There is a bittersweet quality to this edition of Sundance. Next year, the traditional host city will no longer be crowded with film lovers, as Park City becomes part of the festival’s past. In 2027, the global film industry will no longer descend on Salt Lake City, but instead make its way to Boulder, Colorado. Adding to this sense of transition, legendary shorts programmer Mike Plante has moved on to new opportunities after many years of dedicated service, leaving his shorts co-lead, Heidi Zwicker, as the sole captain of the ship. 2026 certainly has a different ring to it – the beginning of a new era!

One positive legacy of COVID times for Sundance, is that the festival has maintained its online component. While none of the S/W team members will be on site this year, we’re excited to discover films thanks to its online accessibility. Public online tickets are geoblocked to the U.S. and only certain films are available – but all of the shorts are! As usual, the program announcements are a celebratory moment for us, and it’s always a great pleasure to spot the names of S/W alums in the lineup. A festival program is always a bit overwhelming, with lots so many options, so if you need some help picking films, below you will find the new work of the members of the S/W family – always a good place to start. 

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Shorts

We will, of course, be watching the 54 short films in this year’s program. With Sundance remaining the festival that receives the most submissions – and has very flexible rules with the premiere status – it continues to be one of the short film lineups we’re most eager to explore. A strong contingent of Sundance alumni are returning this year and the program also features several standout titles from major international festivals. Two of our favorite shorts from Cannes are included: Samuel Suffren’s Cœur Bleu, which screened in the Directors’ Fortnight, and Palme d’Or winner I’m Glad You’re Dead Now by Tawfeek Barhom. Venice is represented by Ana A. Alpízar’s Norheimsund and Lovisa Sirén’s Utan Kelly, while the genre selections include Fantastic Fest standouts Sorrow Doesn’t Sleep at Night by Martín André and Josefina Montino, and Mangittatuarjuk by Louise Flaherty. Most notably, this year marks a record high, with 14 Short of the Week alums screening new shorts at Sundance.

• Albatross by Amandine Thomas
  S/W Films: Viaje de Negocios, hello beautiful please follow back, SUSANA
  Synopsis: Maria, burdened with caregiving for her sick husband, gets invited to a party.
  Section: Short Film Program 5

• Callback by Matthew Puccini
  S/W Films: Dirty, Lavender, The Mess He Made
  Synopsis: Max arrives home to find that his boyfriend has booked a callback. All hell breaks loose.
  Section: Short Film Program 5

• Candy Bar by Nash Edgerton
  S/W Films: Spider, Bear
  Synopsis: A young girl thinks a man in the candy bar line looks like her dad.
  Section: Short Film Program 1
  

  

  Lindsey Normington, DeMorge Brown and Kate Adams appear in Going Sane: The Rise and Fall of the Center For Feeling Therapy by Joey Izzo, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Gabriel Patay.

• Going Sane: The Rise And Fall Of The Center For Feeling Therapy by Joey Izzo
  S/W Films: My Daughter’s Boyfriend, Stepsister, I Was There Too, You’ve Never Been Completely Honest
  Synopsis: A 1970s Los Angeles therapy collective rises with utopian promise before devolving into a business-minded cult built on control and abuse.
  Section: Documentary Short Film

• Living With A Visionary by Stephen P. Neary
  S/W Film: Dr. Breakfast
  Synopsis: After 50 years of marriage, John must care for his wife while learning to live alongside her vivid hallucinations.
  Section: Short Film Program 1

• Luigi by Liza Mandelup
  S/W Films: Fangirl, Sundown
  Synopsis: When Luigi Mangione is charged with murder, he becomes the subject of fevered obsession. Through letters, fantasies, and conspiracies, strangers turn Luigi into a cultural sensation and a canvas for their rage, desire, and misplaced hope.
  Section: Documentary Short Film
  

  

  Camila Santana appears in Marga en el DF by Gabriela Ortega, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Maria Secco

• Marga en el DF by Gabriela Ortega
  S/W Film: Huella
  Synopsis: In the wake of Selena Quintanilla’s murder, Marga’s life takes an unexpected turn at 21 weeks pregnant during a surprise visit to Mexico City.
  Section: Short Film Program 4

• Paper Trail by Don Hertzfeldt
  S/W Films: World of Tomorrow, The Meaning of Life, Everything Will Be Okay, Ah L’Amour
  Synopsis: A life, seen through paper.
  Section: Animated Short Film

• Some Kind Of Refuge by Alexandra Kern
  S/W Films: Wild Magnolias, Stud Country
  Synopsis: On the shifting edge of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, the spirit of a fading outsider community endures through its two oldest residents.
  Section: Short film Program 3
  

  

  A still from STILL STANDING by Victor Tadashi Suarez and Livia Albeck-Ripka, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Victor Tadashi Suarez.

