Jenna Ortega and Natalie Portman Work Together to Sell a Dead Body in Thriller

A risky gallery exhibition

Set amid the high-end art scene of Art Basel Miami, The Gallerist follows an ambitious gallery owner played by Portman. She is struggling to keep her standing among the elite while dealing with a bitter separation and growing financial problems.

Portman’s character responds with an unusual scheme: she plans to turn an accidental corpse into the main draw of her debut exhibition. Ortega plays the assistant who helps her, but the plan spirals into lies, scandal and growing disorder as influencers and police approach.

Trailer and cast

RoadsideFlix and Vertical have released a trailer for the film. Yan, who directed Birds of Prey, wrote and directed The Gallerist. The cast also includes Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Daniel Brühl, Charli XCX and Youssef Kerkour.

Mixed response at Sundance

The Gallerist premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January. It received mixed reviews and a 54% score on Rotten Tomatoes; critics praised its humor, visuals, cast and criticism of art-world pretension and influencer culture, while others found it unfunny, shallow and exhausting.

ScreenRant reviewer Gregory Nussen gave the film four out of 10 stars. Nussen called it a tepid satire and argued that its metaphors were easy to grasp without seeing the film.