Sundance: A Weary Prologue

One anticipates the 2026 Sundance Film Festival will be…Sundance. The Park City Institute, of course, continues its noble, if exhaustingly curated, mission. Ninety feature films, representing 28 countries – a statistic less meaningful than the number of SUVs circling Main Street. I scanned the initial program; “Cookie Queens” at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center sounds…serviceable. One hopes the Girl Scouts have a security detail. The Sundance Institute’s support for projects like “The Lake,” initially “The Terminal,” is admirable, though environmental thrillers are terribly de rigueur this season. Heidi Zwicker clearly has a fondness for wholesome narratives; one pictures her meticulously arranging canapés. To think, the culmination will be at The Marquis, a venue that will undoubtedly struggle to contain the requisite number of cashmere sweaters. The sheer volume of submissions – 16,201! – suggests a great deal of unexamined ambition. It’s exhausting, truly. Still, one must attend, if only to observe the delicate ecosystem of aspiration and disappointment. The promise of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize going to Andrew Stanton's 'In The Blink of An Eye' will attract a specific, slightly nerdy cohort. The entire affair feels…predictable. And yet, one goes.