Trailer 'The Debut' (2026)

Following 'A Real Pain', the film that earned him the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Jesse Eisenberg returns to directing with 'The Debut', his third feature film and his first foray into the musical. Also written by him, the film is a comedy produced by A24 alongside Topic Studios and Fruit Tree, the production company of Emma Stone and Dave McCary, who appears here among the producers alongside Eisenberg himself and Ali Herting.

The trailer opens with Mona Friedman, a quietly unassuming housewife who hasn't sung in front of anyone for years since her days in the church choir, auditioning at a small community theatre in New Jersey. What seemed like a harmless whim ends up becoming something altogether different: Mona lands the lead role in the production and falls under the orbit of Jerry, the show's director, described in the trailer as "the most important name in New Jersey community theatre".

From there, the trailer alternates between increasingly tense rehearsal scenes, moments of physical comedy, and dialogue that sketches a sustained clash of personalities between the two central characters. "Everything you're doing isn't working," Jerry snaps at Mona in one of the trailer's most revealing moments.

Julianne Moore plays Mona Friedman and Paul Giamatti portrays Jerry. Cara Buono appears as Cassie. The cast is completed by Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Bernadette Peters, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy, and Bonnie Milligan, with Eisenberg himself also appearing in a supporting role. Behind the camera, Drew Daniels, the cinematographer behind 'Anora' and 'Red Rocket', serves as director of photography. The score is by Emile Mosseri, who previously collaborated with Eisenberg on 'When You Finish Saving the World'. The original songs for the musical-within-the-film are also the work of the director.

'The Debut' is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as the closing film of the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, where it screened on 18 October 2026 at the Royal Festival Hall. In the United States, A24 has scheduled its theatrical release for 11 December 2026 in limited release, with a nationwide expansion on 25 December. No UK release date had been confirmed at the time this trailer was published.