Primetime premieres in Venice: Rotten Tomatoes tops 90%

Primetime, Robert Pattinson’s new film, just premiered at the Venice Film Festival ahead of its September 25, 2026 theatrical release, and it’s already pushed him right into the Oscar conversation. Early reviews have the film sitting in the low-to-mid 90s on Rotten Tomatoes, and the first wave out of Venice has been especially strong on Pattinson.

IMDb Movies & TV Download

A lot of those reviews point to him as the movie’s main draw. Critics have zeroed in on his fictionalized, Chris Hansen-inspired TV host, calling it one of the best performances of his career and a real Best Actor contender, the kind that could finally get him his first Oscar nomination.

That matters even more because Primetime is the film putting Pattinson front and center this year. In The Odyssey, he’s part of a packed ensemble. Here, the spotlight is on him, in a year that also includes The Drama and his continuing attachment to Dune: Part Three.

Directed by Lance Oppenheim in his first narrative feature, with Pattinson also on board as a producer, Primetime loosely pulls from NBC’s To Catch a Predator and the Esquire article Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die. The result is a dark crime thriller and media satire about entertainment, justice, exploitation, and broadcast journalism. Reviewers have described it as dark, surreal, unsettling, and sharply funny, especially in the way it looks at how television turns human misery into a product.

If you keep up with Pattinson, or just pay attention to awards season, this looks like one to see in a theater. Primetime opens on September 25, 2026.