Josephine, one of the most acclaimed films to emerge from the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, is heading to U.S. theatres this fall. Written and directed by Beth de Araújo, the psychological thriller will open in select theatres on November 20 before expanding nationwide on December 4 through Sumerian Pictures. The film stars Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason Reeves.
The newly released trailer offers a restrained introduction to the film’s story. It opens with the question, “Josephine, can you tell me what you saw?”, before moving through fragmented images of a family dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. Rather than revealing the central incident, the trailer focuses on atmosphere, overlapping voices and the growing sense of unease within the family.
The film follows eight-year-old Josephine, played by Reeves in her feature debut, after she witnesses a violent assault in Golden Gate Park. In the weeks that follow, Josephine struggles to process what she saw. Her behaviour changes as fear and confusion begin to take hold, leaving her parents increasingly unsure about how to help her.
Gemma Chan and Channing Tatum play Josephine’s parents, Claire and Damien. As they attempt to understand what their daughter is experiencing, the couple must also confront their own fears surrounding the incident and the difficulty of explaining such an experience to a child. The film consequently focuses less on the violence itself and more on its psychological impact on a family.
The story has a particularly personal connection to its filmmaker. De Araújo has described Josephine as a work of autobiographical fiction, drawing directly from her own lived experiences. The project also has a long development history: it first brought the filmmaker into the Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab in 2018, and it took nearly eight years to reach the screen.
That long journey culminated in a major breakthrough at Sundance. Josephine premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition in January 2026 and won both the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the Audience Award: Dramatic. Taking both awards is a rare achievement and immediately established the film as one of the festival’s major discoveries.
The film’s Sundance performance has also fuelled early awards-season interest. The most recent film to previously win both major Sundance awards was CODA in 2021, which subsequently went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. That precedent has added to the attention surrounding Josephine, although its eventual awards trajectory remains to be determined.
Following Sundance, Josephine continued its festival run with an international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where it competed for the Golden Bear.
The film’s U.S. distribution was secured by Sumerian Pictures in February. The distributor acquired the U.S. rights in a deal reportedly worth a mid-seven-figure sum, reflecting the level of interest generated by the film’s Sundance run and its potential as an awards-season title.
The theatrical strategy further reflects that positioning. Josephine will begin with a limited release on November 20 before expanding nationwide on December 4, giving the film an opportunity to build theatrical momentum while remaining in consideration during the early stages of the 2027 awards season.
Tatum and Chan are also among the film’s producers in addition to their starring roles. The supporting cast includes Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy and Michael Angelo Covino. Reeves, meanwhile, takes on the title role in her feature debut, with the supplied festival coverage highlighting her performance as one of the film’s major discoveries.
For de Araújo, the move from the Sundance Directors Lab in 2018 to a film that won both of the festival’s major dramatic prizes represents a significant eight-year journey. The film’s theatrical release now marks its next stage, taking a project rooted in the filmmaker’s personal experience from the festival circuit into the wider awards-season marketplace.
Josephine opens in select U.S. theatres on November 20 and expands nationwide on December 4. After its Sundance double win and Berlin competition appearance, the film now enters the theatrical phase of what could become one of the year’s more closely watched independent film campaigns.
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