The Sundance Film Festival's big moments and breakout movies
[January 30, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The last Sundance Film Festival in Utah is
drawing to a close this weekend.
The Park City gathering was a wistful farewell to the place Robert
Redford’s brainchild has called home for over 40 years and launched so
many careers. Although the festival isn’t ending — it will start anew in
Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 — it did have many, from filmmakers to
volunteers, feeling nostalgic about the change whether their Sundance
story began in 2022 or 1992.
A Wednesday night anniversary screening of “Little Miss Sunshine,” still
one of the festival’s biggest hits, was an especially emotional affair
as filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and actors Toni
Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin, gathered once
more, 20 years later, at the festival’s most famous and largest
location, the Eccles Theater. Many in the audience had seen the movie
and some had even been at the 2006 premiere. But a fair number were
experiencing it for the first time and the response was rapturous.
“Who would have imagined that a singe film could deliver two electric
nights at a Sundance Film Festival?” said festival director Eugene
Hernandez.
It wasn’t all looking back, however. The festival’s program is first and
foremost about discovery. First time feature filmmakers comprised about
40% of the slate. The programmers also wanted to do right by Park City.
“I feel like we achieved that based on what we’ve seen this week,” said
Sundance programming director Kim Yutani. “The enthusiasm for the
artists that we have now shared with the world is significant. It’s
profound.”
ICE and politics seep in
The festival wasn’t a bubble to world events either. On the second
night, a Florida Congressman was assaulted at a party by a man who told
him he was going to get deported. ICE OUT pins were not an uncommon
sight on major stars, like Natalie Portman, on the red carpet. And films
like Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an
Apocaloptimist” (in theaters March 27) sparked conversations about the
end of the world.
Memorable moments thanks to Charli xcx, Harry, Meghan and Billie Jean
King
It also didn’t stop people from having a good time. There was an
all-night DJ’d party for the Charli xcx movie “The Moment” (in theaters
this weekend) which had some out dancing until well after 3 a.m. The
Billie Jean King documentary “Give Me the Ball!” had the audience
erupting into spontaneous applause. (Afterward, King hit tennis balls
into the balcony). Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones sang Marianne
Faithfull songs after a screening of “Broken English.” And the
documentary “Cookie Queens,” about Girl Scout Cookie season, was an
audience favorite that also brought a surprise appearance by Prince
Harry and Meghan, who executive produced.
Olivia Wilde’s big comeback
Charli xcx might have had Wilde beat in numbers with three films at the
festival, but Wilde took the spotlight for sheer impact. She confidently
carried Gregg Araki’s comedic, and erotic, thriller “I Want Your Sex,”
as the provocative artist Erika Tracy, who initiates an affair with one
of her interns (Cooper Hoffman), changing his life and views about sex
in the process. But her bigger moment was “The Invite,” a sharp chamber
dramedy about an unhappy and sexless San Francisco couple (Wilde and
Seth Rogen) who invite their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and
Edward Norton) over for dinner. Wilde directed the film, which quickly
became a festival favorite, sparking a competitive, 72-hour bidding war.
A24 emerged as the winner (reportedly in the range of $12 million) in
the biggest acquisition of the festival so far.
A release date for “The Invite” has not yet been announced. “I Want Your
Sex” has not yet been acquired for distribution.
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Billie Jean King attends the premiere of "Give Me the Ball!" during
the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, at Eccles
Center in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
 The Channing Tatum drama everyone
is talking about
One of the biggest hits was also one of the most challenging:
“Josephine,” writer-director Beth De Araújo’s raw drama about an
8-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) whose life and sense of safety is
upended after she witnesses a sexual assault in San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play the parents who are
unsure how to help her navigate these new emotions and fears. It has
not yet been acquired for distribution.
The queer horror breakout
Writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s midnight movie “Leviticus” was
scooped up quickly by the indie label Neon (of “Parasite” and
“Anora” fame) in a reported seven-figure deal. The Australian
coming-of-age thriller is about two teenage boys (Joe Bird and Stacy
Clausen) trapped in conversion therapy horror. A critic for
IndieWire wrote that it played like an episode of “Heated Rivalry”
crossed with the psychological horror “It Follows.” A release date
has not yet been announced.
A documentary more than 50 years in the making
The footage that makes up the new documentary “Once Upon a Time in
Harlem” was shot in 1972, when groundbreaking filmmaker William
Greaves ( who died in 2014 ) brought together the living luminaries
of the Harlem Renaissance, poets, authors, librarians,
photographers, critics and actors, to reflect on what it all meant,
at a party at Duke Ellington’s home. His son David Greaves did
camera work at the party and co-directed and finished the film, a
striking and essential historical artifact (and a good,
intellectually stimulating hang). It has not yet been acquired for
distribution.
Other buzzy titles
John Turturro got an enthusiastic standing ovation for his
performance in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” a nostalgic
crime thriller about a veteran pickpocket who steals from the wrong
man, written and directed by Noah Segan.
There was lots of chatter about “Wicker,” a quirky fantasy about a
sardonic fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions a basket weaver
to weave her a husband (Alexander Skarsgård), from filmmakers Alex
Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.
David Wain’s earnestly horny (and surprisingly gory) riff on “The
Wizard of Oz,” “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” was a
starry, easy crowd pleaser, with Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm and John
Slattery. And Rinko Kikuchi got raves for her turn as a woman
competing in the Tokyo ballroom scene in “Ha-Chan, Shake Your
Booty.”
All are still seeking distribution, but the end of the festival does
not mean the end of those talks.
“There are many more deals happening,” Yutani said. “The fact that
these films are going to have these robust lives after their
Sundance premieres is exactly what we want for these films. For them
to reach wider audiences is definitely the goal.”
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