Luca Guadagnino is returning to the New York Film Festival with a ripped-from-the-headlines new film that wound up making headlines. Artificial, a drama diving into the inner workings and boardroom politics of OpenAI and its leader Sam Altman (played by Andrew Garfield), was originally set to be released by Amazon MGM Studios but was dropped after parent Amazon signed a deal with OpenAI. Neon stepped in and acquired the global rights. (You can catch up on the controversy here.)
Artificial appeared to be one of the high-profile movies that would sit out the fall festivals; then on Tuesday, organizers made the surprise announcement that Artificial would play in the main slate of the 64th New York Film Festival.
Below is everything to know about Artificial.
THE PLOT
The story traces Soviet-born computer scientist Ilya Sutskever from his 2003 studies under Geoffrey Hinton (the “Godfather of AI”) at the University of Toronto to his tenure at Google, where he crosses paths with ambitious tech entrepreneur Sam Altman. The film delves into the moral dilemmas, corporate power struggles, and existential panic that defined the rise of generative AI.
THE CAST
Garfield leads the ensemble as OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, starring opposite Anora‘s Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever. Mark Rylance portrays Hinton, while Monica Barbaro steps into the role of former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, and Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk. The supporting cast also features Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Koch, and Billie Lourd.
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA
Guadagnino directs the feature, reuniting with Garfield after their collaboration on After the Hunt. Simon Rich penned the screenplay. The film features cinematography by Malik Hassan Sayeed, editing by frequent Guadagnino collaborator Marco Costa, and an original score and soundtrack by Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn.
WHEN CAN I WATCH IT?
While the film will make its NYFF premiere on Oct. 5, no exact release date has been set but Neon plans a limited awards-qualifying run in late December 2026, followed by a wider theatrical rollout in early 2027.
