Nyad Netflix Movie: Everything We Know So Far

Netflix's biopic on long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad arrives in November 2023.

Tigran Asatryan
August 30th, 2023 - 8:48 am ET

nyad netflix movie coming to netflix in november 2023

Picture: NYAD – Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix is set to release Nyad, a biopic based on author, journalist, and swimmer Diana Nyad. At the age of 64, she became the first person to swim the 110-mile distance from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Here’s everything we know so far about Netflix’s Nyad set to feature at TIFF 2023 and come to Netflix in November 2023.

Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, known for their documentary work, including the Oscar-winning Free Solo, are making their narrative debut with the drama. Emmy winner Ann Biderman (Ray Donovan) and Black List scribe Julia Cox (Do No Harm) penned the script inspired by Nyad’s autobiography, Find a Way.

The project, produced by Andrew Lazar and Teddy Schwarzman, was developed by Mad Chance and Black Bear Pictures after being initially introduced to buyers at the European Film Market in March 2020.

The script was first featured on the 2015 Blacklist with the script produced by Robert Specland.

Lisa Nishimura is the Netflix executive behind the project, with the movie set to be one of her last following her departure in March 2023.

What’s the Netflix release date for Nyad?

Netflix first announced a 2023 release window for the movie in January 2023. We have since learned that Nyad will be released on Netflix on November 3rd, 2023.

Nyad will be featured at the Toronto Internation Film Festival in September 2023. The film will also have a limited theatrical release from October 20th, 2023.

What’s the plot of Nyad?

Diana Nyad is a long-distance swimmer who, in 2013, at the age of 64, became the first person to swim the 110-mile distance from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage. It was her fifth attempt, and she executed it by undertaking a 53-hour journey through the dangerous open ocean that included overcoming not just sharks but poisonous jellyfish.

Here is the logline for the Netflix biopic itself:

“When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after fifty-three hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record— becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection—she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age twenty-eight and at long last achieved when she was sixty-four.”

Who is cast in Nyad?

Oscar nominee Annette Bening is set to play Diane Nyad in the Netflix biopic. Bening’s most recent credits include Death on the Nile, Georgetown, and Captain Marvel.

Oscar-winner Jodie Foster will play Nyad’s coach and longtime friend Bonnie Stoll. Her involvement with the project was announced by THR back in January 2022. Foster recently appeared alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in The Mauritanian.

Rounding out the cast for Nyad are:

Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man) as John Bartlett
Ethan Jones Romero (Lioness) as Nico
Luke Cosgrove (The Mist) as Luke Tipple
Jeena Yi (Manifest) as Angel Yanigahara
Eric T. Miller (Marvel Wastelanders: Old Man Star-Lord) as Coach Jack Nelson
Karly Rothenberg (Claudette, Atypical) as Dee Brady
Marcus Young
Garland Scott (Bullet Train)
Anna Harriette Pittman (Chicago P.D.) as Teenage Diana

Cast grid for Nyad

What’s the production status of Nyad?

Filming for the new movie took place over the course of two months between March and May 2023, from March 15th to May 15th.

Filming took place in the Dominican Republic. Per American Post, some of the filming took place in Santo Domingo.

During filming, Diana Nyad and Bonnie Stoll visited the set with Diana able to swim with Bening, with “many of the 400-person crew cheering.” She said, “That’s a moment I will never forget.”

The movie is already receiving early tips for awards for the 2024 Oscars, so this is certainly one to watch.