By Jessica Herndon

Set against the backdrop of a sexually charged Los Angeles gallery scene, I Want Your Sex, debuting at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the Premieres section, pulses with the kind of provocative energy that has made Gregg Araki an indie film icon for over three decades. In his 11th premiere at the Festival, the filmmaker delivers an erotic thriller that invites viewers into the seductive world of contemporary art and desire. Cooper Hoffman stars as Elliot, a wide-eyed newcomer who secures a position working for the enigmatic artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde). 

To Elliot’s surprise, Erika recruits him as her sexual muse, drawing him deeper into a labyrinth of power games and obsession. Hoffman’s boy-next-door charm makes Elliot’s journey feel achingly human, while Wilde commands the screen with a performance that is deliciously magnetic and sexy.

“We have this amazing, fearless, incredible cast of fucking superstars,” Araki says while introducing the film before its premiere at Eccles Theatre. “We were doing like, hardcore sex scenes on day one and day two, and people just had to jump right in. So, I bow down to you. Thank you so much for going on this journey with me.” 

For Wilde, collaborating with Araki was an incredibly inspiring and refreshing experience. “I wish more people made movies like you. You just said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s get cool people together to tell a story,’” she says from the stage following the film’s debut. “And it doesn’t have to be a whole thing. It doesn’t have to feel like it’s a corporate project. It just comes from the heart, and I want to be a part of something like that — and then I was just really excited to work with Cooper.”

Landing the role of Elliot came as a surprise for Hoffman. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get cast,” he admits. “I just threw my hat in the ring and kept getting closer and closer. And then they said I got the job. And I was like, ‘Oh shit. I gotta go do this.’” All joking aside, he adds, “I’m very happy I did. I’m very happy I threw my hat in the ring.”

Co-written with Karley Sciortino, the sharp voice behind Vogue.com’s Breathless column and Viceland’s Slutever, the film transcends mere provocation. “I loved the script,” Wilde says. “I thought what Greg and Karley made together was just so smart and fun and playful.” She also loved that the relationship between her character and Hoffman’s had a lot of depth. “We talked about how the Elliot-Erika relationship had to be so much more than just, you know, dom-sub. There had to be something that made you actually weirdly, in a teeny tiny way, root for them, and to feel that they had actual chemistry and kind of love each other. And the second I met Cooper, I was like, ‘Oh, I love you.’” 

I Want Your Sex also finds Araki and Sciortino constructing a wickedly intelligent meditation on contemporary sexuality, interrogating how we distinguish between kink and exploitation, performance and authenticity, generational attitudes toward desire and vulnerability. 

“I feel like a bit of a prude in the sense that I don’t love to see sex on screen all the time,” says Chase Sui Wonders, who plays Elliot’s best friend and roommate in the film. “I’m decisively Gen Z,” she adds. “I can’t believe I just admitted it. But as much as Gen Z bristles at sex, it’s like an entry point for us to get exposed to all these things.” For Wonders, the sex in the film “feels secondary. It’s a real love story — the story of being obsessed with someone, and that taking over your whole life, and that really hit me today.” Eliciting laughs from the crowd, she adds softly, “It’s just a tragic love story.” 

With this film, Araki remains bold and unapologetic, affirming his influence on independent cinema remains as vital today as when his previous work, like 2004’s Mysterious Skin (screening in the Park City Legacy program). “The first time I came to this film festival was in 1992 with The Living End,” says Araki. “I was literally this punk rock, queer Asian American kid, wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt and a black leather jacket. And I was just like, you know, so far out of Hollywood, mainstream — but this was my home. This gave me a platform. Honestly, without Sundance, I probably definitely wouldn’t be here. And I’m not alone. There are hundreds of other filmmakers just like me. And so, I just want to say, thank you so much to Robert Redford. You are a god to me, and you are immortal.”

A sly satire that explores sadomasochistic dynamics and dives into how we navigate relevancy in our twisted culture, I Want Your Sex, which also stars Daveed Diggs and Charli xcx, and Mason Gooding, is the kind of unapologetic storytelling that only Araki could conjure.