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The 2026 Sundance Film Festival is almost upon us, and it’s a notable one. This is the last year that the festival will be held in its longtime home of Park City, Utah. Some things went down, and the festival decided to pull up stakes and relocate to Boulder, Colorado starting next year. It is indeed the end of an era. That sea change will probably make up the bulk of the chatter on the ground, but presumably there will also be talk of the movies. To that end, I’ve listed ten films that I think have the strongest chance of being buzzy breakouts. Such things are notoriously hard to predict at Sundance, where real hits often come out of the blue, but I’ve done my best. 

I’ll be traveling to the festival this year, doing reviews for The Hollywood Reporter and filing at least one dispatch about the whole experience in this here newsletter, so stay tuned! And if you happen to be there and see me wandering in the snow, utterly lost, come say hi and point me in the direction of the Chase Sapphire Lounge.

The Moment

Picture it: I’m at the Eccles Theater in Park City (this is the high school auditorium where the biggest movies tend to premiere; or tended to! This is the last year that will happen!). It is 9:15 on Friday night. I, a frail 76 years old, am there to see cool Charli xcx in her cool movie from cool music-video director Aidan Zamiri, which is a mockumentary about the BRAT tour, and I gradually crumble into dust and blow away. That’s kind of how I’m imagining I’ll feel when I watch this seemingly achingly hip movie. Which, actually, will be out in regular theaters just a week later. So you won’t have to wait long until you, too, can age like one of those sped up videos of an animal decomposing. Or, I dunno, maybe you are young and cool yourself and this will be totally up your alley. Or! I’ll like it too and everything will be fine. It’s all going to be fine. 

The Gallerist

This is easily one of the most anticipated big-ticket movies at the festival. It’s got a starry cast: Natalie Portman, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Zach Galifianakis. It’s directed by Cathy Yan, whose debut film Dead Pigs premiered at Sundance and won an award in 2018, and who then went on to direct the standalone Harley Quinn movie Birds of Prey right before the pandemic came and ruined everything. And it’s got a hooky premise: a gallery owner tries to sell a dead body as a piece of art at Art Basel Miami. It’s a dark comedy, it’s a thriller, it’s a chance to see Natalie Portman maybe do another of her weird characters. I’m very excited for it. One thing to bear in mind as you read this post, though, is that oftentimes the celebrity-driven stuff disappoints at Sundance. Not always, of course. But it happens a lot. For whatever reason, though, I have a good feeling about this one.