• STILL STANDING by Victor Tadashi Suarez and Livia Albeck-Ripka
  S/W Film: Uncle Morris (dir. Victor Tadashi Suarez)
  Synopsis: On January 7, 2025, the Eaton fire destroyed over 9,000 structures in Altadena, California. Thousands more were left standing but contaminated with toxic ash. Residents face the impossible decision of whether they should risk their health to return home.
  Section: Documentary Short Film

• The Baddest Speechwriter Of All by Stephen Curry and Ben Proudfoot
  S/W Films: The Lost Astronaut, A Concerto is a Conversation, MINK!, The Queen of Basketball, The Final Copy of Ilon Specht
  Synopsis: Now 93, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and speechwriter reflects on the personal cost and surprising truths of making history, offering an intimate insider’s view of the Civil Rights Movement.
  Section: Documentary Short Film
  
  

  Kurt Fuller and Karen Maruyama appear in The Oracle by JJ Adler, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Damian Acevedo.

• The Oracle by JJ Adler
  S/W Film: Places, Thank You Places
  Synopsis: When an atheist psychiatrist hypnotizes his con artist patient, a message from his long-dead twin emerges. It could be the perfect con, or it could be proof that reality is far stranger than he would like to admit.
  Section: Short Film Program 1

• The Worm by Tom Noakes
  S/W Film: Nursery Rhymes
  Synopsis: A young man’s strange belief sparks an intervention from his family.
  Section: Midnight Short Films

• UM by Nieto
  S/W Films: Far West, Swallow the Universe
  Synopsis: The bird people have fallen into violent chaos and are prey to a disturbing phenomenon: Their eggs seem to be haunted by demonic faces. Their hatching appears to herald an imminent catastrophe.
  Section: Midnight Short Films

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Features

• Bedford Park by Stephanie Ahn
  S/W Film: Accident
  Synopsis: Haunted by an abusive childhood, Audrey, a Korean American woman in her 30s, faces her emotional past. When her mother’s car accident brings her back to her parents’ home, she meets the man responsible for the accident. Their relationship builds, passions ignite, and they form a loving connection.
  Section: US Dramatic
  
  
• Chasing Summer by Josephine Decker
  S/W Film: collective: unconscious
  Synopsis: After losing both her job and boyfriend, Jamie retreats to her small Texas hometown, where friends and flings from a fateful high school summer turn her life upside down.
  Section: Premieres
  
• Hold onto Me (Κράτα Με) by Myrsini Aristidou
  S/W Film: Semele
  Synopsis: 11-year-old Iris learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond.
  Section: World Cinema Dramatic
  
  
• Hot Water by Max Walker-Silverman
  S/W Film: Lefty/Righty
  Synopsis: After he’s kicked out of his Indiana high school, an American kid and his Lebanese mom hit the road west.
  Section: US Dramatic
  
  
• Joybubbles by Sarah Winshall (Producer)
  S/W Film: The Starr Sisters, Whiskey Fist, Men Don’t Whisper Synopsis: Joybubbles discovers he can manipulate the telephone system by whistling a magic tone. Born blind and yearning for connection, his early obsession unwittingly lays the groundwork for a subculture that shapes the future of hacking and technology.
  Section: US Documentary
  
• Lady by Olive Nwosu
  S/W Film: Egúngún (Masquerade)
  Synopsis: In the sprawling African metropolis of Lagos, a fiercely independent young cab driver meets a band of radiantly reckless sex workers whose sisterhood pulls her into danger and joy, setting her on a journey toward her own transformation.
  Section: World Cinema Dramatic
  
  
• Nuisance Bear by Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman
  S/W Film: Nuisance Bear
  Synopsis: A polar bear is forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. When a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape. 
  Section: US Documentary
  
  
• Saccharine by Natalie Erika James
  S/W Film: Drum Wave
  Synopsis: Hana, a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
  Section: Midnight
  
• Take Me Home by Liz Sargent
  S/W Film: Take Me Home
  Synopsis: Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability, cares for her aging parents in a fragile balance of meeting one another’s needs. When a Florida heat wave shatters their family and Anna’s routine, her future is uncertain until she creates a world where she can thrive.
  Section: US Dramatic
  
  
• The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist by Charlie Tyrell (co-directed with Daniel Roher)
  S/W Film: My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes
  Synopsis: A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with the AI insanity, exploring the existential dangers and stunning promise of this technology that humanity has created.  Section: Premieres
  
  
• The Huntress (La Cazadora) by Suzanne Andrews Correa
  S/W Film: Green
  Synopsis: In the border city of Juárez, Mexico, where violence against women is perpetrated with impunity, an unlikely defender emerges with a desperate call for change. Inspired by true events.
  Section: World Cinema Dramatic
  
• Union County by Adam Meeks
  S/W Film: Union County
  Synopsis: Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.
  Section: US Dramatic
  
  
• zi by Christopher Radcliff (Producer)
  S/W Film: We Were the Scenery, The Strange Ones
  Synopsis: In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night — and possibly her life.
  Section: Next

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