Twenty documentaries will screen in the official competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Sundance announced the feature film line-up for next year’s edition, which will be the festival’s final bow in Park City, Utah before moving to Boulder, Colorado.
Among the films screening in the U.S. Documentary Competition is the Canadian-American co-production Nuisance Bear, directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman and produced by Michael Code, Will N. Miller, and Teddy Leifer. Nuisance Bear expands upon the filmmakers’ short documentary of the same name about the goings-in in Churchill, Manitoba when climate change forces a hungry polar bear to wander into town to the delight of gawking tourists. The film made the Oscar shortlist, scored three Emmy nominations and a Canadian Screen Award nomination, and won best short doc at the CinemaEye Honors, among other laurels.
Other docs in the U.S. competition include Barbara Forever about singular experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. The doc is directed by Brydie O’Connor, who produced it with Elijah Stevens. Meanwhile, American Doctor observes three frontline workers from different backgrounds saving lives in Gaza. Poh Si Teng directs and serves as producer with Kirstine Barfod and Reem Haddad. And in Soul Patrol, members from the American Black Ops team during the Vietnam War reunite to reflect upon their missions in this doc by J.M. Harper, Sam Bisbee, Danielle Massie, Nasir Jones, and Peter Bittenbender.
In the World Cinema Documentary Competition, titles among the ten contenders include All About the Money from Irish director Sinéad O’Shea (Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story) and producers Claire McCabe, Harry Vaughn, Katie Holly, and Sigrid Dyekjær. The film tells the story of the son of a wealthy family who starts up a communist revolutionary base with hopes to blow up the capitalist system that fuels the nation. In One in a Million, directors Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes and producers Raney Aronson-Rath, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, and Andrew Palmer chronicle one Syrian girl’s ten-year journey to survival the war, find refuge in Germany, and eventually return home. And in To Hold a Mountain, Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent, and Rok Biček capture the story of two women who live high in the mountains of Montenegro and fight to protect their shepherding grounds from becoming a NATO base.
On the Premieres side of Sundance, the line-up includes several major names with Oscar winners, nominees, and victors from previous fests. Oscar winner Daniel Roher (Navalny) and Charlie Tyrell (My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes) team up for The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. The film sees Roher confront the existential questions posed by artificial intelligence as he prepares to become a father. Roher’s 2022 doc Navalny got its start at Sundance where it won the overall Festival Favourite Award before going on to scoop the Oscar. Meanwhile, the story of rocker and actress Courtney Love fuels Antiheroine from director Edward Lovelace (Name Me Lawand) and James Hall. The doc headlines a programme with many profiles and celebrity-driven docs, generally keeping in fashion with the demands of streamers in a shifting doc landscape.
Other big names getting the documentary treatment include tennis superstar Billie Jean King in Give Me the Ball! directed by Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff, who also produced the film with Dominic Crossley-Holland, Dan Cogan, Chris James, and Gentry Kirby. Meanwhile in Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, director Alex Gibney examines the terrifying incident in which the Satanic Verses author was stabbed in the eye. Erin Edeiken and Sruthi Pinnamaneni serve as producers. And in Time and Water, Fire of Love director Sara Dosa returns to Sundance with another environmental epic. The film sees Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason preserve the past as the country’s glaciers melt and his family members pass away. Dosa directs, and serves as producer alongside Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, and Jameka Autry.
Finally, perhaps the biggest title in the documentary bounty is a posthumous premiere from director William Greaves. A decade after Greaves’ death, Sundance will screen his final work Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which includes footage he shot during a 1972 event with Harlem revolutionaries.
The documentary side of Sundance has proved itself among the most competitive stream of the festival with many of the titles that get their starts in Park City setting the conversation for festivals that follow and topping the lists of winners and nominees throughout award season. This year, Oscar frontrunners The Perfect Neighbor, Come See Me in the Good Light, The Alabama Solution, 2000 Meters to Andriivka all got their starts at Sundance earlier this year, while four of last year’s Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature premiered at the festival.
Sundance runs in person January 22 to February 1 with online screenings happening January 29 to February 1.
The full list of documentaries announced today for Sundance is as follows.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
American Doctor / U.S.A., State of Palestine, Malaysia, Qatar (Director and Producer: Poh Si Teng, Producers: Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad) –– When three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth. World Premiere. Available online for public.
