Now in its 34th year, the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) has established itself as one of the most important cultural events on the East End fall calendar. And the 2026 fest promises to be a banger.

From October 2 through 12, attendees can choose among a total of 172 unique films and events, including full-length narratives, shorts, documentaries, interviews, artistic achievement awards and all kinds of special programming spread across multiple venues in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Southampton.

The 19 films in HIFFs Spotlight category are an excellent place to start. Here you’ll find prestige studios and plenty of big-name and semi-big-name actors, writers and directors. While everybody wants their movies to make a zillion dollars and become the sleeper hit of the season, these features generally fall into the “art film” or “indie” genre. Theoretically at least, those labels free up the filmmakers from concentrating too much on the tyranny of ticket sales and opening weekend grosses, and minimize the creative compromises that can arise when box office performance is the only metric that matters.

You really can’t go wrong with any of the 19 movies HIFF chose to highlight (the full list is available at filmguide.hamptonsfilmfest.org/film-programs/spotlight-films/), but these five Spotlighters seem particularly interesting.

One of the most audacious writer/directors working today, Martin McDonagh takes us to Rapa Nui (aka, Easter Island) on the eve of the 1973 Chilean coup. Along for the ride are a perfect John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as a pair of Odd Couple-esque CIA operatives nursing old grudges. If the setup sounds like classic McDonagh, that’s because it is. He expertly plums the ancient landscape for the contemporary foibles and anxieties of mismatched dudes with their best days behind them. The superb cast also includes Tom Waits, Parker Posey and Steve Buscemi.

Another powerhouse cast delivers another set of knockout performances in writer/director Guy Nativv’s story of a woman in 1980s New Jersey who falls under the spell of Ricki (Lily James), a charismatic spiritual leader. Carrie Coon plays a wife and mother who abandons her husband (Coon’s real-life spouse, the writer/director/actor Tracey Letts) and daughters for an all-female commune. But the arrival of her daughters (Bella Ramsey and Odessa Young) complicates her escape as they, too, get drawn in by Ricki’s seductive promises.