2 h. ago ‘The world is hurting right now’: politics and protest hit the Sundance film festival

A conflicted mood has lingered over Utah’s long-running film festival with premieres and parties continuing but stars speaking out against government crueltyThe news began to spread through the Sundance film festival on Saturday morning, as people emerged from early screenings or long nights out at the bars on Main Street.“If you all have not heard what’s going on in Minnesota this morning, someone else was murdered by ICE,” director Ava DuVernay told the audience at a panel on freedom of expression, referring to the shooting that morning of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, by Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) agents in Minneapolis. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago Frank & Louis review – moving drama of dementia and caregiving in prison

Sundance film festival: strong performances from Kingsley Ben-Adir and Rob Morgan anchor a sensitive film about caregiving as a form of rehabilitationOne of the greatest achievements of a certain kind of Sundance movie is the ability to shine a light on an experience or community we hadn’t previously been aware of. This year’s stoic and sensitive drama Frank & Louis takes us behind bars, a place we’ve been many times before at this festival, but to shadow the taxing work of inmates taking care of those who have dementia, a specifically difficult job in an already difficult place. Petra Volpe, the Swiss writer-director, who last explored a far more known form of caregiving in exhausting nursing drama Late Shift, makes her English language debut with a film inspired by the “Gold Coats” peer support program at the California Men’s Colony state prison.As with her previous film, there’s real rigour to how she zeroes in on the grind of under-appreciated labour, but while Late Shift wa...

Events

14 h. ago ‘What they’re doing is the worst of humanity’: Sundance festival stars back anti

Elijah Wood joined protest in Utah’s Park City in memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, while Natalie Portman said what is happening is ‘absolutely horrific’The Sundance film festival, which is currently under way in Park City, Utah, saw a mass protest against the two fatal shootings in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Sunday, along with high-profile interventions from major film industry figures.Actor Natasha Lyonne was among those spreading social media posts about the protest, called “Sundancers Melt ICE”, which was called for Sunday afternoon. The organisers asked for a 10-minute “respectful” event at sunset on Park City’s Main Street to memorialise Renee Good, who was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on 7 January, and Alex Pretti, who was killed on Saturday by an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. Continue reading...

Culture

15 h. ago World premiere of Hunky Jesus to open 40th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival

World premiere of Hunky Jesus to open 40th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival  BFI

Politics

16 h. ago Meghan and Harry make royal appearance at Sundance Film Festival for Girl Scouts documentary

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made a rare appearance at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of documentary, Cookie Queens, which they executive produced

Culture

18 h. ago Royal Family LIVE: Prince Harry joins Meghan for rare outing as 'stalker' horror revealed

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made two joint appearances at the Sundance Film Festival - just hours after Harry returned to the US following his High Court appearances last week

Politics

23 h. ago Union County review – an affecting Will Poulter lifts quiet addiction drama

Sundance film festival: the British actor gives a convincing performance as a man going through the drug court system in a grounded look at rehabilitationAt a festival where the focus is usually on the many micro and macro systemic wrongs in America, there’s something unusually uplifting to find a Serious Issues movie that hinges on something that actually works. Director Adam Meeks came across a rare piece of good news in the hellscape that is the opioid epidemic: the Ohio drug courts that help to rehabilitate addicts through a system of non-judgmental support and a strict, yet not unforgiving, schedule.His feature debut Union County – an extension of a 2020 short – shows the positive outcome of treating addiction as a problem to be solved, rather than a lifestyle choice to be demonised.Union County is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution Continue reading...

Events

24 h. ago ‘For the authoritarian, culture is the enemy’: Salman Rushdie talks recovery and resilience at Sundance

Sundance film festival: a new documentary explores the author’s physical and spiritual healing from the 2022 knife attack that almost killed himOn 12 August 2022, as Salman Rushdie was about to launch into a lecture on the importance of protecting writers from harm at New York’s Chautauqua Institution, a man in a black mask rushed the stage with a knife. To the horror of the packed amphitheater, the man stabbed the Indian-born British-American author – once the subject of an infamous fatwa from the leader of Iran in the 1980s – 15 times in the face, neck and torso, before members of the audience rushed the stage and disarmed him. Rushdie survived, narrowly; the stabbing left him on a ventilator, severed tendons in his left hand, and cost him his right eye.A full recreation of that attack from Rushdie’s perspective — 27 seconds of struggle, the mysterious man’s face, several sickening punches of blade — opens a new documentary on Rushdie’s recovery and resilience, which drew a standi...

