. For devoted HIFF-goers, it’s a fall ritual: Pick up a festival package, map out the screenings and spend a few days racing from one film to the next.

And this year there is plenty worth racing to.

The festival will open Friday, Oct. 2, with the East Coast premiere of Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, the true story behind Sylvester Stallone’s extraordinary fight to play Rocky Balboa after writing the screenplay that would change his life.

Anthony Ippolito stars as Stallone, alongside Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Stephan James and Kiki Seto. Ippolito is expected to attend Opening Night and will receive one of HIFF’s FLYTE Breakthrough Performer Awards.

Bob Balaban, Phil Lord and Chris Miller Among HIFF Honorees

Longtime East End resident and HamptonsFilm board member Bob Balaban will receive HIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday, Oct. 11.

The Academy Award nominee’s long list of acting credits includes Gosford Park, Moonrise Kingdom, Best in Show, For Your Consideration and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Balaban has also worked extensively as a director, including Bernard and Doris, The Exonerated and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Academy Award-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will receive the Achievement in Directing Award for their work on Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller and James Ortiz. The filmmaking duo behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie will take part in a special festival conversation Saturday, Oct. 3.

Jordan Firstman will receive the FLYTE Breakthrough Director Award when his film Club Kid screens Thursday, Oct. 8. Firstman wrote, directed, produced and stars in the film, about a hard-partying New York club promoter whose life gets a serious jolt when the 10-year-old son he never knew he had suddenly arrives. Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Reggie Absolom and Colleen Camp also star.

Chris Rock, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Helen Mirren Hit the Screen

The Spotlight lineup brings some serious star power.

Chris Rock directs Misty Green, starring Rosalind Eleazar, Rock, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya and Anna Kendrick. Eleazar, who plays an actress fighting for a second act after her career stalls, will receive a FLYTE Breakthrough Performer Award at the film’s Oct. 7 screening.

The U.S. premiere of Florian Zeller’s Bunker pairs Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz in a dramatic thriller about an architect who accepts a morally questionable assignment to build a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire — and the strain the decision puts on his marriage.

Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love stars Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge and Rebecca Hall in a story set in late-1980s New York, while Anton Corbijn’s A Talent for Murder arrives for its U.S. premiere with Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke. Mirren plays celebrated author Patricia Highsmith in a story involving a publisher’s attempt to persuade her to write one final Ripley installment.

Five World Premieres — Including Two With Hamptons Connections

HIFF will also host five world premieres.

Barbizon, directed by Jake Silbermann, follows a stalled sculptor who escapes to the Hamptons and takes a job teaching chess to wealthy families. The film stars Erica Pappas, Silbermann, Michael DeGrandpre and McKenna Parsons.

The Hamptons also figure prominently in Not Dead Yet, starring Richard Kind, Paul Raci, Polly Draper and Tovah Feldshuh. The comedy follows a veteran ad man pushed out of his agency by a youth-obsessed culture who joins forces with a rebellious Hamptons senior breakfast club to launch a new venture.

Other world premieres include Anne Sundberg’s documentary The Drug in Our Pocket, examining the effects of smartphones on childhood, adolescence and mental health; Josh Thompson’s environmental documentary Kingdom Fungi; and Célia Millat and Bastien Garcia’s French drama Maman Bibi Coco.

One Screening Heads to the Talkhouse

There’s also a movie-and-music night in the mix.

Andrew Morgan’s Bleeding Hearts makes its East Coast premiere with a look at real-life couple Zella Day and Jesse Woods, the musicians behind the emerging band Chaparelle. The film follows the pair through the first year of their relationship as they navigate love, music and the pressures of pursuing a shared dream.

After the screening Friday, Oct. 9, Chaparelle will perform at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett.

From Opening Night to days spent hopping between screenings, filmmaker talks and premieres, HIFF has become one of the signature events of fall on the East End — a chance to see some of the season’s most anticipated films before everyone starts talking about them.

And judging by the first wave of the 2026 lineup, there should be plenty sparking conversation this October.

If You Go

What: 34th annual Hamptons International Film Festival
When: Oct. 2-12, 2026
Where: Screenings and events at venues across the Hamptons
Opening Night: I Play Rocky, Friday, Oct. 2
Tickets & Passes: Festival passes, packages, individual tickets and schedule information are available through HamptonsFilm.

Angela LaGreca

Editor, Co-Founder/Publisher

Angela LaGreca, Editor-in-chief and co-Founder/Publisher of Spark Hamptons, is a four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, writer and comedian/host. Her TV credits include NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “The View,” and, most recently, the primetime cable news program “Cuomo” on NewsNation. On the East End, she was the Creative Director at LTV, VP Features/Events/Photo Editor at Dan’s Papers, and has performed at Guild Hall, Bay Street Theater and the WHBPAC. Her publishing career began at Modern Photography, where she was managing editor. LaGreca lives in Manhattan and East Hampton and can be reached at angelatvmedia@gmail.com and angela@sparkhamptons.com .