The 2026 New York Film Festival closed its run this weekend with no previously unseen contender vaulting into the Best Picture top tier, but with the launch of a buzzy new title — Artificial — that rewrites the supporting actor race and tightens Julianne Moore's hold on Best Actress.

Does Artificial change the Supporting Actor field?

Yes. Andrew Garfield, who played OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino's Silicon Valley-set "drama-comedy-horror," premiered the film on opening night at Alice Tully Hall and watched his Best Supporting Actor odds climb to No. 7 on Gold Derby's experts-only leaderboard within days. Neon acquired the film after Amazon MGM discarded it — a gamble Gold Derby framed as "Amazon's loss could be its awards gain."

Garfield has two previous Best Actor nominations. His strategy this cycle, per his team, is Best Supporting Actor for a "positively Hitchcockian" portrayal of Altman. The case rests less on overall film reviews and more on Garfield enthusiasm. Even critics "less enthused about the movie itself are largely enthusiastic about Garfield," Gold Derby reported, suggesting he could stay in this race for the long haul.

What didn't break through at NYFF?

Three previously unseen Best Picture contenders screened without breaking into the top tier:

• Tom McCarthy's A Statement
• Tony Gilroy's Behemoth!
• Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus Zero

Artificial comes closest at No. 13. Behemoth! breathes down its neck at No. 14. Godzilla Minus Zero and A Statement sit at the ladder's bottom rungs.

Neon's other NYFF-screened picks — James Gray's Paper Tiger, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, and Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or-winning Fjord — got warm receptions but no meaningful odds movement. Gold Derby noted that "support for Mungiu's film seems to be thawing as more audiences wrestle with its admirably complex nuances and bracingly icy tone."

The Big Four festival scorecard

Final tally across the leaderboard's top entries:

• Cannes: 2 (La Bola Negra, Fjord)
• Sundance: 1 (The Invite)
• Venice: 1 (Wild Horse Nine)
• Telluride: 1 (The Debut)
• Toronto: 1 (I Play Rocky)
• New York: 0, for now

Four straight-to-theaters releases remain in the mix: The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, Obsession, and the yet-to-screen Dune: Part Three. That count is up from three last year, when One Battle After Another, Sinners, and F1 declined to travel the festival route.

Can anyone catch Moore?

Unlikely before the calendar closes. Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut sparked mid-movie applause during the press and industry screening — a reaction Gold Derby pinned to "the power of Julianne Moore, whose performance in a key sequence set off that wild round of enthralled hooting and hollering." She has now "slayed the crowd at three festivals."

The film opens Dec. 11. None of the NYFF premieres introduced a Best Actress challenger. International names still in the hunt:

• Renate Reinsve (Fjord)
• Virginie Efira (All of a Sudden)
• Jeon Do-yeon in Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love, which Netflix just announced it will campaign

As Gold Derby put it: those performers are going to "need more support if they're going to keep Moore from taking home her second statuette."

Where do the NYFF indies land?

Jordan Firstman's Club Kid emerged as the indie crowd-pleaser, though the Gold Derby floor team overheard "a pair of Big Apple citizens dinging the directorial debut of Long Island-born Jordan Firstman for the local crime of unrealistic real estate." The film sits at No. 5 in Best Original Screenplay.

Chris Rock's Misty Green fared worse. Fresh off a muted Toronto debut, it drew a mixed NYFF response and sits at No. 40 in the same category. Star Rosalind Eleazar's Best Actress odds recently dipped, surpassed by Ruth Madeley, who headlined a better-received TIFF premiere.