Culture

25 h. ago Taylor Swift's mom Andrea and Donna Kelce make rare public appearance together ahead of pop star's wedding to Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce's and Taylor Swift's moms put their heartwarming friendship on full display as they enjoyed a day out at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Utah over the weekend.

Politics

29 h. ago Meghan Markle hints Princess Lilibet 'bound' to follow in her footsteps ahead of new film

Meghan Markle has shared an insight into Princess Lilibet hobbies ahead of the Duchess of Sussex's new documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend

Politics

30 h. ago Meghan and Harry ‘proud’ of Sundance Film Festival Girl Scouts documentary

The film, Cookie Queens, is a coming-of-age story about Girl Scouts selling their cookies.

Culture

30 h. ago The Gallerist review – Natalie Portman flounders in tiring art world caper

Sundance film festival: the Oscar winner can’t find the right tone for this grating comedy which also wastes Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Catherine Zeta-JonesThere’s a mildly amusing on-paper joke at the centre of manic art world comedy The Gallerist: what if someone was accidentally impaled on an exhibit but rather than report it, the corpse became part of the artwork?Sure, poking fun at the absurdity of modern art might seem a little dated and definitely a little too easy but maybe with a packed cast including Oscar winners Natalie Portman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, there could be a fun, fast-paced caper here? The answer is a depressing nope, the film a pained and grating misfire played like Weekend at Bernie’s for MoMA members that’s not funny or smart enough to work as farce or satire.The Gallerist is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution Continue reading...

Politics

32 h. ago Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make surprise appearance at Sundance Film Festival to promote new documentary

Couple serve as executive producers on new documentary about cookie-selling season in the Girl Scouts

Culture

34 h. ago The Friend’s House is Here review – timely, secretly made tale of creativity in Iran

Sundance film festival: an underground scene of creatives in Tehran is threatened in this lived-in hangout movie that bravely chooses optimism over negativityIt’s a summer evening in Tehran, and the streets of the Iranian capital are lively. A young creative couple, an actor and a dancer, coolly take in a performance from a band of street musicians. “This country is so full of artists,” the man, Ali (Farzad Karen), says to Hanna (Hana Mana). She replies warily: “Let’s see if they stay like this.”The remark is delivered casually in Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz’s stirring new film The Friend’s House Is Here, sprinkled in between airy banter and snippets of various rehearsals, but it’s no trivial matter. Under Iran’s theocratic regime, creative expression is a risky and unstable endeavor. The government tightly polices the contents of all art – visual works, theater, music, film, literature – for strict adherence to state ideology. Failure to receive a permit could result in fine...

Society

34 h. ago A man is under arrested for assaulting U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost at the Sundance Film Festival

A man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost at a party during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah

Events

35 h. ago Suspect told Democratic congressman, ‘We’re going to deport your kind’ before punching him in the face at Sundance, police say

Rep. Maxwell Frost tweeted on Saturday night that he had been attacked by a man “who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off”

Politics

35 h. ago Wicker review – Olivia Colman is smelly fisherwoman falling for wicker man in uneven fable

Sundance film festival: an inventively made fantasy boasts eye-catching premise and typically rewarding performance from Oscar-winner but something’s missingIn terms of attention-demanding loglines, this year’s Sundance has a few. There’s body horror Saccharine, about a diet craze that involves eating human ashes, midnight movie Buddy, about a Barney-esque kids TV star who starts murdering children and then there’s Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant which, well, you can probably imagine.But the annual “wait, what?” prize easily goes to offbeat fable Wicker, the story of a smelly spinster fisherwoman who commissions herself a husband made of, that’s right, wicker. While the film does have its expected amount of audience-provoking moments – wicker-fucking bringing the most noise both on and off the screen – to its credit, there’s an attempt to give us more than just easy shock value, something that can’t always be said for films in this often tedious category. Writer-directors Alex Huston Fische...

Politics

42 h. ago Meghan takes the biscuit! Duchess hugs Girl Scouts at Sundance Film Festival with Harry promoting cookie selling documentary

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex watched a special screening of their film, Cookie Queens, which follows four Girl Scouts during the iconic cookie-selling season.

Culture

43 h. ago Longtime festivalgoers say the final Sundance in Utah may also be their last

A common question that has emerged from this year's Sundance Film Festival is: "“Will you still go to the festival when it moves to Boulder?”

Culture

46 h. ago Democratic congressman punched in racist attack at Sundance film festival

Maxwell Alejandro Frost says attacker ‘told me Trump was going to deport me’ as police say suspect arrestedThe Florida congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost said he was assaulted by a man who said Donald Trump would deport him at a party during the Sundance film festival in Utah.“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost said in a Saturday post on X. “He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay.” Continue reading...

Culture