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
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Merri Cyr
Director: Amy Berg
About: Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
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 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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Merri Cyr
Director: Amy Berg
About: Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
About: Exploring the complex bond between two half brothers — one Indigenous, one white — traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.
About: TO CATCH A PREDATOR was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. An exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show and the world it helped create.
About: Exploring the complex bond between two half brothers — one Indigenous, one white — traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.
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.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Brandon Somerhalder
Director: Ryan White
About: Two poets, one incurable cancer diagnosis. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life, and mortality.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ben Ross Photography
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Co-Director: Sam Rice-Edwards
About: An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s.
About: Selena Quintanilla — the “Queen of Tejano Music” — and her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, rose from performing at quinceañeras to selling out stadium tours. The celebration of her life and legacy is chronicled through never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archive.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mohammad Reza Eyni
Directors: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni
About: As the first elected councilwoman of her Iranian village, Sara Shahverdi aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles and stopping child marriages. When accusations arise questioning Sara’s intentions to empower the girls, her identity is put in turmoil.
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.
About: A two-year investigation uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognized photographs of the 20th century. Five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mstyslav Chernov
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
About: Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
About: Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s made a student film that uncovered a vast conspiracy involving toxic waste that was poisoning their community. Thirty years later, they revisit their film and confront the legacy of this transformative experience.
About: A two-year investigation uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognized photographs of the 20th century. Five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”
About: Preeminent West African curator and scholar Funmilayo Akechukwu’s magnum opus, The Resonance Field, leads her to the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, drawing a journalist into a journey that shatters her understanding of consciousness and time. (Hybrid)
About: An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy.
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.
About: A seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. Police bodycam footage and investigative interviews expose the consequences of Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
About: In a country where eligible men greatly outnumber women, three perpetual bachelors join an intensive seven-day dating camp led by one of China’s most sought-after dating coaches in what may be their last-ditch effort to find love.
About: In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
About: A seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. Police bodycam footage and investigative interviews expose the consequences of Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
About: In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
About: Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi creates a personal and political one-woman show about the struggle for equality in Israel/Palestine. When the elusive coexistence she’s spent her life working toward starts sounding like a bad joke, she challenges her audiences with hard truths that are no laughing matter.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Martin DiCicco
Directors: Stephen Maing, Brett Story
About: The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
About: An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy.
About: TO CATCH A PREDATOR was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. An exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show and the world it helped create.
About: Five top-ranked high school oratory students spend a year crafting spellbinding spoken word performances with the dream of winning one of the world’s largest and most intense public speaking competitions.
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 Slava Leontyev and Andrey Stefanov
Director: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
About: Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures
Directors: Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz
About: A view inside the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, capturing her through five tumultuous years in power and beyond as she redefined leadership on the world stage.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Warner Bros / Alamy
Director: Ondi Timoner
About: DIG! XX tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Arun Bhattarai
Director: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
About: Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Merri Cyr
Director: Amy Berg
About: Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
About: In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
About: Born in response to the Kent State massacre, new wave band Devo took their concept of “de-evolution” from cult following to near–rock star status with groundbreaking 1980 hit “Whip It” while preaching an urgent social commentary.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Maria Gros Vatne
Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
About: In a forest in Norway, a family lives an isolated lifestyle in an attempt to be wild and free, but a tragic event changes everything, and they are forced to adjust to modern society.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Matthew Rolston
Director: Dawn Porter
About: Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and more. His undeniable talent earned platinum records and accolades, but he struggled to break out beyond the R&B charts. Intensely driven, he overcame personal and professional challenges to secure his place amongst the greatest vocalists in history.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Darwin Torres
Director: Juan Mejía Botero
About: In one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, Francia Márquez, a Black Colombian rural activist, challenges the status quo with a presidential campaign that reappropriates the derogatory term “Igualada” — someone who acts as if they deserve rights that supposedly don’t correspond to them — and inspires a nation to dream.
About: Amid the glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles, a woman finds herself on a transformative journey as she nurtures wounded hummingbirds, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, fragility, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
About: An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy.
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: Amid the surge in anti-trans legislation that Chase Strangio battles in the courtroom, he must also fight against media bias, exposing how the narratives in the press influence public perception and the fight for transgender rights.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
About: On the precipice of adulthood, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway. Dropped at the edge of the world, they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mstyslav Chernov
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
About: Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Warner Bros / Alamy
Director: Ondi Timoner
About: DIG! XX tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures
Directors: Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz
About: A view inside the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, capturing her through five tumultuous years in power and beyond as she redefined leadership on the world stage.
>June 16 / June 17 On TV: NatGeo / Streaming: Hulu/Disney+
About: Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.
About: In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | Photo by Martin DiCicco
Directors: Stephen Maing, Brett Story
About: The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lys Arango
Director: Zackary Drucker
About: Two legends contested their identities as women in the court of public opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgender history; and Amanda Lear, who has consciously denied and obfuscated her history for decades. Their divergent paths reveal disparate but intertwined legacies.
what (not) to doc 