Moon Choi and Son Sukku appear in “Bedford Park” by Stephanie Ahn, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeong Park)
The most exciting part of the Sundance Film Festival — and one that remains thrilling year after year — is being able to explore a wealth of diverse new stories from artists around the world. Each filmmaker has a unique style and voice informed by their lived experiences, and every project has the potential to expand an audience member’s worldview — and maybe introduce them to their new favorite film.
Among the artists screening their work at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival are 23 directors who identify as Asian or part of the AAPI community. Their films can be found across eight Festival feature categories — including every competition category — and five different short film programs.
Documentary lovers can discover such gripping films as Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s Hanging by a Wire, which recounts how eight passengers became stranded in a cable car dangling above the Himalayan foothills, or Poh Si Teng’s American Doctor, which follows three doctors who travel to Gaza to offer their medical expertise. Fans of fiction have multiple genres to explore, from generational horror in Vera Miao’s Rock Springs to comedic animation in Grace An’s short film Cabbage Daddy.
Check out the list below for these and other projects by Asian and AAPI filmmakers.
FEATURES
Director: Poh Si Teng
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Stephanie Ahn
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Haunted by an abusive childhood, Audrey, a Korean American woman in her 30s, faces her emotional past. When her mother’s car accident brings her back to her parents’ home, she meets the man responsible for the accident. Their relationship builds, passions ignite, and they form a loving connection.
Director: Makoto Nagahisa
Section: NEXT
Available to watch in person and online
When runaway teen Ju-Ju is embraced by a tribe of misfit youths in Kabukicho, she finds belonging for the first time — until betrayal and despair twist her haven into a prison, and she’s left with one way to take back control.
Director: Joanna Natasegara
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
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.
Director: Rafael Manuel
Section: World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Tee girl Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.
Director: Cathy Yan
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
A desperate gallerist conspires to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami.
Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Haru and Luis love competing in Tokyo’s ballroom dance scene, but after tragedy strikes, Haru withdraws into isolation. When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with the new instructor. She must face what comes next as sparks fly.
Director: Mohammed Ali Naqvi
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Gregg Araki
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
When fresh-faced Elliot lands a job with artist and provocateur Erika Tracy, his fantasies come true as she taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal, and murder.
Director: Beth de Araújo
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety while adults are helpless to console her.
Director: Wregas Bhanuteja
Section: World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
In a town where pleasure equals being possessed by spiritual beings, Bayu aspires to be the shaman of a trance party so he can fundraise enough money to prevent an impending eviction.
Director: Gregg Araki
Section: Park City Legacy
Available to watch in person
Two preadolescent boys both experienced a strange event and later it affects their lives in different ways. One becomes a reckless, adventurous sex worker, while the other retreats into a reclusive fantasy of alien abduction.
Director: Vera Miao
Section: Midnight
Available to watch in person and online
After the death of her father, a grieving young girl moves to an isolated house in a new town with her mother and grandmother, only to discover there is something monstrous hidden in the town’s history and the woods behind their new home.
Director: Natalie Erika James
Section: Midnight
Available to watch in person
Hana, a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Director: James Wan
Section: Park City Legacy
Available to watch in person
Two men awaken to find themselves on the opposite sides of a dead body, each with specific instructions to kill the other, escape or face the consequences. These two are the latest contestants in Jigsaw’s games.
Director: Liz Sargent
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability, cares for her aging parents in a fragile balance of meeting one another’s needs. When a Florida heat wave shatters their family and Anna’s routine, her future is uncertain until she creates a world where she can thrive.
Director: Ian Tuason
Section: Midnight
Available to watch in person
The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
Director: Kogonada
Section: NEXT
Available to watch in person and online
In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night — and possibly her life.
SHORT FILMS
Director: Grace An
Section: Animated Short Film Program
Available to watch in person and online
When the mind of a bilingual child mirrors absurd translations, their poetic misinterpretations can accidentally produce multiple meanings — and create puns.
Director: Jen Nee Lim
Section: Short Film Program 2
Available to watch in person
In a time and place where abortion is illegal, a pregnant woman’s repeated attempts to end her pregnancy fail until she crosses paths with a strange bus driver.
Director: Raman Nimmala
Section: Short Film Program 3
Available to watch in person and online
During the Sankranti festival celebrations, a matriarch and her housekeeper confront solitude through the intimacy of each other’s company.
Director: Anooya Swamy
Section: Short Film Program 1
Available to watch in person and online
Pankaja, along with her daughter, Lalli, searches for her missing husband through the city slums of Bangalore to bring him back home.
Director: Jill Marie Sachs
Section: Midnight Short Film Program
Available to watch in person and online
Vivi, a third-culture Filipina American, travels to the Philippines to reconnect with her roots but falls in with a group of Western eco-volunteers. When they scorn the customs of a remote mountain village, an ancient evil comes knocking.
