The 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) proudly announces its 2026 Festival Honors, to take place on Sunday, October 18 at Balboa Bay Resort in conjunction with Variety 10 Actors to Watch. This year’s honorees for the brunch include Academy Award nominated Taraji P. Henson (“‘Tis So Sweet”) who will receive the Artist of Distinction Award; Jack O’Connell (“Ink”) who will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award; Mckenna Grace (“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”) who will receive the Spotlight Award; Sosie Bacon (“Family Movie”) who will receive the Breakout Award; and Sarah Finn (“Wild Horse Nine”) who will receive the Casting Visionary Award. The Honors event will be filmed for broadcast and aired in the key awards voting window in January on PBS SoCal. The 27th edition of the festival will be held from October 15-22 and will spotlight over 100 feature films from around the world.
Additional festival honorees include Gemma Chan who will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award at a screening of “Josephine” on Tuesday, October 20; Justin Hartley who will receive the Artist of Distinction Award at a special Sunset Series event on Monday, October 19; KJ Apa who will receive the Spotlight Award at a screening of “Jimmy” on Saturday, October 17; and Jonás Cuarón who will receive the Artist of Distinction award at as screening of “Campeón Gabacho” on Monday, October 19.
The Festival also announced “Frampton” will open the Festival this year, with a live Q&A following the screening with subject Peter Frampton and director Rob Arthur. From the explosive heights of Frampton Comes Alive! to the quiet introspection of his final tour, “Frampton” is an intimate portrait of a rock icon who soared, stumbled, and rose again. The feature documentary traces Peter Frampton’s meteoric rise in the 1970s, his long road to rebuilding, and the hidden personal cost of fame, all as a diagnosis of Inclusion Body Myositis threatens his ability to play guitar and leaves him at a profound crossroads.
Buy Frampton Comes Alive!Lastly, “Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires,” will be the Special Event Closing Night Documentary Feature of the 2026 Festival. The West Coast premiere will take place on Thursday, October 22 at 8:30 p.m. at the Lido Theater. Director Daniel E. Catullo III, members of the Hollywood Vampires and executive producer Paul Geary will attend in person. A secret 1970s drinking club led by Alice Cooper inspired the supergroup the Hollywood Vampires, featuring Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen. “Unleashed Spirits” follows the band from a hidden Hollywood haunt to arena rock stardom, tracing its journey from early rehearsals and recording sessions to performances on some of the world’s biggest stages.
Honoree Bios
KJ Apa (Spotlight Award)
KJ Apa is most widely known for his breakout role as Archie in the Greg Berlanti-produced series “Riverdale,” an adaptation of the Archie comic book series. Most recently, Apa can be seen starring in the Prime Video film, “The Map That Leads to You,” alongside Madelyn Cline, which was released in August 2025. Next up, Apa will star alongside Isabel May and Archie Renaux in YA Romance “Falling” from Brainstorm Media, which will be released October 9th, 2026. Apa will also play the lead role of James Stewart in the upcoming Burns & Co film “JIMMY,” which will be released in theaters November 6, 2026. Additionally, he set to star as Bradley Nowell in Sony’s 3000 Pictures biopic of the iconic band Sublime, with Justin Chon on board to direct. Apa will also star in “Falling,” Gulfstream’s latest romantic comedy-drama. He can also be seen starring in Amazon’s motorcycle drama “One Fast Move,” alongside Maia Reficco, Eric Dane, and Edward James Olmos, which was released on August 8, 2024. Additional credits include the Netflix feature “The Last Summer,” the George Tillman Jr. drama “The Hate U Give,” “Songbird” directed by Adam Mason, and “I Still Believe,” opposite Britt Robertson, Shania Twain, and Gary Sinise.
