Hollywood Still Needs That Sundance Energy

I started coming to the Sundance Film Festival in 1987 (before it adopted its final name) and returned every year that an outlet was willing to send me. Back in my LA Weekly days, I was chronicling the rise of the independent film movement launched by Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” in 1989. I interviewed Robert Redford enough that he’d recognize me at the festival. He knew I was carrying his message.

Sundance has been vital to the health of the overall film industry for 40 years. And it will continue to be when it reinvents itself in Boulder, Colorado.

In the last days of the 2026 festival, various legacy programs celebrated the great films of the past, from “Half Nelson” and “Little Miss Sunshine” to “Mysterious Skin,” whose filmmaker Gregg Araki was back at the festival with new film “I Want Your Sex.”

And it’s not every day you get asked to join a favorite filmmaker to do running commentary on their most recent film, in this case Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” which just landed 10 nominations at France’s César awards. That was a joy.

The final culmination event took place Friday afternoon, organized by festival director Eugene Hernandez and senior programmer John Nein, where festival veterans from documentarian Dawn Porter and producer Effie Brown to filmmakers Jared Hess and more recent Sundance breakout Celine Song (“Past Lives”) shared their stories. I also went up on stage, sporting my Pendleton hat.

Richard Linklater

“We’re all in a wistful mood this year,” said Linklater, who brought many films to Sundance, including “Slacker,” “Before Sunrise,” and “Boyhood.” “Bob’s [Redford] not with us any longer. The festival is moving to Colorado, but our industry is based on transformation… We’re a hermit crab industry. Obviously, you go where you can flourish and survive, and we’ve always done this. The film industry moved largely from New Jersey to Southern California. Why? Because there was more sunshine. The film stocks back then required a lot of exposure. You need a lot of light. They were slow. And so it’s always practical considerations. We have to be pragmatic to survive.”

He added, “So I want us to think optimistically, that’s certainly how Bob would approach it. For all his movie star status, Bob was an outsider. He held Hollywood at arm’s length. He was an independent spirit. Obviously, he gave so much. There’s not one other person in the history of our medium that has done more for more people.”

In the early years of Sundance, nobody knew anything about the movies in advance beyond what was in the program. There was nothing to look up. I remember happily sitting in the back of the Holiday Village Cinemas with my favorite festival buddy, the late great distributor Bingham Ray. We inhaled four or five movies a day, ranging from awful to fantastic. It was about finding that diamond in the rough. He was tracking the movies to buy, and I was tracking all the news. Sundance has always been about discovery.

Bingham Ray and Anne Thompson at Sundance

That’s what I remember most vividly: the moments when a festival audience knew that someone was on their way to great things.

Tilda Swinton in Sally Potter’s “Orlando” and Sam Rockwell in Alexandre Rockwell’s “In the Soup” in 1992. Ashley Judd in Victor Nunez’s “Ruby in Paradise” in 1993. Somehow, both New York Times critic Janet Maslin and I talked our way into sitting on the floor of the Holiday for Nicole Holofcener’s debut film “Walking and Talking” in 1996. Kerry Washington broke out in DeMane Davis’ “The Lift” in 2001. Jennifer Lawrence launched her career at age 19 in Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” in 2010, which earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Actress. And Benh Zeitlin came out of New Orleans to blow people’s gaskets with “Beasts of the Southern Wild” in 2012, winding up with four Oscar nods, including Best Picture, Director, and Leading Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis).

In 2001, Todd Field’s debut feature, family drama “In the Bedroom,” starring Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, took Sundance by storm. I spotted Field walking down Main Street and asked him to sit down with me then and there. We ducked into a restaurant booth. It was his first-ever press interview. One of the great boons of Sundance was being able to identify people, discover who they are, before all the yes-people have turned their heads.

The former actor turned out to be one of those people who wear their emotions on their sleeves. He cried a lot, thanking his mentor Stanley Kubrick. Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax picked up the film. Field knew Tom Cruise and asked him how to handle Harvey Scissorhands. Cruise told him to let the mogul cut the film and then ask to test both cuts. Inevitably, Field’s would prevail. And so it did. His cut yielded five Oscar nominations, more than any film to premiere at Sundance until “Precious” in 2009. It was the first Sundance film to be nominated for Best Picture. It grossed $42 million worldwide.

Notably, of course, Bay Area filmmaker Ryan Coogler emerged from the Sundance labs with “Fruitvale Station” (2013), starring Michael B. Jordan. Both are nominated for Oscars this year for “Sinners.” There, Coogler met this year’s Oscar nominee Chloé Zhao (“Hamnet”), who was workshopping her debut film “Songs My Brothers Taught Me.” They’ve been close friends ever since.

Ryan Coogler winner of the Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic for ‘Fruitvale’ poses with award at the Awards Night Ceremony during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival at Basin Recreation Field House on January 26, 2013 in Park City, UtahGetty Images

Also nominated this year is Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another”), whom Michelle Satter lured to the labs after seeing one of his shorts. There, he workshopped his debut feature “Hard Eight” (1996). (One note: while the festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado, for the 2027 iteration, the labs will stay in Utah.)

All these people went on to storied careers. From the start, Sundance has fed the film industry, including Hollywood. That’s why all the agents, managers, producers, executives, and casting agents show up, not just to find a spot at John Sloss’ Monday night Cinetic party, but to feed and nourish their cinephile souls and find talent.

Riding the independent wave was a heady experience. (Here’s IndieWire’s list of the top 30 Sundance movies.) Inevitably, the ’80s turned into the ’90s and the aughts and brought the rise of swag suites, clogged Main Street traffic, and too much branding. The market became the driver of the festival. What was going to sell, and for how much? (Here are some of the biggest sales ever.)

In 2021, Apple acquired eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner “CODA” for over $25 million, breaking the $17.5 million record paid by Neon/Hulu for “Palm Springs” in 2020 and Searchlight for “The Birth of a Nation” in 2016, which was derailed at the box office by director Nate Parker’s resurfaced sexual assault allegations.

Inevitably, Sundance peaked with the indie market and then, hobbled by the pandemic, declined in influence as the market slowed way down.

IndieWire Studio signage is seen during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2018 in Park City, UtahGetty Images

In 2025, only one Sundance-premiered film grossed more than $2.5 million in the U.S./Canada. That said, all five Oscar-nominated documentaries debuted at Sundance last year, as did nominated narratives “Train Dreams” and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” (See our 12 picks for Oscar contenders this year.) Among this year’s discoveries: Dramatic audience and jury prize winner “Josephine,” from breakout auteur Beth de Araújo, introducing Mason Reeves, and “The History of Concrete” rookie feature director John Wilson. Sundance 2026 notched one old-fashioned bidding war, for Olivia Wilde’s sex comedy “The Invite,” which A24 landed for more than $10 million.

I felt pangs as I said farewell to Park City, taking the city bus past many places where I’d stayed, the Park City ski resort, the Library, the 7-11, the Yarrow, the Holiday, and The Ray. It was weird to do back-to-back screenings at the Eccles and take the shortcut back to the Sheraton, knowing it was my last time. But I look forward to Boulder, where we will all continue to discover the brilliant talents who feed our industry.

Sundance will build something new and different, but essentially the same — because that’s what Hollywood needs to survive.