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: David Alvarado, Producers: Lauren DeFilippo, Everett Katigbak, Amanda Pollak) –– Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Barbara Forever / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Brydie O’Connor, Producer: Elijah Stevens) –– An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Joybubbles / U.S.A. (Director: Rachael J. Morrison, Producer: Sarah Winshall) –– 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. World Premiere. Available online for public.
The Lake / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Abby Ellis, Producer: Fletcher Keyes) –– An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Nuisance Bear / U.S.A., Canada (Directors: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Producers: Michael Code, Will N. Miller, Teddy Leifer) –– 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. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Public Access / U.S.A. (Director: David Shadrack Smith, Producers: Sara Crow, Anne-Marcelle Ngabirano) –– An unprecedented look inside one of the greatest media experiments to hijack American screens. Rare archives from New York’s underground capture a world of creators who shattered rules, defied censors, and transformed our televisions into a free-speech battleground where anyone could be a star. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Seized / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Sharon Liese, Producers: Sasha Alpert, Paul Matyasovsky) –– When the small town of Marion, Kansas, is thrust into the international spotlight after a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner, a fierce debate ignites about the abuse of power, journalistic ethics, local journalism, and the United States Constitution. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Soul Patrol / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: J.M. Harper, Producers: Sam Bisbee, Danielle Massie, Nasir Jones, Peter Bittenbender) –– From deep behind enemy lines, a hidden chapter of American military history is uncovered, prompting the question of whether reckoning with the past can bring peace to those who lived it. The Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team reunites to tell their story. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Who Killed Alex Odeh? / U.S.A. (Directors: Jason Osder, William Lafi Youmans, Producer: Dawne Langford, William Lafi Youmans, Jason Osder, Daniel J. Chalfen) –– The assassination of a beloved Palestinian American activist in Southern California ignites a 40-year quest for justice, revealing the roots of a dangerous political movement that thrives today. World Premiere. Available online for public.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
All About the Money / Ireland (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Sinéad O’Shea, Producers: Claire McCabe, Harry Vaughn, Katie Holly, Sigrid Dyekjær) –– A son of one of America’s wealthiest families creates a communist revolutionary base in rural Massachusetts as a means of disrupting the capitalist system he grew up in but has now come to despise. It’s the starting point of an astonishing journey. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Birds of War / U.K., Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon (Directors, Screenwriters, and Producers: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak, Producer: Sonja Henrici) –– The love story of a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist and cameraman as told through 13 years of personal archives across revolutions, war, and exile. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Closure / Poland (Director and Producer: Michał Marczak, Producers: Monika Braid, Rémi Grellety, Katarzyna Szczerba, Karolina Marczak) –– After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of the Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Everybody To Kenmure Street / U.K. (Director and Producer: Felipe Bustos Sierra, Producer: Ciara Barry) –– In May 2021, a U.K. Home Office dawn raid triggers one of the most spontaneous and successful acts of civil resistance in recent memory. In Scotland’s most diverse neighborhood, hundreds of residents rush to the streets to stop the deportation of their neighbors. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Hanging by a Wire / U.S.A., U.K., Pakistan (Director and Producer: Mohammed Ali Naqvi, Producer: Bilal Sami) –– A routine school commute turns terrifying when a cable car’s wire snaps, leaving eight passengers — including six schoolboys — dangling 900 feet above a ravine in the remote Himalayan foothills. With 10 hours before the remaining cable is expected to fail, a group of rescuers races to save them. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Kikuyu Land / Kenya (Directors and Producers: Andrew H. Brown, Bea Wangondu, Producers: Moses Bwayo, Mike Morrisroe, Joseph Njenga) –– As a Nairobi journalist probes a land battle entangling the local government and a powerful multinational corporation, covered wounds are revealed and family secrets are exposed. World Premiere. Available online for public.
One In A Million / U.K. (Directors: Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Producers: Raney Aronson-Rath, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer) –– Filmed over 10 years, one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. She and her family navigate war, exile, and heartbreak in a foreign land, illuminating the complexities of the refugee experience. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Sentient / Australia (Director and Screenwriter: Tony Jones, Screenwriter: Rachel Grierson-Johns, Producer: Ivan O’Mahoney) ––An investigation into laboratory research on animals exposes a hidden world in which it’s not just the animals getting hurt. The story of Dr. Lisa Jones Engel, a primatologist turned animal welfare advocate, asks whether harming animals and ourselves in science’s name is justified. World Premiere. Available online for public.
Silenced / Australia (Director: Selina Miles, Producer: Blayke Hoffman) –– After #MeToo broke the cultural silence on gender violence, international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson fights against the weaponization of defamation laws to silence survivors. World Premiere. Available online for public.
