11 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

12 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

20 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

21 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

21 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

31 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

4 d. ago ‘An environmental nuclear bomb’: documentary examines fight to save Great Salt Lake

Sundance film festival: A cautionary new film, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, warns of the devastating consequences if the Utah lake continues to disappearThe Sundance film festival kicked off its final edition on Thursday in Park City, the Utah ski enclave that has housed the independent film hub for more than four decades. Beginning in 2027, the festival will move to Boulder, Colorado, after a multi-year selection process that many assumed would end in Salt Lake City.Utah’s largest city, a mere 30 miles from the festival center, has long hosted extra Sundance events and served as its transit center. It’s a rapidly growing metropolitan area, a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, a major US city – and, according to a new documentary that opened this year’s festival, facing an imminent ecological crisis. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Sundance 2026: the 10 films not to miss at this year’s festival

The first Sundance without founder Robert Redford and the last to take place in Park City, Utah, will see new films starring Natalie Portman, Ethan Hawke and Courtney LoveThis year’s Sundance film festival will be notable for a major first as well as a major last. It’ll be the first to take place without its founder, Robert Redford, who died last September at the age of 89, and it’ll be the last to take place in Utah, where it’s been since the very beginning back in 1978.Emotions, which are often on display regardless thanks to films often ruthlessly designed to elicit them, will be high, with events planned to commemorate a figure who helped create a launchpad and then an ecosystem for American indies. But while saying goodbye to both Redford and Park City will be front and centre, Sundance isn’t Sundance without a roster of films to also get attenders talking. Last year, it felt like that chatter was less effusive than usual because while there were films that continued evoking co...

Culture

4 d. ago What you need to know about Robert Redford’s 2026 Sundance Festival as Charli XCX stars in three films

The 42nd Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week in Park City, Utah

Culture

5 d. ago Everything you need to know about the 2026 Sundance Film Festival

The 42nd Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week in Park City, Utah

Culture