Memo to Distributors: Buy These 2026 Sundance Movies

That’s a wrap on the 2026 Sundance Film Festival — for the year, online, and in Park City. (See IndieWire’s best of the fest picks here.)

Each year, most films leave the festival without a distributor in place, and we’ve only seen a handful of sales so far despite Netflix, Neon, Searchlight, Focus, A24, and more all on the ground. Plus, newcomer distribution groups like Row K and Warners’ independent label also landed in Utah to make an impression.

Alas, many movies still need a home, and below, IndieWire rounds up the ones we think distributors will click with — some more intrepid than others, but all worthy of a hopefully big-screen landing place. Below, check out a mix of docs and narrative faetures we want more audiences to see this year, and not just at festivals.

Kate Erbland, Chris O’Falt, and Anne Thompson contribute to this story.

“Buddy”

Projects like “Too Many Cooks” have proved that Adult Swim legend Casper Kelly can cram far more creativity into a short film than you’ll find in most features. So it should come as no surprise that when he finally got a chance to make a proper feature — one that, with all due respect to the “Adult Swim Yule Log” series, didn’t have to be disguised as a glorified screensaver —  he delivered a must-see cinematic event. 

“Buddy” is an easy elevator pitch (it’s “Barney” as a horror movie), but the high concept wouldn’t have played nearly as well in anyone else’s hands. Kelly’s reverence for the analog quirks of old TV shows is on full display, and he backs it up with some serious horror chops to deliver a hilariously bloodthirsty good time. It’s the first great midnight movie of 2026, and should be on everyone’s radar screen if and when it gets the theatrical release that it so clearly deserves. —CZ

‘Closure’Michał Marczak

“Closure”

Ten years was entirely too long a wait for Polish director Michał Marczak’s follow-up to “All These Sleepless Nights,” but it was worth it, as his latest is confirmation that he is one of the most exciting and gifted filmmakers working today. The film follows a desperate father, Daniel, in his search down the vast Vistula River for the body of his missing teenage son, Krzysztof, who they’ve been given reason to believe committed suicide by jumping off a bridge into the water.

The film is poignant, emotional, and empathetic, and it speaks to the larger issues facing a generation of online teenagers for whom the suicide rate has dramatically jumped in recent years. “Closure” is also deeply cinematic, and like “All These Sleepless Nights” might (as it did for some at Sundance), might confuse audiences as being a scripted narrative film. —CO

“The Friend’s House Is Here”

In dialogue with Abbas Kiarostami as much as Jacques Rivette, Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei’s made-in-sect Iranian film “The Friend’s House Is Here” follows two artists and best friends against the backdrop of social upheaval in Tehran. As both are weighing whether or not to emigrate, they mix and mingle with a community of artists who give this film real, lived-in scope. There’s a deadpan humor to this clandestine production that gives way to sadness — but not the level of suffering you might expect from such a story, even as the women inevitably must separate. This is a delicate, unexpectedly powerful slice of cinema literally unveiled, the filmmakers as liberated as the characters hope to one day be. —RL

“The History of Concrete”

John Wilson is already beloved for his three-season HBO series “How to with John Wilson,” in which he takes on the mundane days and ways of New Yorkers with his uniquely disarming point of view. His feature film debut “The History of Concrete” is in many ways a full-length version of one of that show’s episodes, but he manages to extract even more pathos from a movie about — of all things — a material made of sand, water, and cement. The closeness he achieves with his subjects, like a faded-out New Jersey musician or another man who removes gum from sidewalks for a living, makes the television creator a bona fide documentary filmmaker whose sensibilities translate seamlessly to the big screen. The film is still looking for a buyer, but any fan of “How to” will be touched and delighted by what he’s put together — and out of a journey that wends its way on a twisted path to a profound statement about death and impermanence. —RL

“Jaripeo”