Sosie Bacon (Breakout Award)
Sosie Bacon is an American actress recognized for her diverse roles in film and television. She gained prominence as Skye Miller in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and further showcased her talent in HBO’s Mare of Easttown. In 2022, she delivered a compelling performance in the psychological horror film Smile, which grossed over $217 million worldwide against a $17 million budget, making it a significant box office success. Sosie recently co-starred and helped produce the upcoming comedy thriller Family Movie alongside her parents, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and her brother, Travis Bacon. She also wrote, directed and starred in her own short film What We Got Wrong in 2023. Sosie continues to build a multifaceted career, establishing herself as a versatile and dynamic talent in the entertainment industry. Most recently she appeared alongside Liam Neeson in Cold Storage. Bacon currently resides in Los Angeles.
Gemma Chan (Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award)
Gemma Chan is an acclaimed British actress whose career spans independent film, television, and major studio productions. She most recently stars opposite Channing Tatum in Beth de Araújo’s “Josephine,” which won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, with Variety calling her performance “the finest performance of her career.” She also stars in Peacock’s “Five-Star Weekend” alongside Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, and Chloë Sevigny. Her recent film credits include” The Actor,” “The Creator,” and Marvel Studios’ “Eternals”. She gained international recognition for her breakout role in “Crazy Rich Asians,” with additional film credits including “Mary Queen of Scots,” “Don’t Worry Darling,” and “Captain Marvel”.
Jonás Cuarón (Artist of Distinction Award)
Jonás Cuarón is a director, writer, and producer known for Gravity (co-writer), Desie
Sarah Finn (Casting Visionary Award)
Sarah Finn is an award-winning, groundbreaking casting director with over 150 feature films to her credit. She’s perhaps best known for casting the Marvel Cinematic Universe – from Iron Man through the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday – which stands as the most successful franchise in movie history. Her work includes Everything Everywhere All at Once, the most awarded film in movie history, as well as the Oscar-winning Black Panther, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Crash, which earned her the Casting Society of America’s Artios Award. She has received two Emmy nominations, and her series Skeleton Crew won the Emmy for Outstanding Young Teen Series this year. To date, 63 of her films have opened at No. 1 at the domestic box office. Beyond Marvel’s 38 films and 16 streaming shows, she has cast numerous Star Wars shows including The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, helped build Legendary’s “Monsterverse,” and cast Netflix hits such as Extraction. She continues to work on innovative independent films. Most recently, she again collaborated with Martin McDonagh on his upcoming film Wild Horse Nine, which opens in November 2026. A Yale graduate and past member of the Academy’s Casting Branch Executive Committee, Finn has served on the Executive Board of Women in Film and remains active in supporting local theater and public school arts education.
Mckenna Grace (Spotlight Award)
Mckenna Grace is one of the most accomplished young actors of her generation. She made Emmy history as the youngest-ever nominee in the Guest Actress category for her role as Esther Keyes in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Next up, she portrays Maysilee Donner in Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” in theaters November 20, 2026, and she recently wrapped production on Netflix’s live-action “Scooby-Doo: Origins” series, in which she plays Daphne. She most recently appeared in “Scream 7,” Amy Wang’s SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winning “Slanted,” “Regretting You,” which she also executive produced, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” “Anniversary,” and reprised the role of Skye in “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie.” She also reprised her role as Phoebe Spengler in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” following “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” Grace first drew widespread attention in Marc Webb’s “Gifted,” earning a Critics Choice nomination, followed by “I, Tonya,” “Captain Marvel,” “Annabelle Comes Home” and “Troop Zero.” On television, she starred in Peacock’s “A Friend of the Family” and “The Haunting of Hill House” and recurred on “Young Sheldon.” Grace is also a singer-songwriter signed to Photo Finish Records, whose latest single, “Bones and All” is the third release in a series of 2026 releases.