To Hold a Mountain / Serbia, France, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia (Directors, Screenwriters, and Producers: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Producers: Quentin Laurent, Rok Biček) –– In the remote highlands of Montenegro, a shepherd mother and daughter proudly defend their ancestral mountain from the threat of becoming a NATO military training ground, stirring memories of the violence that shattered their family. World Premiere. Available online for public.
NEXT
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] / U.S.A., Denmark (Directors and Producers: Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Producers: Steve Holmgren, Grace Remington, Jacque Clark, Franny Alfano) — Trapped in museum archives, Ancestors bend time and space to find their way home. History, spirituality, and the law collide as tribal repatriation specialists fight to return and rebury Indigenous human remains, offering a revealing look at the still-pervasive worldviews that justified collecting them in the first place. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
Ghost in the Machine / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Valerie Veatch) — The untold origins of artificial intelligence lie not in machines but in power, revealing the fantasies behind the hype that got us here and where we go next. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
Jaripeo / Mexico, U.S.A., France (Directors: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig, Producer: Sarah Strunin) — A journey to Michoacán’s hypermasculine rodeos descends into the subconscious of memory, queer desire, and longing, leading to a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
TheyDream / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: William David Caballero, Screenwriters and Producers: Erin Ploss-Campoamor, Elaine del Valle, Producer: Brad Jones) — After 20 years of chronicling his Puerto Rican family, a director and his mother face devastating losses. Through tears and laughter, they craft animations that bring their loved ones back to life, discovering that every act of creation is also an act of letting go. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
PREMIERES
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist / U.S.A. (Directors: Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell, Producers: Daniel Kwan, Jonathan Wang, Shane Boris, Diane Becker, Ted Tremper) — 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. World Premiere. Documentary.
Antiheroine / U.K., U.S.A. (Directors: Edward Lovelace, James Hall, Producers: Julia Nottingham, Melanie Archer, Hattie Bridges Webb, Jon Lullo) — Singer, songwriter, and actor Courtney Love has long had an impact on rock and pop culture. Now sober and set to release new music for the first time in over a decade, Courtney is ready to reveal her story, unfiltered and unapologetic. World Premiere. Documentary.
The Brittney Griner Story / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Alexandria Stapleton, Producers: Stacy Scripter, Funmi Akinyode, Megan Goedewaagen, Carolyn Hepburn) — Explores the circumstances that led to Brittney Griner playing basketball outside the U.S. despite being one of the best players in the sport, including her harrowing detainment, unwavering determination to secure her freedom, and her advocacy for the release of other wrongful detainees. World Premiere. Documentary.
THE DISCIPLE / U.S.A, U.K. (Director and Producer: Joanna Natasegara, Producers: Abigail Anketell-Jones, Lauren Dark, Vanessa Kirby) — An outsider fueled by relentless determination works his way into the inner circle of the Wu-Tang Clan, where his ambition and creativity converge in the making of an album poised to ignite global controversy. World Premiere. Documentary.
Give Me the Ball! / U.S.A. (Directors and Producers: Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff, Producers: Dominic Crossley-Holland, Dan Cogan, Chris James, Gentry Kirby) — World champion tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King has had a game-changing impact on culture and sports. Rare archive and candid interviews with Billie Jean and those closest to her reveal how one woman put changing the world ahead of saving herself. World Premiere. Documentary.
The History of Concrete / U.S.A. (Director: John Wilson, Producers: Clark Filio, Shirel Kozak, Allie Viti) — After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete. World Premiere. Documentary.
Jane Elliott Against the World / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Judd Ehrlich, Producers: Max Powers, Elena Gaby) — A rural Iowa schoolteacher becomes a national voice against racism after leading a controversial 1968 lesson in discrimination with her all-white third-grade class. Now nearly 90, she refuses to hold back amid today’s fights about race, history, and power after a lifetime of speaking out. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Alex Gibney, Producers: Erin Edeiken, Sruthi Pinnamaneni) — Previously unseen footage captured by Salman Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Elizabeth Griffiths, documents his journey. Following not just his physical rehabilitation, but also the restoration of his spirit and optimism. Inspired by Rushdie’s memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. World Premiere. Documentary.
