Luca Guadagnino's OpenAI film 'Artificial' (Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman) premieres at the New York Film Festival to strong first reactions
"Artificial", Luca Guadagnino's 140-minute dramatization of OpenAI and the November 2023 firing and rehiring of Sam Altman, had its world premiere at the 64th New York Film Festival on Oct 5, 2026. Andrew Garfield plays Altman. First reactions called it a "savage" and "terrifying" satire and a spiritual sequel to The Social Network. Neon opens it in limited US release on Dec 25, 2026, with a wide release in January. Amazon MGM had dropped the film in June 2026, shortly after its OpenAI partnership.
Key facts
- World premiere: New York Film Festival, Oct 5, 2026; runtime 140 min; reported budget $40M
- Written by Simon Rich; produced by David Heyman, Jeffrey Clifford, Jennifer Fox and Guadagnino; score and songs by Damon Albarn
- Cast: Andrew Garfield (Sam Altman), Yura Borisov (Ilya Sutskever), Monica Barbaro (Mira Murati), Cooper Hoffman (Greg Brockman), Ike Barinholtz (Elon Musk), Mark Rylance (Geoffrey Hinton)
- Release: Neon, limited US release Dec 25, 2026, wide in January 2027 (awards-qualifying); UK Jan 22, 2027 (Picturehouse)
- Distribution: developed at Amazon MGM, dropped in June 2026; A24, Focus, Warner Bros., Netflix and others passed; Neon took worldwide rights (Wikipedia, citing trade press)
- Reactions: Joshua Rothkopf: 'Luca Guadagnino just ate Sorkin's lunch'; Eric Kohn: 'pitch-perfect dark comedy'; Clayton Davis: 'Guadagnino's best film in a decade'
- Altman discussed the film's bunker scene in his Vanity Fair New Establishment interview (Oct 5)
What happened
The film follows the rise of machine learning and then focuses on the five-day OpenAI board crisis of November 2023. The festival premiere drew largely enthusiastic first reactions on X, collected by IndieWire, THR, TheWrap and Variety. Many critics compared it to The Social Network and called its picture of an AI-dominated future frightening. In Variety, Garfield said Altman seemed "f—ing great" before he played him, "and then you learn more about a person" (headline wording; the full article was not readable).
Why it matters
It is the first major studio-scale feature about a frontier AI lab, released while OpenAI faces lawsuits, agent-security incidents and an IPO debate. It is likely to shape how a mass audience sees Altman and OpenAI during awards season.
Changelog
- 2026-10-06: created from a leads line (Vanity Fair Part 1) after the NYFF premiere. Deadline and Variety pages were not readable (paywall redirect); facts come from Wikipedia, IndieWire/Yahoo and The Playlist.
People
Elon Musk Geoffrey Hinton Greg Brockman Ilya Sutskever Mira Murati Sam Altman
Related events
Sources (6)
- pressIndieWire: 'Artificial' first reactions
- pressThe Hollywood Reporter: Luca Guadagnino's 'Artificial': first reactions
- pressDeadline review: Andrew Garfield plays Sam Altman in OpenAI origin tale
- pressVariety: Andrew Garfield on playing Sam Altman (NYFF premiere)
- pressThe Playlist: trailer; Christmas Day opening, everywhere in January
- discussionWikipedia: Artificial (film)
id: 2026-10-05-artificial-guadagnino-altman-film-premiere · updated 2026-10-06 · open in the interactive timeline