Jordan Firstman is a visionary multi-hyphenate who trusted his instincts and manifested Rihanna's approval through sheer artistic conviction. The Cannes-bound 'Club Kid' represents a triumphant debut that proves his decade of experience in writers' rooms finally found its perfect expression.
Sources say there was genuine panic three weeks before Cannes when the film still didn't have music clearance for its opening scene. Producers were sweating, but Firstman refused to budge on alternatives — leaving millions in distribution value riding on whether Rihanna would give the thumbs up.
Firstman shot Club Kid's 2016 flashback opener WITHOUT music rights, telling producers 'No, I'm not doing it. We will get the song.' The film premiered at Cannes May 2026 in Un Certain Regard after 26-day shoot in real NYC clubs with zero studio backing.
Jordan Firstman played chicken with his entire opening scene and won — but you have to wonder what happens to first-time directors who don't have Rihanna's number on speed dial.
Jordan Firstman just pulled off one of the boldest gambles in recent indie film history, and he's not even breaking a sweat about it. The 34-year-old writer-director-star shot his entire opening scene for 'Club Kid' — a pivotal flashback set in 2016 featuring a group of friends piled into an Uber with Rihanna's 'Sex With Me' blasting on the aux — without actually owning the rights to that song. When producers begged him to film alternative takes just in case, Firstman refused flat out.
"No, I'm not doing it. We will get the song," he told them. That's not confidence — that's a personality disorder wrapped in a leather jacket.
The gamble nearly imploded three weeks before Cannes when filmmakers still hadn't heard from Rihanna's team. "There did come a time about three weeks ago, where they're like, 'What are we going to do?' And I was like, 'Just trust. It will work itself out.
I know if Rihanna sees this, she's gonna gag for it,'" Firstman recalled. They got the footage to her somehow — "God and my publicist, which may be one in the same," he jokes — and she allegedly loved it. Whether that means official clearance or just a verbal blessing nobody's confirming remains unclear, but either way, 'Club Kid' is heading to Cannes as one of the festival's hottest sales titles.
This wasn't Firstman's first rodeo with rejection, though. He moved to Los Angeles at 20 years old and sold his first TV show by 24 — then his second at 28. Neither ever got made.
Years in development hell taught him exactly what he didn't want for his feature debut: a committee, notes from executives who'd never touch the party's edge of nightlife culture, and the slow suffocation of studio oversight. So he went full independent. Alex Coco — fresh off his Oscar win for 'Anora' — came on as producer alongside Galen Core, with financing from Topic Studios, hot off their success with Jesse Eisenberg's 'A Real Pain.' Four months after locking funding, Firstman was on set for a 26-day shoot through real New York clubs during actual parties.
"We were granted access to spaces that no one can even get to in life, let alone be filmed. We were let in because I was already there partying, and these are my friends," Firstman said, noting the film's six separate club scenes required staging within genuine nightlife environments. The authenticity wasn't negotiable — most extras were "scene kids" pulled directly from New York's queer underground.
He even cast his onscreen 10-year-old son, Reggie Absolom, a British tween actor he'd never met in person before filming began. "I was like, 'That's him.' I was so nervous before I pressed play [on the tape]. Please let him be able to act,'" Firstman remembered.
He could. The film follows a past-his-prime party promoter whose life derails when he discovers he fathered a child years ago — a premise that could've easily become a tired redemption arc in lesser hands. But Firstman's approach is more elegiac than judgmental.
"This is more about this man who has overstayed his welcome, or never known a different option," he explained. That nuance might be what's getting A-list attention for a project shot on film with zero studio infrastructure. After nearly a decade writing for 'Search Party' and 'Big Mouth,' plus years of short films at Sundance and SXSW alongside his viral Instagram impressions career, Firstman finally has the feature he's been building toward — one that required betting everything on a Rihanna song he didn't own and a pop star's blessing to exist.
