The authorized biopic of beloved celebrity chef and travel host Anthony Bourdain arrives in theaters this August.

Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas fight, cook, and shoot lobsters from a boat in heartfelt* Tony* trailer

The authorized biopic of beloved celebrity chef and travel host Anthony Bourdain arrives in theaters this August.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 5, 2026 9:02 a.m. ET

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Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall in 'Tony'. Credit:

Seacia Pavao/A24

- A24 has released the first trailer for *Tony*, its new biopic of the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.

- *The Holdovers *breakout star Dominic Sessa stars as Bourdain, with Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, and Antonio Banderas rounding out the supporting cast.

- *Tony *is set in Provincetown, Mass., where at 19, Bourdain got his first job in a kitchen, ultimately changing his life.

Anthony Bourdain's memory will live forever — especially now that the celebrated chef and travel host's life is getting the big-screen treatment.

The first trailer for *Tony*, the authorized biopic of Bourdain starring *The Holdovers *breakout Dominic Sessa, has arrived. Like Bourdain's own shows for the Food Network and the Travel Channel, *Tony *freely mixes humor and chaos with pathos and sincerity.

"Okay, so I'm just going to walk you through the basic vision. It's a coming-of-age story," Sessa explains as Bourdain in the trailer's opening seconds. *Tony *zeroes in on a particularly important epoch in cultural icon's storied life — his first days at his first job in a restaurant kitchen, snagged at only 19 in idyllic Provincetown, Mass. The people he met there, and the lessons they taught him, the *Tony*'s trailer suggests, made him into the man we all came to know and love.

*Tony *costars Emilia Jones as a high school friend (or flame?) that Sessa's Bourdain re-encounters in a bar, and promptly embarasses himself in front of. "Didn't you punch a hole in the principal's door?" she asks him, nonplussed.

"A lot has changed since high school. I'm a writer now. The truth is, I'm about to get this huge writing fellowship," Sessa explains in voiceover. But he's rejected, triggering his impulse to punch *another *hole through an *Enter the Dragon *poster in his bedroom. So, he's off to Provincetown, where he begs for a kitchen job from a dashing Antonio Banderas.

"The kid says he's a cook, chef," ribs comedian and *Cum Town *host Stavros Halkias, who costars as a fellow line cook alongside *White Lotus** *breakout Leo Woodall. Bourdain and Woodall's characters form a fast friendship, but *Tony*'s primary emotional throughline concerns Bourdain and Banderas' head chef, who teaches him how to shuck an oyster, upbraids him for his mistakes, and shocks Bourdain by shooting lobsters with a shotgun while drifting along in dinghy.

Bourdain is desperate to be seen as a writer, rejected fellowship aside. But at the trailer's end, the culinary bug has clearly infected him. "If anybody asks, I'm not a writer. I work in a kitchen," he says.

Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sessa in 'Tony'.

Seacia Pavao/A24

Dominic Sessa transforms into Anthony Bourdain in first look at *Tony *(exclusive)

Remembering Anthony Bourdain: EW's unforgettable night out with the late chef and television host

*Tony *was directed by Matt Johnson, the eccentric Canadian behind 2024's indie gem *Matt and Mara*, and last year's comedy *Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.*

The film was written by Johnson, Lou Howe, Todd Bartels, and Matthew Miller, who co-wrote 2023's *BlackBerry *with Johnson. Dagmara Dominczyk and Rich Sommers round out the supporting cast.

Dominic Sessa as Anthony Bourdain in 'Tony'.

Tuesday's trailer announcement arrived with a statement from the Anthony Bourdain Estate, which has stewarded Bourdain's legacy since his death by suicide in 2018 at 61.

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"Anthony Bourdain's legacy is meaningful to millions of people. He was a man who valued authenticity above all else and would have been both moved and baffled by the world's curiosity about his life," the statement read. "We chose to support *Tony* because it is not a standard biopic and doesn't attempt to summarize a life. 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."

The statement concluded, "We appreciate the portrayal of Tony's complexity, his intellectual appetite and his conviction — qualities that eventually took him around the globe and endeared him to so many. 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."

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