PARK CITY, Utah – This year’s Sundance Film Festival may be a bit bittersweet. It will be familiar in some ways as it begins Thursday in Park City, Utah. It will star stars from Natalie Portman to Charli Pop ups and sponsors will be in full force on Main Street. The queues to watch the 90 films premiering over 10 days will be long and the volunteers will be extremely helpful and cheerful in the sub-zero temperatures.
But the country’s premier showcase for independent film is also in deep change after decades of relative stability. The festival is saying goodbye to its old home and moving forward without its founder Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year, it will gain a foothold in another mountain city, Boulder, Colorado.
It’s no surprise that this year’s final edition in Park City will take full account of heritage. It will also feature screenings of restored Sundance gems like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Mysterious Skin,” “House Party” and “Humpday,” as well as Redford’s first true independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer.” Many will also pay tribute to Redford at the institute’s fundraising event, where honorees include Chloé Zhao, Ed Harris and Nia DaCosta.
“Mysterious Skin” filmmaker Greg Araki said, “Sundance has always been about showcasing and promoting independent films in America. Without it, so many filmmakers wouldn’t have the careers they have.” He first attended the festival in 1992 and has returned several times, including to the laboratories where Zhao was one of his students.
Several festival luminaries are planning a visit, including “Navalny” filmmaker Daniel Rohr. Her first Sundance in 2022 may have been a little unconventional but ended on a high note with an Oscar. This year he is back with two films, his debut film “Tuner” and the world premiere of “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocalyptimist”, which he co-directed with Charlie Tyrrell.
Rohr told The Associated Press, “We’re living through a strange moment in the world… There’s something that impresses me about an institution that has been evergreen, that is going through its own transition and rebirth.” “I’m choosing to celebrate this year as a celebration of Sundance and the institution, and a future that will ensure that the festival continues forever and ever and continues to be the vital medium for so many filmmakers that it has been.”
Over the past four decades, countless careers have been shaped and fostered by the Festival and the Institute. This year’s three projected Oscar nominees – Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler and Zhao – are among those the institute supported early in their careers.
Jay Duplass, who first came to Sundance in 2003 with his brother Mark for what he calls “a $3 movie,” said it’s where his career was born.
“If Sundance hadn’t happened I’d probably be a psychologist right now,” Duplass said.
Although it has been to “probably 15 Sundances” since then, it hasn’t lost its luster. In fact, when a programmer called him and told him that his new film “See You When I See You” had been selected, he cried. The film is based on a memoir in which a young comedy writer attempts to write a story on the death of his sister. This is one of many films that finds humor amidst serious subjects.
As always, the lineup is also star-studded, including Cathy Yan’s art world satire, “The Gallerist,” starring Portman, Jenna Ortega, Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Rachel Lambert’s romantic drama “Carousel” stars Chris Pine and Jenny Slate as high school alumni who rekindle their romance later in life. Araki is also bringing out a new film, “I Want Your Sex,” in which Olivia Wilde plays a provocateur who takes Cooper Hoffman as her young lover.
“It’s a kind of sex-positive love letter to Gen Z,” Araki said. “It’s a comedy. It has elements of mystery, thriller, murder – a little bit of ‘Sunset Boulevard’… It’s fun, it’s colorful, it’s sexy. It’s a ride.”
Wilde also steps behind the camera for “The Invited,” in which she stars with Seth Rogen as a couple whose marriage falls apart over the course of an evening. Olivia Colman is a fisherman looking for the perfect husband to co-star with Alexander Skarsgård in “The Wicker.” Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern bride looking for her celebrity “free pass” in the screwball comedy “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.” and Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe lead the Depression-era crime drama “The Weight.”
Pop star and renowned cinephile Charli XCX will also star in the self-referential mockumentary “The Moment” and appear in “The Gallerist” and “I Want Your Sex.”
The 2026 festival also features a strong lineup of documentaries that have a good track record of ultimately garnering Oscar nominations and wins. Some of the films feature famous faces including basketball star Brittany Griner, Courtney Love, Salman Rushdie, Billie Jean King, Nelson Mandela and comedian Maria Bamford.
Others take an in-depth look at news topics past and present, such as “When a Witness Recounts”, in which author Ta-Nehisi Coates revisits the case of a boy murdered at his Baltimore middle school in 1983 and learns the truth. ‘American Doctor’ is based on three professionals trying to help in Gaza. “Who Killed Alex Odeh” investigates the 1985 murder of a Palestinian American activist in Southern California. “Everybody to Kenmure Street” is about civil resistance to deportation in Glasgow in 2021. And “Silenced” tracks international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson in her fight against the weaponization of defamation laws against victims of gender violence.
And some don’t fit into any easy category, like “The History of Concrete” in which filmmaker John Wilson takes what he learned at a “How to Sell a Hallmark Movie” seminar and tries to apply it to a documentary on concrete.
There may even be a little sadness in the air, as everyone takes stock of the last Sundance in Park City and tries to imagine what could be in Boulder.
“It feels very special to be part of the last one in Park City,” Duplass said. “It’s a very special place, you know there’s going to be movies made there with huge stars and there’s also going to be some kids who made movies for a few thousand dollars. And they’re all going to be mixed in.”
Like Redford, Araki had long known that the festival had outgrown Park City. It will be strange to no longer have the Egyptian Theater and its iconic venues like Ackles and The Ray, but it’s just a place, too.
“The legacy and tradition of Sundance will continue, no matter where it takes place,” Araki said.
For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: /hub/sundance-film-festival
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