This year’s Sundance Film Festival was scarce on queer offerings, but the Mexico-set cowboy documentary “Jaripeo” out of NEXT is a standout. The hybrid documentary takes us to the Mexican state of Michoacán, to the rodeos, or jaripeos, where masculinity is revealed as the performance, and the jaripeo as the true expression of one’s queer identity. Two locals, Noé and Joseph, bring the filmmakers intimately inside their world while being themselves on opposite ends of the macho spectrum; one is a cowboy and a nurse, and the other a makeup artist. The movie mixes vérité Super 8 with artfully constructed interstices that locate poetry in growing up queer and in the shadows. A long conversation between the pair about queerness and desire suggests that the filmmakers would have a future in narrative filmmaking, too. —RL

“Josephine”

At this point, we probably don’t need to expound further on the greatness of Beth de Araújo’s sophomore outing, but you know what? We’re going to. The winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, de Araújo’s film was already the best film at the festival long before it was crowned officially as such at last Friday’s awards ceremony.

Having seen the film before I hit Park City, I was able to talk it up to just about anyone willing to listen. One thing I noticed? Many people a) didn’t realize she’s the filmmaker behind the staggering “Soft & Quiet” or b) hadn’t even heard of that film. To those people: read IndieWire, folks. De Araújo has been one to watch, a filmmaker of great clarity and vision, one who is not only willing to take on horrifying stories, but to bring them actual new dimension without exploitation. Her second film is just more of the same, and we can only hope it is the continuation of an already stellar career. —KE

‘Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie’Rachel Eliza Griffiths

“Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie”

As the author Salman Rushdie remembers it, the first clear thought that came to him after the brutal 2022 knife attack that almost took his life was simple: “We need to document this.” Fortunately, Rushdie’s beloved wife, fellow writer and multidisciplinary artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, was on hand with a fierce dedication and a new camera. (Griffiths remembers her take on the idea to document the after-effects of the attack with a little more bite: “We said that we want everyone to see.”)

And see we do in Alex Gibney’s “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” which combines Griffiths’ footage (she is credited as one of the film‘s cinematographers; she is also its true heart) with archival material, new animations, tons of movie clips, and Rushdie’s own work (mostly from his 2024 memoir “Knife: Mediations After an Attempted Murder,” but with plenty from his seminal “The Satanic Verses”). Gibney’s film doesn’t ease into it at all, opening with a clip of the attack, squarely dropping us into the horror of it. Rushdie provides voiceover throughout, and there is an immediate impact from hearing a man narrate his own attempted murder, and with such a calm (and often darkly humorous) demeanor. It’s a tough sit, but extremely worth the effort. —KE

“Once Upon a Time in Harlem”

When “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” director William Greaves died in 2014 we lost on of the greatest nonfiction filmmakers ever, with a body of innovative work that was so ahead of its time, it’s still ahead of us now. The announcement of this year’s Sundance lineup included an unexpected surprise for documentary lovers: Greaves had left behind an unfinished film he shot in 1972, when he orchestrated a reunion of Harlem Renaissance luminaries at the home of Duke Ellington.  That Greaves’ son David, who served as a cameraman at Ellington’s house, was able to lead an edit of the material (a challenge that apparently alluded his father) into what will certainly be considered on of the best films (nonfiction or otherwise) of 2026 is not only the biggest surprise of this year’s Sundance, but a revelation.

“Once Upon A Time In Harlem” isn’t purely reverence, which is Greaves clearly had for his subjects. As the alcohol starts flowing, the four-hour gathering reveals not everyone has the same view of what and who made the Harlem Renaissance so important, as the living participants debate the legacy of one of the most vital cultural movements in U.S. history. —CO

‘The Only Living Pickpocket in New York’MRC II Distribution Company L.P.

“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York”

Filmmaker Noah Segan celebrates the clash of analogue and tech in this ’70s throwback shot on the streets and subways of New York. Accompanied by a jazzy score, the movie is carried by veteran John Turturro, a veteran hustler who must use his wiles to get out of a tricky wicket when he lifts the wrong thing from the wrong person at the wrong time. With the right distributor, Turturro could land a long-overdue Best Actor nomination. —AT