I spent four days at the last ever Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah at the behest of the lovely folks over at Hypebeast. Earlier this week, we published a diary painstakingly documenting my time spent at the festival as a first-timer. It’s also the first year without the festival’s founder, Robert Redford, who named the event after his titular character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His presence has always loomed large over the town and still did this year. Many Uber drivers and volunteers I met along my way had stories about him. Every film screening at Sundance started with a heartfelt tribute to its founder.

When I started Director Fits just a few years ago, I never thought it would take me to places like this. I never thought I’d be in these rooms. Watching Entourage’s Season 2 Episode 7 titled “The Sundance Kids” was as close as I thought I’d ever get to this place. I’ve never been to any film festivals and, from afar, they seemed like these glamorous events for the select few.

While that may be slightly true, Sundance 2026 felt like it was more democratic in its attendees and festival entrees. The director of the festival, Eugene Hernandez, told me that Sundance is a place that’s “always looking ahead.” My favorite films at the festival were a couple of time capsules that preserved distinct eras of culture, a return to form from a legendary ‘90s auteur, and a star studded comedy from an established filmmaker. So, I guess, my experience in Park City more so looked backwards rather than forwards? But I think one movie from first time feature film director, Rafael Manuel, contradicts my previous statement. Over the course of my four days in Park City I saw nine films. Here are a handful that stood out to me.

The Best Summer
Directed by Tamra Davis

The Best Summer is an absolute gem, literally. At the height of the LA fires just over a year ago, director Tamra Davis discovered a box of lost tapes in her Pacific Palisades home garage while evacuating the area. In 1995, just shortly after marrying Mike D from the Beastie Boys, the band was billed as a headliner with an all-star cast of bands for an Australian tour. Davis joined along on tour and brought her camera and recorded just about everything from the super exciting to the super mundane. She enlisted Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna to facilitate interviews backstage using the same prompt of questions to all the various band members on the lineup.

Adam Yauch is seen wearing the Supreme classic logo tee in 1995, just a year after James Jebbia launched the brand. Wild. Beck is caught saying his New Year’s resolution is to finally buy a pair of shorts for the first time since he was a 10 year old. OK? Dave Grohl points to cigarettes and wine when asked how he is able to perform on stage. Keep in mind this is just a year after the loss of Kurt Cobain; the wound still appeared to be fresh.

This whole doc felt like seeing someone’s family home videos except their family members are the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Foo Fighters, Pavement, etc. Davis makes the choice to keep all these shaky cam long cuts instead of editing them down to something clean and polished. This gives the effect of being there in the room with them and on the road, a boon for enhancing the feel of a rare time capsule. Generally speaking, there are so many rare intimate behind-the-scenes moments in this doc.

At a time when we’re so accustomed to seeing this kind of content from our favorite artists all the time with the prevalence of Instagram and TikTok, this doc stands out by allowing us as viewers to jump into a time machine and peek behind the curtain of some of our ‘90s musical heroes. You get to see Ad-Rock flirt with Kathleen Hanna backstage (the two would later marry less than a decade later) and hear about Kim Gordon’s favorite type of food and her favorite color. It’s almost like man on the street style of interviews mixed with the recommendation culture content that we see all over our feeds… but in 1995. Wouldn’t be surprised if you eventually see the official Coachella Instagram page making content just like this…

Filipiñana
Directed by Rafael Manuel

Rafael Manuel and his debut feature film Filipiñana were both brand new discoveries for me. Coming into the festival, I wanted to see some things that were totally not on my radar. When I received an invite to this out of the blue, I said yes swiftly to scratch that itch.

The film felt like a big visual metaphor for class and gender in the Philippines. It takes place at a luxury golf course, which Manuel said is a new kind of development in his country right now. It’s a narrative film that follows a girl named Isabel who becomes infatuated with the president of the country club she works at, Dr. Palanca. As she begins to follow him around the grounds, she uncovers something sinister hiding beneath the surface. According to the director, due to the distancing regulations set during the pandemic, golf’s popularity grew exponentially and in some cases at the expense of human lives. In the film, the golf course acted as a microcosm of the class and gender dynamics at play in the Philippines.

In the Q+A portion after the screening, Manuel said the country is a very fertile place in terms of agriculture, but golf courses are only enjoyed by a select few rich individuals, making it a perfect setting to explore class and power dynamics. There was a rigid dichotomy between the employees of the resort, especially between the caddies and the housekeeping crew.

Filipiñana is a very commanding film. I loved the locked-off shots, without a lot of camera movements. The choices felt very intentional throughout. It’s hard to believe this feature was a first for the director, lead actor, production designer, and costume designer. Their work felt very seasoned and confident. It’s a great addition to the world of slow cinema — and exactly the type of discovery I hoped to unearth at the festival.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Directed by William Greaves and David Greaves

Once Upon a Time in Harlem is an absolutely gorgeous time capsule of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1972, William Greaves gathered pillars of Harlem’s cultural renaissance from the ‘20s and ‘30s for a reunion, of sorts, at Duke Ellington’s flat. William’s son, David, completed the film about a decade after his father’s death and about 60 years after this storied gathering took place.

