Sundance packs its line-up with a slew of European co-productions

by Olivia Popp

11/12/2025 - Over 25 films with European involvement prepare to shine at the lauded indie festival in Park City for the last time before its move to Colorado in 2027

Sundance packs its line-up with a slew of European co-productions

Frank & Louis by Petra Biondina Volpe

As 2025 rolls quickly to a close, Sundance has just unveiled the 97 titles that will screen at the 2026 edition of the festival, featuring the usual, always-robust selection of European co-productions. This edition will mark the last time the festival will call Park City its home, unspooling from 22 January-1 February, with virtual screenings available from 29 January-1 February. In 2027, the renowned US festival for independent cinema will make a landmark move to Boulder, Colorado.

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As currently announced, Sundance will feature over 25 European co-productions in its 2026 edition across a variety of strands, including feature-length and episodic titles. Eight of these will vie for the top prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, while seven will do the same in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

This edition’s major Baltic instalment in the Dramatic Competition is Andrius Blaževičius’ How to Divorce During the War, starring Marius Repšys, which marks the Lithuanian filmmaker’s third feature-length effort, after The Saint [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrius Blazevicius
film profile] (2017) and Runner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrius Blaževičius
film profile] (2021). His new film is billed as a drama about an accomplished working woman seeking to divorce her husband just as Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, creating an intersection of emotions and crises all at once.

In the same strand, Myrsini Aristidou will make her feature debut with Hold Onto Me, which follows an 11-year-old who attempts to connect with her estranged father when he returns to town (see the news). Meanwhile, Rafael Manuel turns his 2020 short film Filipiñana – which premiered in the 70th Berlinale’s Shorts Competition – into a feature film of the same name.

Several Balkan works also feature across both the World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions. Pristina-born Visar Morina will bring Shame and Money to the Dramatic Competition, centring on a Kosovar family forced, as domestic economic migrants, to move to the capital from the villages. In the Documentary Competition, To Hold a Mountain by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić tracks a mother-and-daughter duo in Montenegro defending their homeland from becoming a location for military training.

This year’s Midnight line-up does not include any European co-productions, but instead, there’s a very rich block of movies – predominantly UK works – in the Premieres sidebar as well as others in the Episodic, Spotlight, Family Matinee (formerly known as “Kids”) and Special Screenings strands. Petra Biondina Volpe’s (Late Shift [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petra Volpe
film profile]) next work, Frank & Louis, about two inmates who find a unique bond and a possibility for redemption, will world-premiere in the Premieres section. Episodic will screen Bait, a six-episode series starring (and executive-produced by) Riz Ahmed as a struggling actor who auditions for a dream role, only for chaos to ensue over the following four days.

The festival’s singular Special Screening at the moment is legendary documentarian Mark Cousins’ newest work, aptly titled The Story of Documentary Film.

Here is the full list of European co-productions announced so far for the 2026 festival:

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Hold Onto Me – Myrsini Aristidou (Cyprus/Denmark/Greece)
Levitating – Wregas Bhanuteja (Indonesia/Singapore/France)
How to Divorce During the War – Andrius Blaževičius (Lithuania/Luxembourg/Ireland/Czech Republic)
Extra Geography – Molly Manners (UK)
Filipiñana – Rafael Manuel (Singapore/UK/Philippines/France/Netherlands)
Shame and Money – Visar Morina (Germany/Kosovo/Slovenia/Albania/North Macedonia/Belgium)
Lady – Olive Nwosu (UK/Nigeria)
Tell Me Everything – Moshe Rosenthal (Israel/France)

World Cinema Documentary Competition

One in a Million – Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes (UK)
Birds of War – Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak (UK/Syria/Lebanon)
Everybody to Kenmure Street – Felipe Bustos Sierra (UK)
Closure – Michał Marczak (Poland)
Hanging by a Wire – Mohammed Ali Naqvi (USA/UK/Pakistan)
All About the Money – Sinéad O’Shea (Ireland)
To Hold a Mountain – Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić (Serbia/France/Montenegro/Slovenia/Croatia)

NEXT

Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] – Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil (USA/Denmark)
Jaripeo – Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig (Mexico/USA/France)
The Incomer – Louis Paxton (UK)

Premieres

The Last First: Winter K2 – Amir Bar-Lev (USA/UK)
Time and Water – Sara Dos (USA/Iceland)
Troublemaker – Antoine Fuqua (South Africa/USA/UK)
Antiheroine – Edward Lovelace, James Hall (UK/USA)
The Disciple – Joanna Natasegara (USA/UK)
Frank & Louis – Petra Biondina Volpe (Switzerland/UK)