Montclair Film Festival To Honor Tony Gilroy, Jack O’Connell, Ava DuVernay & More

EXCLUSIVE: The Montclair Film Festival will be honoring filmmaker Tony Gilroy, star Jack O’Connell, filmmaker Ava DuVernay among many others at this years 14th edition in Montclair, NJ.

The festival runs Oct. 16-25.

The fest will screen Gilroy’s latest movie, Searchlight’s Behemoth!, on its closing night. Stephen Colbert will moderate a post-screening Q&A where Gilroy will receive the 2026 Filmmaker Tribute.

On October 19 at the Montclair Kimberly Academy Upper School, the festival will honor O’Connell with its 2026 Performer Award. He stars in Danny Boyle’s Netflix film Ink as Larry Lamb, the editor who fired up The Sun in the UK with the help of Rupert Murdoch.

DuVernay will be honored with the Documentary Filmmaker Award for her film 14th. She’ll receive the award at the school on October 23, and will also be in conversation with Colbert following the screening of 14th.

On October 18 atthe Bellevue Theatre, the festival will honor director Beth de Araújo with the 2026 Breakthrough Director following a screening of her new film Josephine. Also that day at the MKA Upper School, the festival will honor screenwriter Stephen Beresford with its 2026 Screenwriter Award for Focus Features’ Elsinore. The fact-based drama, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, follows actor Ian Charleson who faced incredible odds while preparing to give the performance of his life in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.

“This year’s Montclair Film Festival Honors feature artists whose work has given shape to contemporary cinema,” said Montclair Film artistic director and co-head Tom Hall. “We are proud to award these artists for their commitment to the art of film, and we look forward to sharing these wonderful films at this year’s festival.”