A still from Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] by Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Shaandiin Tome)
Longtime Sundance Film Festival attendees know that watching creative voices emerge and flourish on the big screen is part of the magic of coming to the Festival year in and year out. Sometimes this means seeing a filmmaker level up from project to project; other times, it means seeing an idea or premise that was first explored in a short film expanded into a full-fledged feature.
There are examples of this trajectory all over the 2026 Festival’s lineup, spanning multiple sections, genres, and formats. Single Film Tickets to some of these short-becomes-feature projects are still available, and many can be watched online. They’re also good motivation for checking in with all eight of this year’s short film programs. Who knows which one of today’s brief-but-mighty visions could be tomorrow’s must-see competition film or entry in Premieres, Midnight, or NEXT?
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
Directors: Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil
Section: NEXT
Based on: Ancestors in the Archives (2019 Sundance Film Festival)
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Brydie O’Connor
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Based on: Love, Barbara (2022)
Available to watch in person and online
An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.
Director: Rafael Manuel
Section: World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Based on: Filipiñana (2020)
Available to watch in person and online
An archive-driven exploration of the life, work, and legacy of iconic, pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer.Teen 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: Ryan Fleck
Section: Park City Legacy
Based on: Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004 Sundance Film Festival)
Available to watch in person
A New York City middle school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Section: Park City Legacy
Based on: House Party (1983)
Available to watch in person
Kid decides to go to his friend Play’s house party, but neither of them can predict what’s in store for them on what could be the wildest night of their lives.
Director: Walter Thompson-Hernández
Section: NEXT
Based on: IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME (2022 Sundance Film Festival)
Available to watch in person and online
Twelve-year-old Lil Ant struggles to connect with his father when he begins to see surreal, almost spectral visions of boys drifting around his neighborhood. Their presence reveals a link between father and son, laying bare the threads that bind family, legacy, and place.
Director: THUNDERLIPS
Section: Midnight
Based on: Help, I’m Alien Pregnant (2024)
Available to watch in person
When a messy millennial underachiever accidentally gets alien-pregnant, she must overcome skeptical doctors, a useless baby daddy, and her oversharing mum in order to survive and reclaim her life.
Directors: Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Based on: Nuisance Bear (2021)
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: NB Mager
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Based on: Run Amok (2023)
Available to watch in person and online
A teenage girl stages an elaborate musical about the one day her high school wishes it could forget.
Director: Liz Sargent
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Based on: Take Me Home (2023 Sundance Film Festival)
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: Adam Meeks
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Based on: Union County (2020)
Available to watch in person and online
Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.
