The Sundance Film Festival has always sold the romance of discovery—new voices in the snow, a town full of anxious buyers, and the occasional starry detour that turns into a real movie conversation. But the 2026 edition comes with a genuine end-of-an-era feeling: it’s the Festival’s final Park City set before Sundance moves to Boulder, Colorado, beginning in January 2027.
READ MORE: The 150 Most Anticipated Films Of 2026
That goodbye energy is baked into the official framing, too—Sundance is leaning into a Park City Legacy program that nods to its Utah history with archival screenings and alumni talks, while still trying to do the thing it does best: kickstart the year’s independent-film calendar with a lineup that can generate both buzz and real heat.
And yes, the celebrity hook is very much here. You’ve got Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega in a morbid Art Basel caper, Olivia Wilde directing a dinner-party pressure cooker stacked with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, and Gregg Araki going for the jugular again with a provocation led by Wilde and Cooper Hoffman.
The in-person Festival runs January 22–February 1, 2026, with the online program January 29–February 1—one last winter sprint through Park City and Salt Lake City before the address changes. Here are some of our most anticipated picks.
The Films
“The Gallerist”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Cathy Yan sets a deliciously nasty premise in motion: a desperate gallerist tries to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami, which already sounds like the kind of art-world satire Sundance audiences will eat up. With Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the mix, it’s hard not to circle this one as a prime opening-weekend frenzy title.
“The Invite”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Director Olivia Wilde brings a relationship-on-the-ropes scenario to a single-night pressure chamber—right as the upstairs neighbors arrive for dinner and the evening starts collapsing in real time. The cast is a weapon: Seth Rogen, Wilde, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, a quartet built for social-comedy cruelty and emotional shrapnel.
“I Want Your Sex”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Gregg Araki aims straight for obsession, power, and desire-as-weapon when a “fresh-faced” new hire becomes the sexual muse of an artist-provocateur and quickly realizes the job is a trapdoor. Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Daveed Diggs, and Charli xcx make it feel engineered for maximum midnight chatter—even though it’s playing as a prestige provocation.
“In The Blink of An Eye”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Andrew Stanton goes big and cosmic: three storylines spanning thousands of years, all rhyming around hope, connection, and the circle of life. Rashida Jones, Kate McKinnon, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, and Tanaya Beatty give it an intriguingly grounded ensemble for a sweeping, time-folding structure—and it’s also the 2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize winner.
“The Moment”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
A rising pop star braces for her arena-tour debut while fame and industry pressure tighten the screws—basically a backstage anxiety dream with a knowing grin. Aidan Zamiri directs, Charli xcx stars (and produces), and the supporting cast is a fascinating grab bag: Rosanna Arquette, Kate Berlant, Jamie Demetriou, Hailey Benton Gates, and Alexander Skarsgård.
“Wicker”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Co-directed by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, this one’s a folk-leaning fable set in a remote fishing village, where an outcast commissions a husband literally made of wicker—and invites consequences that feel both intimate and mythic. The cast includes Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Marli Siu, and Nabhaan Rizwan.
“The Weight”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Set in Oregon in 1933, a father ripped from his daughter is forced into a brutal work-camp job that becomes a lethal wilderness smuggling run—freedom dangled like bait, betrayal growing in the margins. Padraic McKinley directs, and the cast is heavyweight by design: Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Julia Jones, Austin Amelio, Avi Nash, and Sam Hazeldine.
“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
A botched theft sends a veteran pickpocket on a citywide mission to reclaim stolen goods—New York as obstacle course, paranoia engine, and comic nightmare. Director Noah Segan stacks a killer ensemble: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany, and Steve Buscemi.
“See You When I See You”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
A comedy writer battling PTSD after his sister’s tragic death leans on family to survive the aftermath—grief as a daily negotiation, humor as a lifeline rather than a solution. Jay Duplass directs, and the cast is loaded: Cooper Raiff, David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever, Hope Davis, Lucy Boynton, and Ariela Barer.
“The Shitheads”
(Premieres, World Premiere, Fiction)
Two unqualified bozos get hired to transport a rich teen to rehab and, naturally, the “simple” job detonates into dangerous mayhem. Macon Blair directs and writes, and the cast is basically a prank pulled on the audience in the best way: Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, and Peter Dinklage.
