Sundance Film Festival 2026

I wasn't very interested in the lineup but, since this was the final year that Utah would be hosting the Sundance Film Festival, I knew that I had to attend at least one screening to bid farewell to something that has been a part of my life for well over a decade.  I ended up seeing The Weight last night at the Rose Wagner with my nephew and I think it is incredibly appropriate that I ended with a film starring Ethan Hawke because I have seen so many of his films at Sundance over the years!  Both my nephew and I liked it because it feels like an old school Western but it is set in the Pacific Northwest during the Great Depression.  Samuel Murphy (Hawke) is a widower arrested for fighting and sent to a convict labor camp run by Clancy (Russell Crowe).  He is separated from his young daughter Penny (Avy Berry) and he is desperate to get back to her before she becomes a ward of the state and eligible for adoption.  Clancy is impressed by Murphy's ingenuity and offers him an early release if he smuggles gold from a mine run by his associate Taggert (Alec Newman) and transports it through a dangerous forest to a safe location before the federal government can confiscate it.  Murphy agrees and sets off with three other convicts, Rankin (Austin Amelio), Singh (Avi Nash), and Olson (Lucas Lynggaad Tonnesen), two armed guards from the mine, Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Big (Jeffrey Lee Hallman), and Anna (Julia Jones), an indigenous woman on the run who joins them, on a perilous journey with higher stakes than he imagines.  It is incredibly tense (people jumped out of their seats several times) because they face dangers from nature, from a miner (Cameron Brady) who happens upon them and suspects what they are doing, and shifting dynamics within the group.  It does sometimes get bogged down in between the action sequences but they are great, especially one on a suspension bridge and one during a thunder storm.  Hawke gives a performance that hearkens back to classic Westerns as a rugged and resourceful loner on a mission and the locations are gorgeous.  It was really fun to experience this with a Sundance crowd and I will really miss the festival.

I have so many to choose from but here are some of my favorite memories from the festival:

Whenever I saw a screening at the Rose Wagner, I always tried to sit in the same seat and at one screening I got chatting with a volunteer about my preference.  During the next screening, I noticed that this seat had a reserved sign on it.  The volunteer had put the sign on "my" seat so that I would be sure to get it!

I saw the movie Hereditary at the old Tower Theater which is incredibly atmospheric (and probably haunted) and therefore a great place to see a horror film.  I jumped out of my seat and screamed out loud during an especially tense scene and so did everyone sitting around me.  It is one of the most memorable movie viewing experiences I have had!

When I was teaching, I took groups to the student screenings and this was very popular with the kids.  One year I had a group of British literature students who really enjoyed reading Hamlet and quite by chance I was able to take them to see Ophelia.  They loved the film and all of their discussions on the bus ride home comparing it to the play made my teacher heart want to burst!

I am a big fan of the musical Hamilton so I had a fangirl moment when Daveed Diggs, who originated the role of Lafayette/ Thomas Jefferson, showed up for the Q&A after the screening for Blindspotting.

I loved being able to talk to people who also love film while standing in line and I eventually became friends with several people who came to the festival year after year.  I always looked forward to seeing them and I am so glad that I got to connect with a few of them last night!