The film was shot in a way that makes you feel like a bystander of the conversations taking place at the greatest dinner party ever. Luminaries like Ernest Crichlow, Eubie Blake, and Arna Bontemps reminisce about the old days and the impact left by their contemporaries like W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes. This is a dinner party I am so envious of. Imagine a group of intellectuals drinking, smoking, telling stories, playing piano, arguing, agreeing, laughing. Wouldn’t you want to be there?

This was also by far the best dressed film I saw at the festival. Perhaps it’s because it’s real people in their own clothes? Perhaps people in the ‘70s just dressed better than we do today? The room is filled with incredible suits with sharp elongated lapels, patterned shirts with exaggerated collars, wide ties, and loose trousers. Elegant lace dresses and extravagant costume jewelry… We need to bring back this level of opulence. If you were to gather the contemporary versions of these individuals and host a dinner party with them all in one place, would it look this good? I would say it would not.

The Invite
Directed by Olivia Wilde

It’s been reported that Olivia Wilde’s The Invite incited an old fashioned Sundance bidding war among studios after its premiere earlier in the festival. From my understanding, this is something that hasn’t happened much in recent iterations of Sundance. Bidding went on for about 72 hours and resulted in an apparent $15M acquisition from A24. The attention this film drew in discussions online and in Matt Belloni’s The Town podcast made me think this was a must-watch title at the festival. However, Sundance audiences do tend to have a reputation for overhyping films during their festival run, yet once they’re released to the general public that hype does seem to fizzle out from time to time.

The Invite played for some of the biggest laughs that I’ve experienced at the festival. There were moments where the crowd was so uproarious that I couldn’t hear the follow up dialogue. The movie kind of harkens back to fun ‘60s sex comedies and, at times, reminded me of the Mike Nichols classic, Carnal Knowledge. The intro credits were so fun and clearly felt like an homage to the original Thomas Crowne Affair credit sequence. But the film takes the sex romps of yesteryear and updates the narrative to fit with the 21st century’s sexual zeitgeist.

The plot follows an uptight couple (Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde) who invite their more mellow neighbors (Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. Rogen and Wilde’s characters argue at every misstep while Cruz and Norton act as pure-play foils. The film takes a wild turn when Cruz and Norton’s characters begin to open up about their non-monogamous relationship and their exploration of group sex, sparking interest from Rogen and Wilde’s characters.

The Invite is funny until it’s not. Most of the laughs in the film come from the tension between Rogen and Wilde’s characters who seemed to stop communicating (and having sex) with each other some time ago. It’s like they’re living two separate realities and at first this plays for laughs. But as we near the end of the movie, the two realize that their chapter as a married couple is likely to end in divorce, making for quite the sobering final scene — scored to a melancholic piano score provided by Dev Hynes.

Other highlights: The Blood Orange frontman’s original music for the film heightened and dramatized the story, but also brought a touch of camp that kept things breezy. It’s a fun movie to watch with an engaged crowd. I can see why studios felt the need to fight for this one. It’s perhaps the most mainstream and audience-driven movie I saw at my time at Sundance this year. I’m sure A24 smells another romantic comedy box office success story like they had with Materialists last summer. I’d wager they’re on point.

I Want Your Sex
Directed by Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki’s long awaited return to the silver screen is here! I Want Your Sex is the cult favorite auteur’s first film in over a decade. It was by far my favorite movie of the festival and not just because I’m a major fan of Araki. It’s simply non-stop fun. It’s pure entertainment. Plus, there’s raunchy jokes every beat throughout its entire runtime.

Gregg Araki movies are always a feast for the eyes when it comes to aesthetics. The man has such great taste. He’s famous for his elaborate, over-the-top production design. The interiors in The Doom Generation and Nowhere feel like something straight out of a ‘90s fashion advert. I Want Your Sex sort of returns to that form but with a slight, Gen Z squiggly mirror twist. I always love the attention to detail in his films’ costuming. Araki is a punk music nerd and his films always have the best graphic tees. This one features Cooper Hoffman wearing a Sonic Youth tee and Chase Sui Wonders in a Spahn’s Movie Ranch tee.

Speaking of Cooper Hoffman, he’s a star in the making. Both he and Olivia Wilde really put on a brave performance in this one. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. Wilde and Hoffman have a dom/sub relationship that ends up blowing up in both their faces and turning their lives upside down. The color palette is so refreshing for a modern film — no dull grays and muted colors. Bright greens, pinks, blues, all around. Experiencing something like Cooper Hoffman in a bra and panties, crawling around the room on all fours as Olivia Wilde adorned in femdom lingerie pulls down his panties to humiliate and spank his bare bottom is just not the kind of entertainment you get to see in a packed theater all the time. The crowd was electric with so many laughs and gasps. It felt like I was at a concert.

I Want Your Sex is a type of independent auteur-driven film that feels indicative of the days of Sundance past. It’s raunchy, controversial, and sure to make people uncomfortable. It’s nice to see a Gregg Araki movie be able to receive financing in this day and age while still having a home here at the festival. It’s exactly the type of film I came here for. However, at the time of this writing, it’s still, sadly, yet to be picked up by any studios or distributors.

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