Sundance 2026: Recap, Rankings, and So Long Park City

One month ago, Michelle and I were getting ready to celebrate our wedding anniversary for the second time at the Sundance Film Festival, its final edition in Park City, Utah. Movies, mountains, a lodge, and polite people. The perfect place to celebrate.

WHAT IS SUNDANCE?

The festival, originally founded as the Utah United States Film Festival, has remained in the state since its creation in 1978. It became ‘Sundance’ after Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981. Over the years, it grew into a major platform for independent films and emerging artists, helping launch the careers of directors like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and, more recently, Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao.

As the festival expanded into a global event, the small ski town could no longer accommodate the number of attendees. Theater space is limited, and prices surge during January, the peak ski season. The festival is set to relocate to Boulder, Colorado, a city with far more infrastructure than Park City currently has. I will miss Park City, especially the kindness of its volunteers and even its Uber drivers, who were consistently polite and welcoming.

Still, I am happy about the move if it benefits the festival and allows more people to experience it. Sundance is a special festival, especially because many of its films are debut features, often representing a lifetime of work finally shown to the world, which makes the whole experience truly unique. That is, of course, if you manage to get tickets.

TICKET STRUGGLE

Perhaps because it was the final year in Park City, tickets were even harder to secure. There were screenings where numerous ticket holders were unable to enter. On one particular day, I had planned to watch four films and ended up seeing only one. Last year, the waitlist helped us get into everything we wanted. This time, it worked only twice.

But everything changes when you finally sit down for a premiere, especially when the film reveals something truly special. This year, that happened at least four times. Compared to last year, I would say this edition had higher highs but lower lows. Several films felt like great throwbacks, as if they had come straight out of the 1970s or 1980s (in a good way).

THE MOVIES

In total, I watched 27 films. Unlike last year, I did not write about all of them. I believe 18 reviews are still a strong number. It also means that if I did not write about a film, it left little impression on me. That includes what I consider the weakest films of the festival, The Musical and Rock Springs.

Also, once again, the best-received film of the festival made little impact on me, as I found both the festival’s jury and audience winner, Beth De Araújo’s Josephine, great in parts but frustrating in others. I don’t believe we will see many Oscar players coming off this lineup, but I can see three maybe landing in my personal top 10, which is a far better recognition.

MOVIE RANKINGS

Here is my list of the 18 films I wrote reviews for, ranked from worst to best.

(One note: I am not counting Tuner. I had already seen it at TIFF, and it would have been my favorite here.)