DETROIT — This year's Windsor International Film Festival will kick off with James Gray's "Paper Tiger," festival organizers announced Wednesday.

The fest, Oct. 29-Nov. 8 in downtown Windsor, will close with "The Debut," the buzzed-about new film from writer-director Jesse Eisenberg, starring Julianne Moore as a shy woman cast in a musical at her local theater company.

Both films will play WIFF ahead of their theatrical release dates.

Tickets for the showings, along with festival passes, general ticket 10-packs, and premium ticket 3-packs, are available now through the festival's website.

This full lineup for this year's WIFF will be announced Sept. 22, with tickets for all screenings going on sale the same day.

The first WIFF was held in 2005 and the festival has steadily grown ever since. Last year's WIFF included a record 231 movies from 50 countries, including four of the five nominees for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.

The fest, which draws around 50,000 film fans, unfolds across four theaters in three venues, all within walking distance of one another.

The Centrepiece selection of this year's festival is "This Above All: The Theatrical Life of Antoni Cimolino," a documentary about the Stratford Festival's longtime artistic director.

"Paper Tiger" stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, and follows two brothers (Driver and Teller) who find themselves tangled up with the Russian mafia. It's the latest outing from Gray, whose previous films include "Armageddon Time," "Ad Astra" and "Two Lovers."

"Paper Tiger" is scheduled to be released in some markets Nov. 13 with an expansion to follow, and "The Debut" is scheduled to be released Dec. 11 in limited release, with a larger rollout to follow.

"We're starting our WIFF 2026 announcements on a high note to set the tone of the wonderful Festival that is to come," Vincent Georgie, executive director and chief programmer for WIFF, said in a statement. "With major films as tentpoles for the week, we still have so many great films for you to discover."

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