All About the Anthony Bourdain Movie “Tony” (and Why It Won’t Cover His Entire Life)
All About the Anthony Bourdain Movie “Tony” (and Why It Won’t Cover His Entire Life)
Christopher RudolphWed, May 6, 2026 at 5:42 PM UTC
0
Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sessa in 'Tony'Credit: Seacia Pavao/A24 -
Tony stars Dominic Sessa as a teenage version of Anthony Bourdain
The movie centers around a 19-year-old Bourdain working in a Massachusetts restaurant
Tony will be released this summer, though no official has yet been announced
A24 is cooking up an Anthony Bourdain biopic.
Tony stars The Holdovers' Dominic Sessa as a young version of the prolific chef, food writer and globetrotter, who died in June 2018. While Bourdain was the subject of the 2021 documentary, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, his estate has officially approved of the upcoming film.
"We chose to support Tony because it is not a standard biopic and doesn’t attempt to summarize a life,” his estate said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. "Guided by the vision of director Matt Johnson, the film depicts one transformative summer in 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is an interpretation, as that part of Tony’s life will always remain somewhat unknown."
"We hope this film serves as a reminder that every journey has a start, and that audiences see the beginnings of the man who taught us how to be better explorers on our own paths," the statement concluded.
Here's everything to know about Tony, including who's in the cast and when it will be released.
What is Tony about?
Dominic Sessa in 'Tony'Credit: A24
Tony focuses on Bourdain, as a 19-year-old who arrives in Provincetown, Mass. The future foodie finds himself working in a rowdy restaurant kitchen "setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life," per the official synopsis.
“It's a sort of origin story in a way,” Sessa told PEOPLE in November 2025, revealing that the movie was filmed in Cape Cod earlier that year. “I'm playing Bourdain sort of, you know ‘75, ‘76, that era, when he was working there in the summers.”
Who is in the cast of Tony?
Dominic Sessa and Emilia Jones in 'Tony'Credit: Seacia Pavao/A24
Sessa stars as Bourdain in Tony. The rest of the cast includes Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias and Antonio Banderas as a chef who mentors Bourdain.
"Through this relationship, Tony begins to truly learn how to cook,” Banderas said at the 2025 Torino Film Festival, per Variety. "So the film is not just about cuisine or culinary techniques; it’s about his life, his identity, and his way of being — shaped by this unique mentor.”
Advertisement
The actor described his character as "a man from Brazil who works in the United States and has traveled the world."
"My character studied at the finest institutions, graduating from the best gastronomy schools, yet he always remained an outsider,” he added. "He created his own restaurant outside the traditional world of elite chefs, developing his own dishes with ingredients accessible to ordinary communities — simple food for everyday people."
Is there a trailer for Tony?
Yes, A24 released a trailer for Tony in May 2026.
The preview shows Bourdain (Sessa), who after being rejected from a writing fellowship, takes a job in the kitchen of a Provincetown restaurant. His desperate decision to join the kitchen staff that summer ends up changing the course of his life.
Tony was directed by Johnson, who helmed 2023's BlackBerry, and 2025's comedy, Nirvana: The Band — The Show — The Movie.
"I had lunch with Dominic in New York with my producer, and within an hour we were writing what would become the screenplay of the movie together," Johnson told Entertainment Weekly about collaborating with Sessa, noting a connection between the actor and Bourdain. "[They are] both from Jersey, both sent to private school, but didn't fit in, both restless and searching."
"More than any movie I've ever made, this film was a partnership with an actor," the director revealed. "He is in every shot of the movie, and carries the entire story on his hunched shoulders."
When will Tony be released?
Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall in 'Tony'Credit: Seacia Pavao/A24
Tony will be released in theaters in the summer of 2026, but an exact date has not yet been announced.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
