The 42nd Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week in Park City, Utah. It will be the last edition in its longtime home and the first without its founder Robert Redford, who died in September at age 89.
But even in this time of transition and change, the festival’s main focus — the movies — remains as vibrant and fresh as ever with 90 features premiering through Feb. 1. And three of them feature pop star Charli XCX.
“It’s a broad, eclectic and bold program,” Sundance public programming director Eugene Hernandez told The Associated Press.
Hernandez said the lineup for the festival’s final year in Park City has a “mixture of new, exciting voices paired with some really, really great familiar faces from Sundances past that I think will create a great alchemy for this really unique edition in Utah.”
When is Sundance?
The festival runs from Thursday, Jan. 22 through Sunday, Feb. 1. There are 90 features premiering throughout, with screenings starting early in the morning and running through midnight. Award winners will be announced on Jan. 30.
What celebrities are expected?
Some big names who may make an appearance in the mountains include Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Brittney Griner, Seth Rogen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., David Duchovny, Olivia Wilde, Daveed Diggs, Channing Tatum, Courtney Love, Chris Pine, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Salman Rushdie, Alexander Skarsgård, Olivia Colman, John Turturro and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
How is Sundance honoring Robert Redford?
Redford’s legacy will be a main spotlight at the festival, including at Friday night’s annual fundraising gala where organizers will pay tribute to the Sundance founder. Later in the festival, there will also be a screening of his first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer,” and a series of legacy screenings of restored Sundance gems from “Little Miss Sunshine” to Barbara Kopple’s documentary “American Dream.”
What are the buzzy movies?
Wilde directed her third feature, “The Invite,” in which she and Rogen play an unhappily married couple who host a dinner party for friends (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton). Gregg Araki made a “sex-positive love letter to Gen Z” with “I Want Your Sex,” also starring Wilde as a provocative artist who takes an interest in a younger intern played by Cooper Hoffman. Portman, sporting platinum blond hair, leads the big ensemble cast of Cathy Yan’s art world satire “The Gallerist,” alongside Zach Galifianakis, Jenna Ortega and Zeta-Jones.
Both “I Want Your Sex” and “The Gallerist” feature supporting turns from Charli xcx, but the pop star’s big showcase is “The Moment,” a self-referential mockumentary. Colman stars alongside Skarsgård in “Wicker,” a whimsical tale of a fisherwoman who asks a basket weaver to weave her a husband. Crowe plays the warden of a work camp in 1930s Oregon where Hawke is toiling in “The Weight.” And Gemma Chan and Tatum play parents to a child who witnesses a crime in “Josephine.”
In the nonfiction space, “Navalny” director Daniel Roher co-directed a film about artificial intelligence. There are also documentaries about Love, the lead singer of “Hole” and widow of Kurt Cobain, and Griner, the WNBA star who was detained for nearly 10 months in Russia.
Can you stream Sundance movies?
Yes, but not until Jan. 29. Access to the movies premiering at Sundance doesn’t necessarily require an expensive trip to Park City anymore. The festival has fully embraced an online component for many of their films.
What started as a necessary COVID-19 adjustment has become a vital part of the program. From Jan. 29 through Feb. 1, audiences can watch the films in competition online. Prices start at $35 for a single film ticket.
When will the Sundance movies be in theaters?
It depends. Some have distribution and will soon be in theaters, like “The Moment,” which A24 is releasing on Jan. 30. Others that might secure distribution deals out of the festival can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a year to hit theaters or streaming services.
Is the festival still moving to Colorado?
Yes, this is the final edition in Park City, Utah. Next January, the festival is relocating to a new home in Boulder, Colorado.
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For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival
—By Lindsey Bahr, AP film writer