Maude Apatow's POETIC LICENSE To Open 2026 Sonoma International Film Festival

Maude Apatow's Poetic License, starring Andrew Barth Feldman, will serve as the opening night film at the 29th annual Sonoma International Film Festival this March. This will mark the California Premiere for the new film.

Apatow’s directorial feature debut follows Liz (Leslie Mann), adrift in a new town, who befriends two adoring students (Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman) after auditing a poetry class. It will be released in theaters on May 15, 2026.

The 2026 edition of SIFF will run March 25–29, 2026, with a 104-film lineup spanning 37 countries, bringing five days of cinema to the heart of wine country. The program is anchored by new work from Apatow, Julian Schnabel, and Steven Soderbergh and includes 41 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 47 shorts.

Highlights include an in-person presentation and career conversation with Julian Schnabel, who brings his latest feature, In the Hand of Dante, to the festival. Schnabel returns with a literary epic starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, and Martin Scorsese. The screening will be followed by a moderated discussion examining Schnabel’s career across visual art and cinema.

Notable talent represented in this year’s lineup includes Riz Ahmed, Joe Alwyn, Maude Apatow, Gerard Butler, James Corden, Mark Duplass, Gal Gadot, Cooper Hoffman, Oscar Isaac, Theo James, Juliette Lewis, Jason Momoa, Leslie Mann, Ian McKellen, Kim Novak, Bob Odenkirk, Nick Offerman, Timothy Olyphant, Al Pacino, Randall Park,  Martin Scorsese, Jason Segel, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chow Yun-Fat, Henry Winkler, Sam Worthington, and more.

Notable titles include Poetic License, Steven Soderbergh's The Christophers, Under the Lights, Normal, and Kim Novak's Vertigo, among many others.