ArtHouse Film Festival Returns in September

Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 08/24/2026

Premiering in Arthouse Film Festival: Gavagai, La Gravida, Atonement, Closure, The Stunt Driver, Special Boy and many more!

(CHATHAM, NJ) -- Featuring some of the best soon-to-be-released movies from around the world, Arthouse Film Festival will unspool for ten weeks beginning September 14, 2026 at Chatham Hickory Cinema. The selected films comprise award winners from Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, Venice and SXSW film festivals, along with prestige studio films, screened in Chatham before their New York theatrical release dates.

Arthouse Film Festival has hosted 2,108 movie premieres with 1,354 guest appearances over the past 36 years. Oscar winners and nominees Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, Jesse Eisenberg, Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Tony Gilroy, Brie Larson, Michael Shannon, Melissa Leo, Tom McCarthy, Chazz Palminteri, John Sayles, Aaron Sorkin, Lee Daniels, Frank Darabont, Fisher Stevens, LaKeith Stanfield and David Strathairn have joined Margo Martindale, Famke Janssen, Danai Gurira, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Derek Luke, Mary Stuart Masterson, David Morse, Connie Nielsen, Joe Pantoliano and Kevin Smith as guest speakers who have come to share their insights with festival participants.

"The program will always be flexible in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise," said festival director Chuck Rose. "Wonderful surprises and fantastic celebrities can pop up out of nowhere, so we try to keep the schedule as fluid as possible.

Highlights from last year's Arthouse Film Festival included a special pre-release premiere of Train Dreams, followed by a fascinating Q&A with writer/director Clint Bentley. After our premiere, Train Dreams received four Oscar nominations and won Best Feature, Best Director and Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards.

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At press time, confirmed films and those under consideration for the upcoming Fall 2026 festival include:

La Gravida with Colas Quignard, Antonia Buresi, directed by Marine Atlan. Winner of the Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prize and strong candidate for the 2027 Oscars, Marine Atlan makes a spectacular directorial debut telling the story of a high school trip to the ruins of Pompeii that shatters expectations and elevates the coming-of-age genre brilliantly.

The Stunt Driver with Jay Baruchel, Ed Helms, directed by Michael Dowse. Based on the true story of Canadian daredevil, stunt driver Ken Carter, and his manic quest to launch a rocket car across the St. Lawrence River from Canada to the United States in the 1970's.

Special Boy with Jon Rudnitsky, directed by Noah Findling. A decade after being fired from Saturday Night Live, Jon Rudnitsky hooks up with best friend and director Noah Findling, touring small comedy clubs, navigating the messy and tragicomic reality of life on the road, trying to restart his stand-up career.

Atonement with Kenneth Branagh, Boyd Holbrook, Hiam Abbass, directed by Reed Van Dyk. A troubled US marine embarks on a journey of reconciliation with the survivors of an Iraqi family he and his unit fired on back in 2003.

Closure with Daniel and Agnieska Dyminski, director Michal Marczak. What begins as a search for a missing teenager becomes an intimate study of a family suspended between hope and grief, and the painful truth of what it means to keep searching when closure may never come.

Gavagai with Jean-Christophe Folly, Maren Eggert, director Ulrich Kohler. From a turbulent movie shoot of a Medea-inspired story in Senegal, to the film's Berlin premiere, star-crossed filmmakers confront a racist incident as the ancient tragedy plays out on screen in a controversial adaptation.

The River Train with Milo Barria, Rita Pauls, directors Lorenzo Ferro, Lucas Vignale. From a remote village in Argentina, 9-year-old Milo feels trapped in his parents' rigorous training regimen to become a malambo dancer. To break free, he hops a train to Buenos Aires, and confronts an instense adult urban world beyond his imagination.

More titles will be added soon.

For more information, or to register, contact The South Orange Maplewood Adult School or call 973-378-7620.

Chuck Rose can also be seen discussing the movies screened in Arthouse Film Festival on the NYC Life TV series, Cinema Q&A With Chuck Rose. The series features in-depth discussions with filmmakers and actors from here and abroad. NYC Life is available in 18 million cable homes, and is carried by Comcast, Optimum, Spectrum, Astound, FiOS, DIRECTV and Dish. Cinema Q&A can also be viewed on the NYC Media website or app.