Justin Hartley (Artist of Distinction Award)
Award-winning actor, producer and director Justin Hartley stars in and executive produces CBS’s record-breaking hit drama Tracker. Since its post-Super Bowl debut in February 2024, “Tracker” has become one of television’s biggest hits, ranking among the most-viewed shows across broadcast and streaming. Based on Jeffery Deaver’s novel “The Never Game,” the series follows lone-wolf survivalist Colter Shaw and is produced by Hartley’s ChangeUp Productions, which has an overall deal with 20th Television. Hartley previously starred for six seasons as Kevin Pearson on NBC’s critically acclaimed drama “This Is Us,” which earned multiple Emmy and Critics Choice Award nominations, while Hartley and the cast won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. His film credits include “Bride Hard,” “The Noel Diary,” “Senior Year,” “Little,” “The Hunt,” and “A Bad Moms Christmas”. In the audio space, Hartley recently starred in the Audible Original thriller “Trapped,” from bestselling author James Patterson, which reached No. 2 on Audible’s U.S. fiction bestseller list. He also voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in Spotify’s acclaimed audio series “Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind”. Earlier in his career, Hartley had memorable roles in “Smallville” and “The Young and the Restless,” earning a Daytime Emmy nomination for the latter. Through ChangeUp Productions, Hartley continues to expand his work behind the camera, developing a slate of projects across film and television.
Taraji P. Henson (Artist of Distinction Award)
Taraji P. Henson is an Academy Award-nominated actor, producer, #1 New York Times bestselling author, mental health advocate, and entrepreneur whose celebrated career spans film, television, Broadway, and beyond. She earned her Oscar nomination for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and is known for Baby Boy, Hustle & Flow, Hidden Figures, The Color Purple, Straw, and Empire, for which she won a Golden Globe and became the first Black woman to win the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series. This year, Henson made her Broadway debut in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, directed by Debbie Allen, and reunited with Tyler Perry and Netflix for Why Did I Get Married Again? Later this year, she stars in Give Me Some Sugah, directed by Tasha Smith. She recently executive produced Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, which premiered at TIFF. Beyond acting, Henson founded TPH Entertainment, which has a first-look deal with Fox Entertainment, and earned a Tony Award nomination as a producer of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She also founded the Boris L. Henson Foundation, as well as beauty brand TPH by Taraji and wine line 7 Daughters.
Jack O’Connell (Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award)
BAFTA Rising Star Award-winning actor Jack O’Connell is one of the most respected actors working internationally, with a versatile career across film, television and theatre. He stars as Larry Lamb opposite Guy Pearce in Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” which explores the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. In 2025, he starred opposite Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and appeared in “28 Years Later,” reprising his role this year in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.” He will also appear in the next chapter of Legendary’s “Godzilla x Kong” franchise and the third installment of “A Quiet Place,” and returns as Paddy Mayne in the third season of the BBC drama “SAS: Rogue Heroes.” Recent credits include “Back to Black,” “Ferrari,” Netflix’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and the BBC’s “The North Water.” He received the New Hollywood Award at the Hollywood Film Awards for Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” and his additional credits include “Money Monster,” “Seberg,” “Starred Up,” “’71,” “Eden Lake,” “This Is England,” and the series “Godless” and “Skins.” On stage, he starred opposite Sienna Miller in the Young Vic’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
The Festival Honors event will also recognize the previously announced Variety 10 Actors to Watch: Esmé Creed-Miles (“Sense and Sensibility”), Mariana Di Girólamo (“Wild Horse Nine”), Rosalind Eleazar (“Misty Green”), Guitarricadelafuente (“La Bola Negra”), Summer H. Howell (“Carrie”), Jaafar Jackson (“Michael”), Ruth Madeley (“Being Heumann”), Inde Navarrette (“Obsession”), Ray Nicholson (“The Mosquito Bowl”) and Joseph Zada (“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”).
As previously announced the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival highlights include the Closing Night film “Behemoth!” along with Centerpiece films including “A Talent for Murder,” “Ink,” “Josephine,” “La Bola Negra,” “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” “Paper Tiger,” and “Wild Horse Nine”.
Attracting over 50,000 attendees to Orange County, CA, the Newport Beach Film Festival is the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California, connecting its audience with the very best in independent and international films. In addition to the programmed selection of films, the Festival also presents nightly parties and events featuring more than 60 culinary partners with their finest tastings.
For more information on the complete line-up and to purchase tickets, please visit https://newportbeachfilmfest.
