As it has been since 1982, the tony ski village of Park City, Utah played home to hundreds of the world’s most brilliant and beautiful people with the mid-winter celebration of cinema called the Sundance Film Festival. This year’s edition, which began last Thursday and continues all this coming week, has already seen its share of some wonderful and provocative works, as the ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Lindsay Bahr reported with snowboots on the ground on Saturday:
The comedy streak at the Sundance Film Festival continued Saturday with the world premieres of the art world satire “The Gallerist,” with Natalie Portman, and Oliva Wilde’s “The Invite,” a sharp look a crumbling marriage. “The Invite,” which debuted at the Eccles Theater, marks Wilde’s third time behind the camera and first since “Don’t Worry Darling.” It received an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Will McCormack and Rashida Jones wrote the script for “The Invite,” in which a couple on the edge (Wilde and Seth Rogen) have their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. The evening starts with awkward small talk and becomes a raw and revealing encounter that’s funny and devastating at times.
And as VARIETY’s Peter Debruge opined the night before, this festival could appropriately be called “Wilde Times”:
Kinky costumes are just a fraction of the fun in Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” which stars Olivia Wilde as Erika Tracy, the most domineering movie boss since James Spader in “Secretary” (the last BDSM-themed workplace comedy to premiere at Sundance). Cooper Hoffman plays her all-too-eager subordinate in a film that’s fully liberated where sex and nudity are concerned, but kind of old-fashioned when it comes to the interpersonal dynamics between its lusty leads.
Infinitely less punk than his early work, though still edgier than nearly everything else out there, “I Want Your Sex” represents a sincere attempt by Araki to connect with the kids, whose relationship to sex couldn’t be more confusing to a child of the Swinging ’60s: Born with self-made role models like Alex Israel and Kim Kardashian, the audience for this movie grew up overexposed to porn and insecure about intimacy, but relatively considerate when it comes to consent. That’s why Hoffman’s Elliot seems so thrilled to find himself at Erika’s service: When she’s in charge, “I don’t have to make any decisions,” he beams, more than happy to relinquish control.
But even amidst such titillating titles which no doubt appealed to a significant portion of attendees–certain ones in particular–there also seems to be an overarching sense of poignancy in play, since this is the first Festival to be held without the presence of its founder, Robert Redford, who left us last summer and as you regular readers know left a distinct void. And even as early as last February the Festival’s fate was clearly in flux, which caused yet another mournful musing on our part.
As DEADLINE’s Anthony D’Alessandro laid out in his pre-Christmas preview, this year was destined to be even more transitory than ever:
The 2026 Sundance Film Festival will be a truly pivotal and memorable moment as we celebrate artists and their visionary works, honor our Sundance Institute founder, Robert Redford, and his transformative vision, and show our gratitude to Utah by commemorating our collective journey,” said Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO. “We are eager to once again foster connection and creativity as we champion and share independent storytelling with audiences. This marks an especially defining year of coming together as a community to uplift independent film and the legacy of the Festival.” Added Hernandez, “The program broadly so perfectly embodies the spirit, the history and the vitality of what this festival has tried to bring to Park City and Salt Lake City and the state of Utah for the last 40-plus years. You see in the program some familiar names and faces, but also that 40% of the films are coming from first-time feature directors.”
Part of Sundance’s goodbye to Park City include(s) several restored festival classics and reunions… e.g., the ultimate two-time Oscar winner Little Miss Sunshine, Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, New Line comedy House Party, Lionsgate’s original Saw, Ryan Fleck’s Ryan Gosling-Anthony Mackie movie Half Nelson, and the late Lynn Shelton’s Humpday to name a few.
The tribute to Redford that highlighted Friday night’s card proved to be as emotional as expected, as Bahr’s colleage Hannah Schoenbaum observed:
“When my dad could have created an empire, he created a nest,” said his daughter, Amy Redford. “The Sundance Institute was designed to support and protect and nourish and then set free.” She said there was no place her father would rather be than sitting with a new filmmaker at the Sundance Mountain Resort he founded, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City.
Sundance Film Festival regular Ethan Hawke recounted his first audition in front of Redford for the 1992 period drama “A River Runs Through It.” After forgoing sleep to prepare a lengthy monologue, Hawke said Redford pulled him aside to say he was too young for the part but would undoubtedly have a wonderful career. Redford was an early champion of Hawke’s work and became one of his greatest mentors. Hawke pledged Friday to “keep the fire that he started burning” and help it spread.
But while looking back was perhaps cathartic, the need to look ahead is still Job One for the auteurs at Sundance. It’s a sales convention first and foremost, a point D’Alessandro reinforced:
Aside from Focus Features’ The A.I. Doc, titles arriving to the festival with distribution attached include ESPN’s Give Me the Ball! and The Brittney Griner Story, Netflix’s Queen of Chess, Searchlight’s In the Blink of an Eye, NatGeo’s Time and Water and HBO Docs’ When a Witness Recants, all in Premieres; A24’s Nuisance Bear, PBS American Masters’ American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, both in U.S. Docs; A24’s undertone and ITVS’ Jaripeo in Next; Black Bear’s Tuner (which played TIFF) in Spotlight; and Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait in Episodic.
So the good news is that even amidst the overriding narrative of consolidation and truncation opportunities to make both money and impact still exist. That alone should be able to put a smile on your face and provide a little bit of warmth and reassurance. Even the best of us sometimes need a boost.
Until next time…