The 2026 Sundance International Independent Film Festival has announced its program, which will run from 22 January to 1 February in Park City, Utah. In 2027, the festival will relocate to Boulder, Colorado.
Among the 105 film projects selected is "How to Divorce During a War" by screenwriter Andrius Blaževičius and producer Marija Razgutė. The film is a co-production between Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ireland, and the Czech Republic.
The story begins in Vilnius in 2022, one day before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The plot centers on a married couple, in which the wife Maria wants to divorce her husband Vitas. They must now navigate the divorce process while dealing with the refugee crisis and a personal midlife crisis.
Variety describes the film as "both a relationship drama and a war film. It shows the ironic duality of the couple's midlife crisis and the lives of Ukrainian refugees in Vilnius."
The festival will also screen "Oligarch and Art Dealer," a film about a Russian oligarch co-produced by Denmark, France, and the United States. The documentary was directed by Andreas Dalsgaard and produced by Christoph Jörg and Miriam Nørgaard.
The documentary examines a decade-long scandal between Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and Russian collector Dmitry Rybolovlev. The Russian accused Bouvier of fraud and document forgery.
The decision to program films dealing with Ukrainian refugees and Russian figures on the same festival stage raises questions about context and sensitivity given the ongoing war.
The festival will host the world premiere of three films starring British singer Charli XCX. One is "Moment," a pseudo-documentary in which she plays herself.
"This is not a tour documentary and not a concert film," the singer said. The film also features Rachel Sennott, Alexander Skarsgård, Kate Berlant, and Kylie Jenner.
The film was directed and written by Aidan Zamiri, with screenplay by Bertie Brandes and producers Charli XCX and David Hinojosa. Charli will also appear in the US-France co-production "The Gallerist," directed and written by Katie Yan, with screenplay by James Pedersen and producers Ash Sarohia, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Jonathan King, Tom McCarthy, and Ray Baron.
The film follows a gallerist attempting to sell a corpse at Art Basel Miami. The cast includes Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The third film featuring Charli XCX is "I Want Your Sex," an erotic thriller directed by Gregg Araki. Cooper Hoffman plays a young man who begins working for a provocative artist played by Olivia Wilde and soon finds himself in "a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal, and murder."
The selection also includes numerous comedy films. Among them are Olivia Wilde's "The Invite," David Wain's "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass," Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer's "Wicker," John Wilson's documentary "The History of Concrete," Josephine Decker's "Chasing Summer," Macon Blair's "The Shitheads," and Casper Kelly's "Buddy."
The complete film list is available at the link.
Each year, the Sundance Institute holds the largest independent film festival in Utah. Past success stories include Steven Soderbergh with "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" in 1989, Quentin Tarantino with "Reservoir Dogs" in 1992, and Ryan Coogler with "Fruitvale Station" in 2013.
The Sundance Institute will also hold an event honoring its late founder Robert Redford, who died in September 2025.
