Sundance 2026 Preview

It's that time of year again for the Sundance Film Festival to roll into town-- though sadly this is the last time we'll be seeing it here in Utah for the forseeable future as the next ten years the festival will be calling Boulder, Colorado its home. It's a very bittersweet experience for me to see it come to an end here as I've spent 14 years attending and covering this festival. I absolutely have loved my time doing it, and I wish it never had to end but alas all good things must come to an end! So with some sadness, I present my last annual Sundance preview post featuring the ten movies I'm most looking forward to seeing.

10 - WICKER

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: A fisherwoman asks a basketmaker to weave her a husband.

In their audacious and delightful follow-up to 2020’s Save Yourselves!, Sundance Film Festival alums Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer adapt and expand Ursula Wills’ beguiling short story about envy, commitment, and the trappings of societal norms. Wilson and Fischer bring this medieval oddball village to life with an all-star cast and generous helpings of wry wit. Olivia Colman’s sardonic fisherwoman flies in the face of expectations and assuredly unravels tradition as she fights for the relationship she wants and the treatment she deserves from Alexander Skarsgård’s enigmatic and composed wicker man. Part fable, part historical comedy, and fully eccentric, Wicker invites us to reconsider and even set alight the stories we’ve told ourselves about marriage, creating space for true romance to unfold. — AS

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: Sundance probably doesn't have the best track record with movies that have kooky premises, but I just cant resist. I'm encouraged by the strong cast and hoping for a good time.

9 - JOSEPHINE

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety while adults are helpless to console her.

Writer-director Beth de Araújo creates a tense, devastating, and transcendently empathetic portrait of a young girl wrestling with a newly discovered fear and anger she can neither escape nor fully comprehend after her encounter with violence. Greta Zozula’s precise cinematography escalates the unease, frequently placing us in Josephine’s vulnerable, frustrated perspective as the film finds a bold and unique visual language to represent how the experience continues to haunt her.

Mason Reeves delivers a searching, tender performance as Josephine. As her fiercely protective father and sensitive mom, Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan give keenly felt turns as parents who are totally devoted to their struggling, beloved child but are ill-equipped to navigate the upheaval their family faces. Philip Ettinger does unforgettable work in a crucial, complex supporting role. — HZ

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: There's so many places a movie like this can go when truly exploring something horrific through a child's eyes and how they are able to cope and move on. And also how as parents we can best help when sometimes we have no idea what to do. Channing Tatum doesn't often get the opportunity of having meaty roles, so I'm excited to see his turn here.

8 - THE INVITE

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: Joe and Angela are on thin ice, and tonight might be when it all falls apart. Unfortunately, their upstairs neighbors are about to arrive for dinner, and everything that can go wrong goes worse.

A fiercely energized chamber dramedy, The Invite revitalizes the classic, largely bygone cinema of marital strife. Olivia Wilde’s scenes from a marriage are suitably raw and revealing, but also compassionate, deeply human, and incredibly funny. From a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, the film gleefully plunges two couples (Wilde and Seth Rogen; Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) into the crucible of a seemingly innocuous evening, delighting in its contortions as awkward small talk turns to the unearthing of long-tenured grievances, insecurities, codependencies, failed aspirations, and sexual FOMO. Constructing a vibrant aesthetic and brilliantly orchestrated interactions, Wilde finds a universe of space within one location, and her process — workshopping material with the cast, shooting chronologically (on 35mm!), and inviting them to explore as they worked — gives The Invite a remarkable authenticity. — JN

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: Good dramedies are few and far between these days, but I'm confident that this cast can make this material work. While this doesn't necessarily sound like the most original premise, I'm hopeful that it can stand out with good performances as long as Olivia Wilde is channeling her Booksmart directing and less her Don't Worry Darling directing.

7 - THE WEIGHT

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: In Oregon in 1933, Samuel Murphy is torn from his daughter and sent to a brutal work camp. Warden Clancy tempts him with early release if he smuggles gold through deadly wilderness, but betrayal festers within the crew, and Murphy questions how far he’ll go to see his child again.

Padraic McKinley’s tense, atmospheric Depression-era crime drama follows a group of desperate convicts on a perilous journey through a physically and morally treacherous backcountry. Set against the stark beauty of the Oregon landscape, The Weight draws on the introspective action cinema of the 1970s, combining gritty survivalist set pieces with uncommonly intelligent dialogue and finely drawn characters. Although rich with period detail, The Weight is charged with elemental energy, fueled by brothers Latham and Shelby Gaines’ harrowing score and Matteo Cocco’s vivid cinematography. Ethan Hawke gives a muscular performance as the film’s reluctant but resourceful hero, while Russell Crowe is quietly menacing as his foil. Julia Jones brings dignity and defiance to her role as Anna, the sole woman in the group. — MC

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT:

6 - TUNER

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: A gifted piano tuner with a unique auditory condition discovers an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.

Daniel Roher, who won the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Favorite Award with Navalny en route to the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, makes his fiction feature directorial debut with the surprising and charming Tuner. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival to critical and audience acclaim, and we are thrilled to present the film to Sundance Film Festival audiences.

Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall share a crackling, tender chemistry as Harry and Niki, a veteran piano tech and his loyal apprentice. As Niki goes further down the criminal rabbit hole hoping to help his mentor — and meets a spirited music composition student (Havana Rose Liu) — the triumphant Tuner constantly shape-shifts in mood and tone — captivating as an odd-couple friendship, a tense thriller, and a charming romance in equal measure. — HZ

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: This film has always garnered great reviews from festival goers at Telluride and TIFF, so I'm excited to finally get the chance to see it. Excited to see Dustin Hoffman again and Leo Woodall is always solid.

5 - THE GALLERIST

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: A desperate gallerist conspires to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami.

Cathy Yan returns to the Sundance Film Festival (her debut, Dead Pigs, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival) with this wickedly fun, corrosive satire of the contemporary art world.

Preparing for her Art Basel premiere, gallerist Polina Polinski (Natalie Portman) hosts an early look for art influencer Dalton Hardberry (Zach Galifianakis) to review emerging artist Stella Burgess (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Dalton’s unimpressed with the gallery until he sees one piece that captures his attention and revs up the ruthless machine of the art world.

Robust and precise with terrific performances by a stellar cast, The Gallerist reinforces Yan’s buoyant ability to survey society’s ills whilst illuminating poetic pools of beauty speckling the surrounds. — SF

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: I'm really hoping this isn't Velvet Buzzsaw 2.0 which had to be one of my biggest Sundance letdowns, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this will be a fun time. I love Cathy Yan's work and I'm the biggest Natalie Portman fan on earth maybe. Plus the supporting cast is all excellent too.

4 - UNION COUNTY

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.

Director Adam Meeks stays close to home in his debut feature, setting this recovery story in his hometown. His roots plunge this film to a subterranean depth, operating with an authenticity that gives great dignity to this portrait of a community engaged in profound struggle. Lending gravitas to the cyclical patterns of recovery brings the audience into the quietude and frankness of the battleground with addiction, illuminating the triumphs and failures that unfold daily in the fight to stay alive and the even more audacious struggle to live fully. This groundedness is supported by incredibly deft performances by Will Poulter (Glassland, 2015 Sundance Film Festival) and Noah Centineo. The leads embedded themselves in the community they portray for months and are joined on screen by local nonactors — a uniquely honest approach that lays bare consummately intimate truths. — AC

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: Will Poulter is seriously one of the best actors working right now and I'll see pretty much anything he is in. This one definitely sounds heavy, but I'm excited for his chance at a great lead role in an important film.

3 - SACCHARINE

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: Hana, a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.

Natalie Erika James follows Relic (2020 Sundance Film Festival) with this revoltingly punchy, modern, and timely take on body horror. Through sickeningly syrupy scenes of literal and spiritual consumption, Midori Francis embodies Hana, a body-dysmorphic young woman bent on chasing her weight goal at all costs. The archetypal myth of the hungry ghost manifests literally, creating a uniquely tense atmosphere fit for a physically and metaphorically dangerous haunt.

The viscosity of James’ exploration of haunting and body horror in the era of accessible weight-loss medications is especially poignant, as Saccharine works to deconstruct weight and fatness as metrics by which we classify antagonism and personal shortcoming. What if the desperation to conform is a destructive consumption itself? What if we manifest our own bottomless specters? — CA

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: I will ALWAYS put at least 2 horror films on my list and I'm so excited about this one. While I enjoyed Relic, I'm hoping for an even stronger showing here because the premise is excellent. I love a good body horror film and last year's Together was my favorite film of the fest, so I'm hoping this can be great too.

2 - GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: Midwestern bride-to-be Gail Daughtry has a “free celebrity pass” agreement with her fiancé — who uses it. With her relationship in crisis, Gail sets out on an epic journey through Hollywood to even the scales.

Director David Wain’s fifth feature film to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival follows wide-eyed Gail (a delightfully inspired Zoey Deutch) and her fellow hairdresser/bestie Otto on their quest to find and seduce Gail’s celebrity crush, the enigmatic and beguiling Jon Hamm. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of hapless mob enforcers are hot on their trail to reclaim an accidentally swapped briefcase full of secret (and very important) documents for their imperious boss. Traversing the streets of Los Angeles, they pick up a motley assortment of Hollywood hangers-on, all eager to assist Gail on her frenzied hunt for Hamm.

Wain and co-writer Ken Marino brilliantly utilize and improve upon every adventurous caper movie trope imaginable. With daft dialogue, absurd sight gags, and cameos that never disappoint, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is an unhinged screwball comedy that is not to be missed. — AM & MC

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: This plot sounds absolutely hilarious and David Wain's last Sundance comedy They Came Together was so fun. Zoey Deutch is just delightful and I'm excited to see her shine here. The world can certainly use more comedies right now, so I'm hoping for the best with this one!

1 - BUDDY

SUNDANCE SUMMARY: A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids television show.

WHY I WANT TO SEE IT: Okay I SWEAR this one used to have a bigger synopsis at some point, but as of blog publishing, that's all they wrote! For some reason, what isn't mentioned at all in their entry is a fantastic cast featuring Cristin Milioti, Michael Shannon, Topher Grace, and Keegan-Michael Key. Again, I will always gravitate towards horror so I'm excited about this, but I also just love Milioti and will always follow her career choices with huge interest. Her last Sundance film Palm Springs, was one of my all-time favorites so I'm excited and hopeful that Buddy will be a great time as well.

That's all for this list, but I will be seeing all of these and more in the next ten days with reviews to come out as promptly as possible (fingers crossed for daily recaps). So keep checking back for more reviews throughout the festival!