Picture: A24 Films, Sandbox Films, Safehouse Pictures
A profound, riotously funny documentary about facing the end is heading to Netflix. Following its acclaimed premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and a limited theatrical run earlier this spring, we can officially confirm that the A24-backed documentary André Is an Idiot will make its Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) debut on Netflix US next month.
Netflix confirmed via its June 2026 preview that André Is an Idiot will be available to stream on Netflix US starting Wednesday, June 17th, 2026. That’s just a few months following its theatrical premiere in March.
Directed by Tony Benna, the film was one of the major breakouts of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it took home both the Audience Award and the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award in the US Documentary competition. It was later picked up by Joint Venture for a limited US theatrical release in March 2026.
Produced by an impressive team including Joshua Altman, Ben Cotner, and Stelio Kitrilakis—with production companies including A24, Sandbox Films, and Safehouse Pictures—the film’s arrival on Netflix gives this life-affirming (and potentially life-saving) documentary the massive global platform it deserves.
The film chronicles the life and final years of André Ricciardi, a wildly eccentric San Francisco-based advertising executive. The “idiot” part of the title refers to André’s decision to skip a colonoscopy at age 50—a decision he openly admits was the worst of his life, leading to a terminal Stage IV colon cancer diagnosis a year later.
But rather than a bleak, somber medical diary, the documentary is an irreverent, hilarious, and boundary-pushing celebration of life. André teams up with director Tony Benna to document his journey with complete transparency. They employ comedic vérité storytelling interspersed with fantastic stop-motion claymation sequences (in the vein of Wallace & Gromit) to visualize André’s whimsical stories—including bringing the clumps of hair he lost during chemotherapy to life with googly eyes and sneakers.
While André’s wild hair and explosion of ideas drive the film, it’s anchored by his candid interactions with his support system, like his wife Janice, who serves as the understated hero of the story, Peter, his therapist, and Tommy Chong.
Boasting a stellar 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is widely considered one of the funniest documentaries ever made about a fatal diagnosis. Not only is it an emotionally authentic portrait of an unconventional life, but it has literally saved lives by urging audiences to stop putting off their health screenings.
Are you ready to laugh and cry with André? Let us know if you’ll be adding this award-winning documentary to your Netflix queue on June 17th!
