2026 Sundance Film Festival announces feature film and episodic program

Photo: The_Lake-Still_1

PARK CITY, Utah — The 2026 Sundance Film Festival unveils 97 projects for the feature film and episodic program.

This year’s selections feature a huge variety of stories, all being told based on individuals or small groups of people, basically taking a deep dive into human stories that affect the world. “We’re not dealing with just the big issues. You’re dealing with how these issues impact individuals, both in fiction and non-fiction,” says Basil Tsiokos, senior programmer for documentaries. “These are really human-grounded stories. We’re all about storytelling.”

“This year we’re excited how varied the films are that we have, like many different genres,” adds Heidi Zwicker, senior programmer for dramatic features. “We have a lot of comedies and different types of comedies. They’re not all one brand of comedy. There’s dark humor, subtle humor, just good old-fashioned slapstick.”

The Sundance Film Festival is an artist program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit that impacts thousands of artists every year through its year-round artist programs, the Festival, and Sundance Collab, its digital space to learn from experts and build a global filmmaking community.

Profits from Festival ticket sales go to uplifting and developing emerging artists on a year-round basis through focused labs, direct grants, fellowships, residencies, and more.

The U.S. documentary competition includes a film focused on Utah’s environmental challenges. “The Lake” by director Abby Ellis received a Sundance Institute Sandbox Fund grant during its production phase (when it was called “The Terminal”) and the description reads more like a thriller than a documentary.

“The program for the 2026 Festival invites audiences to experience intimate character journeys, deeply human stories, and compelling explorations of stories from around the globe,” said Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming. “Each year, we have the privilege of introducing distinctive storytellers to audiences, and we are grateful to the artists who entrust us with their films at the start of the journey. The upcoming edition will be especially profound in introducing brand-new works while concurrently marking the significance of the many films we have been fortunate to present and gone on to have a long-lasting impact on independent film and culture.”

The lineup announced today includes 90 feature-length films representing 28 countries and territories. The 2026 program is composed of 36 of 90 (40%) feature film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. 14 of the feature films and projects selected were supported by Sundance Institute in development through direct granting or residency labs. This year the film and episodic slate includes 94 (or 97%) world premieres.

The 2026 Sundance Film Festival jury and audience awards will be presented on Friday, January 30, at a ceremony at The Ray Theatre in Park City. The Short Film Program will be shared on December 15, with Beyond Film talks and additional programming announcements unveiling through January.

Today the Festival is also announcing the winner of the 2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, a juried award granted annually to an artist with the most outstanding depiction of science and technology in a feature-length film. The prize has gone to ‘In The Blink of An Eye’ directed by Andrew Stanton, screening in the Premieres section.

The Salt Lake City Celebration film is “Cookie Queens,” premiering at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on January 24. “It is just a joy of a documentary. It’s about Girl Scouts, who set their goals for selling cookies and it’s like what they learn about themselves and the world, based on their ambition, their success, what it is to be a person selling cookies, and it is as delightful as you would hope hanging out with these cute little kids,” says Heidi Zwicker. “But it’s also the movie that we could recommend to anybody. I could know nothing about your taste, and I would say, go see ‘Cookie Queens.’”

The 2026 Sundance Film Festival program was selected from 16,201 submissions from 164 countries or territories, including 4,255 feature-length films. From these feature film submissions, 1,676 were from the U.S. and 2,579 were international. The seven episodic projects were selected from 470 submissions.

The programmers also recommend checking out “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!” about the main character finding her way back to happiness, and “Josephine,” which went through the Sundance Lab and is about being traumatized but is incredibly empathetic and includes dream miniatures and animation. On the environmental spectrum there is “Time in Water” about the death of a glacier and how it connects to a family. The programmers also highlighted “Joybubbles” and “Broken English.” This year’s topics include numerous films touching on different aspects of AI and how it influences our lives. Check out the full list of features and episodics selected here.

Mark Jan. 30, 2026 on your calendars. The culminating event for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City will take place at The Marquis, details to be announced.