The Debut sets Australian cinema release for Boxing Day – Jesse Eisenberg’s new comedy-drama The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, will open in Australian cinemas on 26 December 2026.
Madman Entertainment has confirmed the Boxing Day release after the film’s world premiere at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival and a subsequent appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The date places Eisenberg’s third feature as a director into Australia’s busy summer cinema season. It also reunites him with the producers of A Real Pain while giving Moore and Giamatti their first substantial screen pairing.
Watch the official trailer for The Debut
What is The Debut about?
Moore plays Mona Friedman, a shy New Jersey homemaker who hopes to escape the feeling that she has become invisible. She auditions for a small community theatre production of the musical Nosy Neighbors and lands a minor role.
That modest opportunity quickly becomes an all-consuming creative awakening. Mona embraces method acting with increasing intensity and becomes determined to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal character.
Her transformation brings her into conflict with Jerry, the production’s domineering and self-important director, played by Giamatti. What begins as a local amateur show becomes a darkly comic battle over identity, ambition and artistic control.
Eisenberg wrote, directed and appears in the film. He also created the musical within the story from scratch.
“The Debut is an experience that grows more and more absurd,” Eisenberg said. “The story begins with an empty nester who feels no one sees her. She has practically disappeared as a human being.”
He said Mona’s devotion to the seemingly unimportant production gradually turns her into a force prepared to sacrifice almost everything.
Julianne Moore finds Mona’s creative awakening
Moore said the story explores the private passions that bring people joy, even when those passions appear insignificant to the wider world.
“We all have so much feeling, desire, love and talent inside,” Moore said. “Mona, in the middle of her life, goes looking for these things, and what she finds changes everything.”
The role takes Mona from a hesitant newcomer who barely understands acting to an obsessive performer whose commitment begins to overwhelm the production. The film uses that transformation to examine the line between creative discovery and self-indulgence.
For Eisenberg, the setting also draws on his own experience in community theatre in New Jersey. He has described that world as both an escape and a place where he first found a sense of belonging.
A Broadway-rich ensemble and Fruit Tree reunion
The supporting cast includes Broadway veteran Bernadette Peters, Halle Bailey, Cara Buono, Patrick Fabian, Todd Freeman and Jesse Eisenberg. The ensemble was assembled to place accomplished stage performers inside the film’s deliberately small-scale community theatre production.
The Debut is produced by Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Ali Herting and Eisenberg through Fruit Tree. It marks another collaboration between Eisenberg and the company following A Real Pain.
The creative team includes cinematographer Drew Daniels, production designer Anne Ross, editor Robert Nassau, costume designer Stacey Battat and composer Emile Mosseri. The film runs for 105 minutes.
Following its North American festival appearances, The Debut will receive its UK premiere as the Closing Night film of the 70th BFI London Film Festival on 18 October.
The Debut opens in Australian cinemas on Saturday, 26 December 2026.
For more TV Central cinema news and movie previews, head here. Visit Madman Films Australia for public release information.