With the 2023 Sundance Film Festival kicking off tomorrow, in-person in Park City and Salt Lake City, UT, for the first time since 2020, and keeping me busy in my role as Senior Programmer, this is typically the time of the year when w(n)td goes on hiatus for the duration of the Festival.
This year, it also makes for a fitting time to bring this site to a close, more or less. I’ve been posting about all things documentary since the summer of 2010, usually multiple times daily during the work week. While my writing has been less in-depth in recent years, making the site function more like a nonfiction release listing, it’s still been a time commitment. With others providing similar information – I recommend interested readers sign up for DOC NYC’s Weekend Watch newsletter – I feel like it’s time for me to step away from regular posting for the foreseeable future. I may pop in with an occasional post, such as notable Sundance announcements or listings of Sundance alumni releases, but, after 12.5 years and more than 8000 posts, my daily contributions to w(n)td have now wrapped.
Thanks to everyone who has checked out this site over the years, which I’ll continue to maintain as an archive. If you’re headed to Sundance, I hope to see you in person there.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Pavel Talankin
Director: Barbara Kopple
About: When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are forced to take a substantial pay cut, the local union takes a stand for its members. Their strike tests the fragile promise of the American ideal, revealing the cost of survival when the dream no longer feels shared.
About: In 1970s Kentucky, coal miners and their families risk everything to stand up against a powerful mining company in a brutal, high-stakes labor strike.
About: Over eight years, Coss Marte builds ConBody, a gym inspired by workouts he developed while in prison. Committed to employing trainers who were formerly incarcerated, Coss creates a community fighting to break the cycle of recidivism while navigating society’s many obstacles to reentry.
About: André, a brilliant idiot, is dying because he didn’t get a colonoscopy. His sobering diagnosis, complete irreverence, and insatiable curiosity, send him on an unexpected journey learning how to die happily and ridiculously without losing his sense of humor.
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tadashi Nakamura
Director: Tadashi Nakamura
About: Generations of artists call Robert A Nakamura “the godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. Robert’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease leads to an exploration of art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Archival Materials Courtesy of Andri Snær Magnason
Director: Sara Dosa
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Pavel Talankin
Director: David Borenstein
Co-Director: Pavel Talankin
About: As Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, primary schools across Russia’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war. Facing the ethical dilemma of working in a system defined by propaganda and violence, a brave teacher goes undercover to film what’s really happening in his own school.
About: Over eight years, Coss Marte builds ConBody, a gym inspired by workouts he developed while in prison. Committed to employing trainers who were formerly incarcerated, Coss creates a community fighting to break the cycle of recidivism while navigating society’s many obstacles to reentry.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Los Angeles Times
Director: Reid Davenport
About: In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.
About: André, a brilliant idiot, is dying because he didn’t get a colonoscopy. His sobering diagnosis, complete irreverence, and insatiable curiosity, send him on an unexpected journey learning how to die happily and ridiculously without losing his sense of humor.
About: Against the backdrop of sunbaked parking lots, deserted courthouses, and empty suburban homes — the familiar spaces of true crime, stripped of all action and spectacle — a filmmaker describes his abandoned Zodiac Killer documentary and probes the inner workings of a genre at saturation point.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Focus Features
Director: Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell
About: 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Yves Forestier/Sygma via Getty Images
Director: Rory Kennedy
About: A Hungarian girl dreams of conquering international men’s chess. After a 15-year battle against world champion Garry Kasparov, 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Amy Bench
Director: Kim A Snyder
About: As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.
The winners of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival were announced today, Friday, January 30. A list of the feature awards follows:
US Documentary Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: NUISANCE BEAR | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Gabriela Osio VandenAudience Award: AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ | Courtesy of Sundance Institute and The Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, NorthridgeDirecting Award: SOUL PATROL | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteJonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: BARBARA FOREVER | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by The Estate of Barbara HammerSpecial Jury Award: Impact for Change: THE LAKE | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Prize: Journalistic Excellence: WHO KILLED ALEX ODEH? | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
World Cinema Documentary Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Eva KraljeviċAudience Award: ONE IN A MILLION | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jack MacInnesDirecting Award: ONE IN A MILLION | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jack MacInnesSpecial Jury Award: Civil Resistance: EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Journalistic Impact: BIRDS OF WAR | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Habak Films
US Dramatic Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: JOSEPHINE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greta ZozulaAudience Award: JOSEPHINE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greta ZozulaDirecting Award: HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Daniel SatinoffWaldo Salt Screenwriting Award: TAKE ME HOME | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Farhad Ahmed DehlviSpecial Jury Award: Debut Feature: BEDFORD PARK | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeong ParkSpecial Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: THE FRIEND’S HOUSE IS HERE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
World Cinema Dramatic Competition Awards:
Grand Jury Prize: SHAME AND MONEY | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Janis MazuchAudience Award: HOLD ONTO ME (ΚΡΑΤΑ ΜΕ) | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lasse Ulvedal TolbøllDirecting Award: HOW TO DIVORCE DURING THE WAR | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Creative Vision: FILIPIÑANA | Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSpecial Jury Award: Acting Ensemble: LADY | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
NEXT Awards:
NEXT Innovator Award: THE INCOMER | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Anthony DickensonAudience Award: AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD] | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Shaandiin TomeSpecial Jury Award: Creative Expression: THEYDREAM | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by William D Caballero
Festival Favorite:
Festival Favorite: AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ | Courtesy of Sundance Institute and The Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at California State University, Northridge
AMERICAN DREAM (1990) When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are forced to take a substantial pay cut, the local union takes a stand for its members. Their strike tests the fragile promise of the American ideal, revealing the cost of survival when the dream no longer feels shared.
Director: Barbara Kopple
Producers: Arthur Cohn, Barbara Kopple
Festival Section: Park City Legacy
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mani Kaul
THE STORY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM 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.
Director: Mark Cousins
Producer: John Archer
Country of Origin: UK
Festival Section: Special Screening
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
COOKIE QUEENS 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.
Director: Alysa Nahmias
Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw, Alysa Nahmias, Jennifer Sims
Festival Section: Family Matinee
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
THE OLIGARCH AND THE ART DEALER 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.
Director: Andreas Dalsgaard
Executive Producers: Libby Geist, Connor Shell, Brandon Harrison, Justin Lacob, Charles De Lardemelle, Rain Rannu, Ines Bensalem
Producers: Christoph Jörg, Miriam Norgaard
Country of Origin: Denmark/France/USA
Festival Section: Episodic
More Info: Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
what (not) to doc 