Julianne Moore will receive the Icon Award at the 2026 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, with her new film The Dead Donkey selected as the event’s Centerpiece presentation. The 29th edition of the festival is scheduled for October 24 through October 31.
The pairing puts Moore’s career recognition alongside a prominent festival berth for a project that reunites her with Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg wrote and directed The Dead Donkey and also created its original songs, making the film a musical comedy rather than simply a comedy that happens to use pre-existing music.
That distinction matters. Original songs can be part of a movie’s storytelling machinery: characters may express an idea, conflict or shift in perspective through music, while the film’s writer-director can coordinate the songs with the tone and dramatic structure. The supplied details do not outline the plot of The Dead Donkey, so it is too early to draw conclusions about how its music functions on screen. What is established is that Eisenberg’s authorship extends across the screenplay, direction and songs.
A centerpiece slot for Eisenberg’s new musical comedy
A festival centerpiece is a high-profile programmed screening positioned within the larger event. It is separate from the opening-night selection, which has already been announced as A Talent for Murder, directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Helen Mirren. Mirren is also set to receive an honor during the festival.
The Dead Donkey comes from A24 and features Moore alongside Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey and Bernadette Peters. Giamatti plays an imperious director who draws a character named Mona into his orbit. Beyond that character setup and the confirmed cast, the available information does not establish further story specifics.
The movie marks Moore and Eisenberg’s second collaboration after Eisenberg’s 2022 directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World. A reunion is not a guarantee that two films share a style, but it does mean the performer and filmmaker are continuing a working relationship after a prior project. This time, the format is notably different: The Dead Donkey is identified as a musical comedy, with Eisenberg responsible for the original songs as well as the script and direction.
The film has already had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and subsequently made its Canadian premiere at TIFF. Its Savannah selection gives it another major screening on the festival calendar before the SCAD event begins in late October.
Why Moore’s honor carries real career context
The Icon Award recognizes a body of work rather than a single performance. Moore’s record supports that scale of recognition. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Still Alice, a performance that also received Golden Globe and BAFTA recognition.
Related coverage includes Julianne Moore to Receive Icon Award as ‘The Dead Donkey’ Becomes SCAD Savannah Centerpiece.
Her additional Academy Award nominations span Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far from Heaven and The Hours. Together, those titles reflect a career that has moved across ensemble films, intimate dramas and period settings without reducing Moore’s screen identity to one genre or mode of performance.
Her television work is part of the picture as well. Moore won an Emmy for playing Sarah Palin in the 2012 television film Game Change. On the international festival circuit, she became the first American woman to receive top acting honors at Venice, Berlin and Cannes. Those awards came for Far from Heaven, The Hours and Maps to the Stars, respectively.
That combination of film awards, television recognition and leading festival prizes helps explain why an “Icon” designation is meaningful here. It is not just an acknowledgment of a current film campaign or a single recent release. It identifies Moore as an artist whose work has been recognized across multiple institutions and mediums over time.
What the festival programming says—and what it does not
The announced pieces of the SCAD Savannah lineup provide a clear structure: A Talent for Murder will open the festival, while The Dead Donkey occupies the centerpiece position. Both leading performers, Moore and Mirren, will be honored.
Those programming choices make the festival a venue for both new work and career celebration. They do not, by themselves, tell audiences when either film will receive a wider release, whether the performers will attend every screening, or what additional films will join the lineup. None of those details have been established in the information available.
For attendees, the practical takeaway is straightforward: festival passes for the 2026 SCAD Savannah Film Festival are already on sale, while individual event tickets are scheduled to go on sale Friday, October 2. Anyone considering a specific screening or honor should wait for the festival’s event-level details before assuming ticket availability or guest participation.
Moore’s next role moves from screen to stage
Moore’s upcoming work also includes a return to the New York stage. She will play the title character in Faydra, Sarah Ruhl’s contemporary take on the Greek myth of Phaedra. Les Waters will direct the Manhattan Theatre Club production.
Previews are set to begin February 2 at New York City Center Stage I, with opening night planned for February 25. The production will be Moore’s first New York stage appearance since her 2006 Broadway debut in David Hare’s The Vertical Hour.
The stage role adds another medium to a year that already includes a festival honor and a prominent film showcase. It also reinforces the breadth behind the SCAD recognition: Moore’s career is being celebrated at a film festival while her immediate slate extends into live theatre.
For pop-culture audiences tracking performers whose work crosses formats, the coming months offer two distinct points of interest. The Dead Donkey places Moore inside Eisenberg’s song-driven new comedy with a veteran ensemble around her. Faydra, meanwhile, returns her to New York theatre in a lead role rooted in a reworking of classical myth.
The festival’s October 24–31 run will ultimately put the immediate focus on Savannah, where Moore’s Icon Award and The Dead Donkey’s centerpiece placement will share the same program. With the movie’s Telluride and TIFF premieres already complete, the selection gives viewers another chance to follow its path—while the honor provides a wider frame for the actor at its center.
For another look at how major film franchises frame character stories, see our coverage of the Russo Brothers’ comments on Steve Rogers’ Infinity Stone return.
