The Sundance Film Festival prepares to bid farewell to Park City, and
Robert Redford
[January 20, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival may be a little
bittersweet this year. It will be familiar in some ways as it kicks off
on Thursday in Park City, Utah. There will be stars, from Natalie
Portman to Charli XCX, and breakout discoveries, tearjerkers, comedies,
thrillers, oddities that defy categorization and maybe even a few future
Oscar nominees. The pop ups and sponsors will be out in full force on
Main Street. The lines to get into the 90 movies premiering across 10
days will be long and the volunteers will be endlessly helpful and
cheery in subfreezing temperatures.
But the country’s premier showcase for independent film is also in a
time of profound transition after decades of relative stability. The
festival is bidding farewell to its longtime home and forging forward
without its founder, Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year,
it must find its footing in another mountain town, Boulder, Colorado.
Celebrating the legacy of Robert Redford and his creation
It’s no surprise that legacy will be a through-line at this year’s final
edition in Park City. There will be screenings of restored Sundance gems
like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Mysterious Skin,” “House Party” and
“Humpday” as well as Redford’s first truly 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.
“Sundance has always been about showcasing and fostering independent
movies in America. Without that, so many filmmakers wouldn’t have had
the careers they have,” said “Mysterious Skin” filmmaker Gregg Araki. He
first attended the festival in 1992 and has been back many times,
including at the labs where Zhao was one of his students.
Quite a few festival veterans are planning to make the trip, including
“Navalny” filmmaker Daniel Roher. His first Sundance in 2022 might have
been a bit unconventional (made fully remote at the last minute due to
the pandemic) but ended on a high note with an Oscar. This year he’s
back with two films, his narrative debut “Tuner,” and the world premiere
of “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” which he co-directed
with Charlie Tyrell.
“We’re going through a weird moment in the world … There’s something
that strikes me about an institution that has been evergreen, that seems
so entrenched going through its own transition and rebirth,” Roher told
The Associated Press. “I’m choosing to frame this year as a celebration
of Sundance and the institute and a future that will ensure the festival
goes on forever and ever and ever and stays the vital conduit for so
many filmmakers that it has been.”
Over the past four decades, countless careers have been shaped and
boosted by the festival and the Institute. Three of this year’s presumed
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,
with what he calls a “$3 film” said it was the place where his career
was made.
“I’d probably be a psychologist right now if it wasn’t for Sundance,”
Duplass said.
While he’s been to “probably 15 Sundances” since, it hasn’t lost its
luster. In fact, when a programmer called him to tell him that his new
film “See You When I See You” was selected, he cried. The film is based
on a memoir in which a young comedy writer (Cooper Raiff) attempts to
process the death of his sister (Kaitlyn Dever). It's one of many films
that finds humor amid grim subjects.
Bold swings, comedies and Hollywood stars
As always, the lineup is full of starry films as well, including Cathy
Yan’s art world satire, “The Gallerist,” starring Portman, Jenna Ortega,
Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. The
romantic drama “Carousel,” from Rachel Lambert, features Chris Pine and
Jenny Slate as high school exes who rekindle their romance later in
life. Araki is also bringing a new film, “I Want Your Sex,” in which
Olivia Wilde plays a provocative artist (Araki described as a cross
between Madonna and Robert Mapplethorpe) who takes on Cooper Hoffman as
her younger muse.
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The exterior of the Egyptian Theatre is illuminated on Main Street
during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 22, 2015.
(Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, File)
 “It's kind of a 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 Invite,” in which she
stars alongside Seth Rogen as a couple whose marriage disintegrates
over the course of an evening. Olivia Colman is a fisherwoman
looking to make the perfect husband in “Wicker,” co-starring
Alexander Skarsgård. Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern bride-to-be
seeking out her celebrity “free pass” (Jon Hamm) 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 noted cinephile Charli XCX will also be out and about,
starring in the self-referential mockumentary “The Moment,” and
appearing in “The Gallerist” and “I Want Your Sex” as well.
Documentaries about celebrities and urgent subjects
The 2026 festival features a robust lineup of documentaries too,
which have a good track record of snagging eventual Oscar
nominations and wins. There are a handful of films about famous
faces, including basketball star Brittney Griner, Courtney Love,
Salman Rushdie, Billie Jean King, Nelson Mandela and comedian Maria
Bamford.
Others delve into newsy subjects past and present, like “When A
Witness Recants,” in which author Ta-Nehisi Coates revisits the case
of the 1983 murder of a boy in his Baltimore middle school and
learns the truth. “American Doctor” follows three professionals
trying to help in Gaza. “Who Killed Alex Odeh” examines the 1985
assassination of a Palestinian American activist in Southern
California. “Everybody To Kenmure Street” is about civil resistance
to deportations 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.
Saying goodbye to Main Street
There might be a bit of wistfulness in the air too, as everyone
takes stock of the last Sundance in Park City and tries to imagine
what Boulder might hold.
“It feels very special to be part of the last one in Park City,”
Duplass said. “It’s just a super special place where, you know there
are going to be movies there with giant stars and there’s also going
to be some kids there who made movies for a few thousand dollars.
And they’re all going to mix.”
Araki, like Redford, knew long ago that the festival had outgrown
Park City. It will be strange to no longer have its iconic locations
like Egyptian Theatre and Eccles and The Ray anymore, but it's also
just a place.
“The legacy and the tradition of Sundance will continue no matter
where it is,” Araki said.
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