10 films from the festival about to rock the whole world, Canada Reviews

Prepare for snow… and surprises! The Sundance Film Festival never fails to wow and inspire movie lovers and this year, the last before the Park City, Utah fest moves to Colorado, is looking like no exception. 

Pop superstar-turned-actor Charli xcx is among the big names at this year’s festival, featuring in no less than three different movies, with a string of A-Listers, including Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman and Olivia Wilde, likely to be in attendance.

Sundance is well-loved for its unashamedly open attitude and dedication to independent cinema, and this year’s festival is no exception. Expect to see a pile of vital dramas, comedies, docs and series popping up during the festival’s 10 days as the action kicks off and the snow settles in. Here are 10 of the best to look out for. 

Best films to see at Sundance 2026

1. Extra Geography

Don’t be fooled (or put off) by the title, which sounds more like a turn in detention than a sparkly comedy. In what promises to be a lively lovesick romp, joined-at-the-hip BFFs Minna (Galaxie Clear) and Flic (Marni Duggan) dream up a sweet coming-of-age project at their posh boarding school to fall in love with the first person they see – which happens to be their geography teacher (Aussie star Alice Englert). Pitched around Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, things soon get complicated. 

2. I Want Your Sex

Sundance loves edgy art and this outrageous erotic thriller from New Queer Cinema legend Gregg Araki should deliver the stuff of every man-boy’s wish-list fantasies. Or will it? Cooper (son of Philip Seymour) Hoffman plays Elliot, a young guy who manages to score a job as a muse for a risqué artist named Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). But Elliot finds he’s bitten off more than he can chew as he enters a sadomasochistic world complete with extreme depravity and even death. Singer Charli xcx co-stars.

3. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist

AI is the buzz term everyone is talking about – but how many understand what it could do for us in the future? Co-directors Daniel Roher (Oscar-winning doc Navalny) and Charlie Tyrell provide a relatable exploration of what it all could mean, told from the POV of an anxious young dad-to-be via a mash-up of interviews, home movies and animation. It’s designed as a conversation starter for everyone to consider. Let the journey begin!

4. The Gallerist

One of several big-name new films that typically headline the festival, this biting satire on the art world sees Natalie Portman star as a desperate gallerist named Polina Polinski trying to woo an art influencer, Dalton Hardberry (Zach Galifianakis), into buzzing about her latest discovery, emerging artist Stella Burgess (The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph). But when Hardberry finds another piece that wows him more, all bets are off, and Polinski must act to make her dream a reality. Jenna Ortega, Daniel Brühl, Sterling K Brown, Charli xcx and Catherine Zeta-Jones round out an elite cast.

5. The Invite

After winning with Booksmart and Don’t Worry Darling, actor-director Olivia Wilde returns with this hotly anticipated domestic comedy-drama about a couple who invite their neighbours over for dinner, only for it to become the most toe-curling party imaginable. Ed Norton and Penélope Cruz play the guests who show up to witness the marriage of their counterparts, played by Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde, disintegrate before their eyes, with eye-opening revelations tumbling out as the temperature rises.

6. The Moment

Bringing the mockumentary bang up to date, Brat superstar Charli xcx sends herself up in glorious fashion as she rehearses for a mega tour of the US. Cue potty-mouthed put-downs, gags about cocaine, and heaps, heaps more, with a similarly OTT performance from Alexander Skarsgård as her manager, and Kylie Jenner playing her BFF. The singer says it’s way more real than it may first appear – with the absurdities of the music biz clearly in the firing line. Expect to see plenty of Charli on your screens in 2026.

7. The Shitheads

An off-its-head comedy about a pair of slacker bozos who get hired to transport a rich kid to rehab. All Mark (Dave Franco) and Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) have to do is get their charge, Sheridan (How To Train Your Dragon’s Mason Thames), to the treatment centre in one piece. Sounds simple enough, right? Expect anything and everything to go riotously wrong as the douche bags attempt to take their increasingly erratic cargo to his intended destination. Will they make it? Nicholas Braun, Peter Dinklage and Kiernan Shipka co-star.

8. The Weight

A broodingly intense drama set during the Depression, in which a group of convicts must face smuggling gold through a brutal, unforgiving landscape in order to survive. Ethan Hawke heads up a fine cast as the father desperate to be reunited with his daughter, with Russell Crowe suitably imposing as the man determined to thwart and haunt him. Harking back to the great American cinema of the 1970s, The Weight is likely to leave an indelible mark. 

9. Troublemaker

Unearthing the original audio tapes made by Nelson Mandela for his 1994 best-selling memoir Long Walk to Freedom, this doc from celebrated filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) will dig deep into the history of apartheid in South Africa, as well as the perilous journey Mandela and the South African people have walked before, during and after its fall. More alarmingly still, this sobering civil rights story of injustice and empowerment feels more urgent and timelier than ever.  

10. Wicker

In a role she was born to play, queen of quirk Olivia Colman stars as an audacious fisherwoman bucking societal norms, who is on a quest to have the perfect husband made for her out of weave. But the wicker man making it (played by man-about-town Alexander Skarsgård) is anything but straightforward, and the road to joy and romance anything but smooth. A superb cast also featuring Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki makes this a must-see. Based on a short story.

The Sundance Film Festival runs January 22 to February 1. For more information, head to the official website.

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