The Last First: Winter K2 / U.S.A., U.K. (Director: Amir Bar-Lev, Producers: John Battsek, Sean Richard, Sarah Thomson, Howard T. Owens, Ben Silverman) — The race to grab the last great prize in mountaineering, K2 in winter, left five dead. It exposed deep fault lines in alpinism today: pressures from commercialization, toxic effects of social media, and long-brewing tensions between those who’ve been marginalized and those who’ve always basked in the sport’s glory. World Premiere. Documentary.
The Oldest Person in the World / U.S.A. (Director: Sam Green, Producers: Alison Byrne Fields, Josh Penn) — A decade-long global journey chronicles the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate, and the joy and profound human experience of being alive. World Premiere. Documentary.
Once Upon A Time In Harlem / U.S.A. (Directors: William Greaves, David Greaves, Producers: Liani Greaves, Anne de Mare) — A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. World Premiere. Documentary.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story / U.S.A. (Directors and Producers: Judd Apatow, Neil Berkeley, Producers: Amanda Rohlke, David Heiman) — Blurring the line between performance and personal crisis, comedian Maria Bamford turns her mental health journey into material that’s riotously funny and ultimately inspiring. What emerges is a portrait of an artist transforming vulnerability into creative strength through honesty. World Premiere. Documentary.
Queen of Chess / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Rory Kennedy, Screenwriters and Producers: Mark Bailey, Keven McAlester) — A Hungarian girl dreams of conquering international men’s chess. After a 15-year battle against world champion Garry Kasparov and her domineering father, Judit Polgár revolutionizes the sport’s patriarchal culture to become one of the greatest chess prodigies in history and the greatest woman chess player of all time. World Premiere. Documentary.
Time and Water / U.S.A., Iceland (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Sara Dosa, Screenwriters: Jocelyne Chaput, Erin Casper, Andri Snær Magnason, Producers: Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, Jameka Autry) — Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
Troublemaker / South Africa, U.S.A., U.K. (Director and Producer: Antoine Fuqua, Screenwriter: Michael Toomey Mann, Producers: Mac Maharaj, Arthur Landon, Kevin Mann, Mark Bauch, Thabang Lehobye) — The struggle against apartheid is recounted through Nelson Mandela’s own voice, drawn from recordings he made while writing his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. World Premiere. Documentary.
When a Witness Recants / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Dawn Porter, Producers: Miriam Weintraub, Jennifer Oko) — In 1983, author Ta-Nehisi Coates learned that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in his Baltimore middle school. Upon revisiting the case, he uncovers the truth: Three innocent teenagers were wrongfully convicted and spent 36 years in prison — creating a lasting impact on the accused, the witnesses, and their community. World Premiere. Documentary.
MIDNIGHT
The Best Summer / U.S.A, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand (Director and Producer: Tamra Davis, Producer: Shelby Meade) — Immersive POV camera footage reveals electric performances, candid interviews, and intimate backstage life with the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps, and Bikini Kill — an all-access view inside an era-defining moment in music. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for public.
EPISODIC – Nonfiction Pilot Showcase:
Murder 101 / U.S.A. (Director: Stacey Lee, Executive Producers: Stephanie Lydecker, Dianne McGunigle, Jon Watts) — A case that haunted Tennessee’s best detectives for decades is cracked wide open by the most unlikely of investigators: a high school sociology class. World Premiere. Documentary.
The Oligarch and the Art Dealer / Denmark, France, U.S.A. (Director: Andreas Dalsgaard, Producers: Christoph Jörg, Miriam Norgaard) — Yves Bouvier brokers masterpieces, from da Vinci to Rothko, into the private collection of Dmitry Rybolovlev until Bouvier is accused of a billion-dollar betrayal. Rising ambitions, frayed relationships, and bruised egos fuel a decade-long all-out war between the Swiss art dealer and the elusive Russian oligarch. World Premiere. Documentary.
SPOTLIGHT
Broken English / U.K. (Directors and Screenwriters: Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth, Screenwriter: Ian Martin, Producer: Beth Earl) — A portrait of the inimitable singer, songwriter, and icon Marianne Faithfull. U.S. Premiere. Documentary.
FAMILY MATINEE
Cookie Queens / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Alysa Nahmias, Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw, Jennifer Sims) — It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen,” navigating an $800 million business in which childhood and ambition collide. World Premiere. Documentary. Salt Lake City Celebration Film.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
The Story of Documentary Film / U.K. (Director: Mark Cousins, Producer: John Archer) –– Tracing the evolution of documentary film across time, examining landmark works and hidden treasures, while revealing how the form has helped us see and make sense of our world. World Premiere. Documentary.
