What to Watch at Sundance Film Festival 2026

2026 marks the final year of Park City hosting the annual Sundance Film Festival—and before the fest moves to Colorado, two of our Hyperreal Film Journal staff writers will go snow boots on the ground to deliver coverage. 

It’s another star-studded selection of films from Hyperreal favorites Charli XCX, Gregg Araki, Macon Blair and hundreds more emerging and established filmmakers from around the world. In this year’s preview, staff writers Alejandra Martinez and Jenni Kaye share their most-anticipated feature films and documentaries premiering at the fest.

AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ

If you’ve ever seen La Bamba, or Zoot Suit, then you’re familiar with the work of Chicano director and playwright Luis Valdez. Filmmaker David Alvarado brings us into Valdez’s story, from working with Cesar Chavez to filmmaking, and exploring how Valdez created a space for Chicano stories to be told on a national scale. — Alejandra Martinez (AM)

BARBRA FOREVER

Lesbian filmmaker and visual artist Barbara Hammer was a pioneer in queer film, and an icon in her own right. This documentary will chart out the artist’s life using archival footage, narrated by Hammer herself. — AM

THE GALLERIST

Natalie Portman, Zach Galifianakis, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph team up for a dark comedy about a gallery owner who hopes to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami. Charli XCX, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Jenna Ortega are just a few more big names to round out this star-studded cast helmed by director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs, Birds of Prey). — Jenni Kaye (JK)

THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE

In his feature debut, John Wilson (of HBO docuseries How To With John Wilson) applies his gift for finding meaning and humor in the overlooked and mundane to the history of concrete. After enrolling in a class on how to write a Hallmark movie, he uses its narrative rules to shape a film about the world’s most ordinary material.  — JK

I WANT YOUR SEX

More than a decade since his last feature, indie auteur Gregg Araki returns with an erotic thriller set in the Los Angeles art world that explores the current state of sex in our culture. Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman, and once again Charli XCX, lead the cast.  — JK

JARIPEO

Hyper-masculine spaces, like the rodeos of Michoacán, Mexico, are intriguing because of what could be just under the surface. These “jaripeos,” or rural rodeos, are the main focus of filmmakers Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig’s film, shot on Super 8 and with verité techniques. Just under the surface level machismo is a space full of queer desire and memory. — AM

THE MOMENT

Aidan Zamiri, the director behind Charli XCX’s grammy nominated music video for “360,” makes his feature debut with this mockumentary chronicling an alternate-universe Charli’s arena tour and rise to fame. Sitting behind an exaggerated cast of characters and stylish aesthetics, we also get a glimpse into the complexities of how a "meteoric rise” can affect an artist.  — JK

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD

Growing old is a privilege, but one that doesn’t make the passing of time any less painful or complicated. In Sam Green’s documentary, the filmmaker interviews several of the people who’ve held the title and interrogates his own relationship with aging and time. — AM

THE SHITHEADS

Hyperreal darling Macon Blair is behind this adventure-comedy about two men hired to transport a teen to rehab. In true Blair style, this simple job turns to chaos laced with psychedelics. Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. play the ill-equipped caretakers of an increasingly chaotic teen  (Mason Thames). They’re joined by a robust supporting cast including Nicholas Braun, Peter Dinklage, and Kiernan Shipka. — JK

WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS 

In 1980s Baltimore, three innocent Black teenagers were wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned for 36 years. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, in collaboration with documentarian Dawn Porter, examines how a miscarriage of justice like this could happen, as well as the lingering effects of the case. — AM

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