Paper Tiger’s London screening on 10 October precedes a reported 13 November release

Paper Tiger, James Gray’s film starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller, was screened at the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday, 10 October 2026. Press Association reported Johansson’s remarks from the screening the same day. The BFI lists the festival’s 70th edition as running from 7 to 18 October.

The London screening came after the New York Film Festival screening. ARY News reports that the film premiered at the New York Film Festival on 25 September at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. TheWrap reports a limited release on 13 November, followed by a wider release on 20 November, and names Neon as the distributor.

What the film is about

Press Association describes two brothers who become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. TheWrap gives the same core premise, with the brothers pursuing the American dream. The Playlist adds that the brothers and their family are terrorized by the Russian mafia, and that their bond begins to fray.

Adam Driver plays Gary Pearl, a former police officer, and Miles Teller plays his younger brother Irwin, an engineer. Press Association gives the same names for the brothers. Scarlett Johansson plays Hester, Irwin’s wife. TheWrap’s June report says the couple’s two children are played by Gavin Goudey and Roman Engel.

TheWrap reported in April that the film was shot in summer 2025, with RT Features and Rodrigo Teixeira as producers.

Press Association reports that Gray wrote and directed the film. He described it as being about trying to catch the American dream in a period when money became God.

The Playlist reported in April that Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong had previously been attached to lead roles alongside Driver before the parts were recast with Johansson and Teller.

Festival dates
The BFI lists the 70th London Film Festival as running from 7 to 18 October 2026.

What Johansson said about working with Driver and Teller

At the BFI London Film Festival screening, Johansson spoke about working with Driver again. She said their characters are now in-laws, which gives them a different relationship from the one they had in Marriage Story (2019). Press Association notes that the two starred there as a divorcing couple, and that both received individual Oscar nominations for it.

Johansson said the comfort between them, built on that earlier intimate work, carried over into this film. She also praised Driver’s work and called him one of her favourite actors.

She singled out Teller, calling him a major part of the film’s dynamic. She said the three leads work in a similar way and are friendly in a similar way, which she said adds to the intimacy viewers feel.

Three festival stops before the reported release

The film has three festival stops before its reported release. The Playlist reported in April, citing Variety, that the film was in the race for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It noted that Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux had earlier ruled out The Odyssey and Digger being ready for the festival but left the door open for Paper Tiger.

TheWrap reported in April that the film had been added to the 2026 Cannes lineup, where it would play in competition. ARY News says it premiered there in May, and lists Cannes as the world premiere.

Cannes is not new territory for Gray. The Playlist lists earlier Cannes screenings for Armageddon Time, The Immigrant, Two Lovers, We Own the Night and The Yards, and notes that he served on the Cannes jury in 2009.

ARY News places the New York Film Festival screening on 25 September. The London screening followed on 10 October.

On the reported dates, the London screening comes 34 days, or about five weeks, before the limited release on 13 November. The wider release on 20 November follows one week later.

According to TheWrap, Neon set the November schedule.

How the autumn calendar lines up

The BFI lists the 70th London Film Festival as running from 7 to 18 October 2026. The London screening on 10 October falls within that run, and the New York Film Festival screening came 15 days earlier.

From the New York Film Festival screening on 25 September to the limited release on 13 November is 49 days, or seven weeks. Both autumn festival screenings fall inside that span. Counting the May debut at Cannes, the film’s festival dates run from May to October.

The Playlist’s April report said the film would debut at Cannes next month, which places the debut in May.

ARY News reports that Johansson joked about missing the Cannes premiere because she was busy shooting The Exorcist: Martyrs. In New York, she said she was dealing with serious jet lag after arriving from an international flight while filming another movie, according to the same report.

The comfortability we have from doing such intimate work before really pays off in this too.

Neon’s rights deal and the November dates

TheWrap reported on 22 April that Neon had secured North American distribution rights to the film, according to a company representative. The Playlist described the deal as Neon nabbing the North American rights ahead of the film’s Cannes debut.

TheWrap noted that this is Gray’s first film with Neon. His earlier Armageddon Time was distributed by Focus, and Ad Astra was made for 20th Century Fox.

On 25 June, TheWrap reported that Neon set a limited release for 13 November, with a nationwide expansion the following week on 20 November. ARY News gives the same two dates.

Both dates are reported plans, and the film has not yet been released.

Where the sources agree and where they differ

Press Association, ARY News and TheWrap name the same three leads: Johansson, Driver and Teller. The premise of two brothers caught in a scheme that is too good to be true is consistent across the reports.

The premiere wording differs. ARY News calls the New York Film Festival screening the premiere, and also lists Cannes in May as the world premiere. Only ARY News places a New York Film Festival screening on 25 September, so that date rests on one report.

The London screening date and Johansson’s remarks rest on Press Association’s report alone. The festival dates come from the BFI. The release dates appear in TheWrap and ARY News.

Photo: dtstuff9 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons