Category Archives: Arts and Culture

Sundance Producers Celebration Honors Apoorva Guru Charan and Dawne Langford

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sundanceThe 2026 Sundance Film Festival Producers Celebration took place January 25 in Park City, bringing together filmmakers and industry guests to recognize producing excellence across this year’s festival lineup. Presented in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, the event was held at The Park and centered on the Sundance Institute Producers Awards.

Two producers were honored with $10,000 grants during the ceremony. Apoorva Guru Charan received the Fiction Producers Award for Take Me Home, premiering in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, while Dawne Langford was awarded the Nonfiction Producers Award for Who Killed Alex Odeh?, debuting in the U.S. Documentary Competition. Both films are part of the 2026 Sundance program.

The celebration also featured a keynote from producer Shane Boris, whose recent work includes Navalny and Fire of Love. Boris spoke about collaboration, uncertainty, and the often unseen role producers play in sustaining creative work. The event highlighted producers as connective forces within independent filmmaking, emphasizing long-term relationships and shared risk rather than outcomes or accolades.

The Producers Celebration is an annual Sundance tradition, offering a moment to pause amid premieres and screenings to spotlight the behind-the-scenes work that brings films to the festival.

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Big Girls Don’t Cry Premieres at Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Competition

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Big Girls Don’t Cry premiered Saturday, January 24, at the Sundance Film Festival, screening at The Ray Theatre in Park City as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The afternoon screening was preceded by a red carpet press line, where the film’s creative team gathered for photos and interviews ahead of the first public showing.

In attendance were writer-director Paloma Schneideman, lead cast members Ani Palmer, Rain Spencer, and Noah Taylor, along with producers and executive producers connected to the project. The atmosphere reflected the film’s debut status, with the team marking its introduction to festival audiences following its New Zealand production.

Set in rural New Zealand in 2006, Big Girls Don’t Cry follows 14-year-old Sid Bookman over the course of a formative summer as she navigates early desire, shifting friendships, and the influence of the early internet. The film centers on observation rather than spectacle, placing its young protagonist in everyday situations that quietly shape her sense of identity and belonging.

The premiere screening in Park City was the film’s first stop at the festival, with additional in-person and online screenings scheduled as Sundance continues through the end of January.

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Merata Mita and Graton Fellows Honored at Sundance 2026 Native Forum

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Merata-Mita-and-Graton-sundanceThe Sundance Institute recognized this year’s Merata Mita and Graton Fellowship recipients during the Native Forum Celebration at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The annual gathering brings together Indigenous filmmakers, artists, and alumni during the festival to spotlight new voices and ongoing work.

Masami Kawai was named the 2026 Merata Mita Fellow. A Ryukyuan filmmaker based in Oregon, Kawai’s work often explores identity, history, and Indigenous experience, and she has previously participated in Sundance’s Directors and Screenwriters Lab. The fellowship supports an Indigenous woman-identified filmmaker developing a feature project.

The 2026 Graton Fellows are Isabella Madrigal and Tsanavi Spoonhunter. Madrigal, a writer-director and actor, is developing her first feature, expanding a story rooted in Indigenous community performance and cultural memory. Spoonhunter, a nonfiction filmmaker and journalist, is based in Northern Nevada and focuses on documentary storytelling through her independent media company, Mahebe Media.

The Native Forum Celebration took place during the festival as a moment to recognize Indigenous-led projects across Sundance programs and to acknowledge the broader creative community gathered in Park City throughout the week.

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Harry Styles Announces Global Residency Run “Together, Together”

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harry-stylesHarry Styles is returning to the stage with Together, Together, a seven-city global residency running from May through December 2026. The Live Nation-promoted run includes 50 performances across Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney, with Styles limiting his live appearances next year to those cities only.

The residency includes major stretches in New York and London, highlighted by 30 shows at Madison Square Garden, his only U.S. dates of 2026, and a six-night run at Wembley Stadium. Rather than a traditional tour, the format focuses on extended stays, turning each city into its own chapter.

The announcement comes alongside new music. Styles will release his new single “Aperture” tonight, January 22, ahead of his fourth studio album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally., arriving March 6. Select dates will feature special guests including Robyn, Shania Twain, Jamie xx, Jorja Smith, and Fousheé.

More details, including ticket information by market, are available at hstyles.co.uk/tour.

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Filipiñana Debuts at Sundance with Red Carpet Screening in Park City

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Writer director Rafael Manuel

Rafael Manuel’s feature debut Filipiñana premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, screening at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.

The screening was preceded by a red carpet event, where the filmmakers paused for photos and interviews ahead of the film’s first public showing.

The film stars Isabel Sicat and centers on a teenage girl working at an elite country club who becomes drawn to its powerful president, only to uncover a darker history beneath the institution’s polished surface. Set across multiple languages including Filipino, English, and Ilokano, Filipiñana explores class tension, identity, and inherited power through a stylized and unsettling lens.

In attendance at the premiere were writer-director Rafael Manuel, supporting cast member Isabel Sicat, producers Jeremy Chua and Alex Polunin, and executive producer Farhana Bhula. Filipiñana continues its Sundance run in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, with in-person and online screenings scheduled through the festival.

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Hot Water Premieres at Sundance 2026 With Red Carpet Debut in Park City

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Hot Water writer-director Ramzi Bashour

Ramzi Bashour’s feature debut Hot Water premiered Friday, January 23, in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, screening at Eccles Theatre in Park City, Utah. The premiere was accompanied by a red carpet appearance from the filmmaker and members of the creative team, marking the film’s first public unveiling.

Starring Lubna Azabal (Incendies) and Daniel Zolghadri (Funny Pages, Lurker), Hot Water centers on a Lebanese mother and her American teenage son who set out on a cross-country drive after the boy is expelled from high school. What begins as a reluctant journey gradually opens into a series of encounters that test their relationship and challenge their sense of home. Dale Dickey appears in a supporting role.

Shot across multiple states, the production moved through new locations week by week before wrapping in California. Around the Sundance premiere, members of the creative team spoke about the intensity of the schedule and the collaborative effort behind making a first feature under lean conditions, with the emphasis throughout remaining on the script rather than any assumptions about where the film might land.

Hot Water marks Bashour’s debut as a writer-director and unfolds as a restrained road comedy, using everyday spaces, highways, motels, diners, to explore family tension, cultural distance, and uneasy connection. The film moves between English, Arabic, and French, reflecting the layered identities at the center of the story.

The film continues its Sundance run as part of the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition lineup.

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Returns to NYC in New 4K Restoration: Can She Bake a Cherry Pie

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can-she-bakeHenry Jaglom’s quietly offbeat 1983 film Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? is getting a new 4K restoration and a theatrical run at Metrograph beginning February 20.

Shot entirely on the Upper West Side, the film stars Karen Black as a woman navigating love and loneliness in Jaglom’s loose, conversational style. The movie favors lived-in moments over plot, letting scenes wander in ways that feel more like real life than scripted drama.

The film has picked up cult status over the years, helped by an unusual supporting cast that includes Orson Welles, Frances Fisher, and a pre-Seinfeld Larry David. The new restoration, sourced from a 4K scan of the original 35mm materials, preserves the film’s rough, intimate feel while giving it new clarity on the big screen.

For fans of New York–set cinema and indie films that play by their own rules, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? is a welcome return.

 

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Sundance Institute Announces 2026 Screenwriters Lab and Intensive Fellows

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sundance-screenwritersAs Sundance 2026 approaches, the Institute has revealed its latest group of writers selected for its Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive, two long-running programs focused on helping emerging filmmakers shape their first and second features.

The Screenwriters Lab, held January 17 to 21 at Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah, will bring together 11 projects chosen from more than 3,800 submissions. Writers will spend the week workshopping original scripts in a small, collaborative setting, guided by a group of established filmmakers and writers. This year’s lab also doubles as a nod to Sundance’s roots, honoring founder Robert Redford and the program’s origins in the early 1980s.

Running separately in March, the Screenwriters Intensive will support nine projects from 13 writers, offering a more focused, online development experience aimed at first time fiction features.

Together, the selected projects reflect a wide range of voices and genres, from intimate family dramas and political thrillers to speculative stories and dark comedies, continuing Sundance’s long-standing emphasis on risk-taking and personal storytelling.
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Iyanu Scores Three NAACP Image Award Nominations

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Lion-Forges-IyanuLion Forge Entertainment’s animated series Iyanu has picked up three nominations at the 2026 NAACP Image Awards, marking a strong moment for the growing franchise.

The series is nominated for Outstanding Children’s Program and Outstanding Animated Series, while its season-ending movie special, Iyanu: The Age of Wonders, earned a nod for Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie, Documentary or Special, recognizing writers Roye Okupe and Brandon Easton.

Based on Okupe’s graphic novel Iyanu: Child of Wonder, the series follows a teenage orphan who discovers divine powers tied to the fate of the ancient kingdom of Yorubaland. Drawing heavily from Yoruba culture and mythology, Iyanu has stood out for its world-building and perspective within children’s animation.

The show premiered in 2025 on Cartoon Network and HBO Max and has since built an international audience. A second season is already set to arrive in Spring 2026, continuing Iyanu’s journey as her powers, and the stakes around her: grow.

The 57th NAACP Image Awards will take place on February 28, 2026, with winners announced during the ceremony in Pasadena, California.

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Re:ZERO Season 4 Is Officially Set for April 2026, and the Opening Theme Is a Curveball

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Re-ZEROAfter nearly a decade of twists, resets, and emotional damage, Re:ZERO − Starting Life in Another World is gearing up for its next chapter. Season 4 has been officially confirmed to premiere in April 2026, landing right in the middle of the series’ 10th anniversary year.

Alongside the date, the franchise dropped a wave of anniversary updates, including a new digest trailer revisiting key moments from past seasons and a second main trailer for Season 4 featuring brand-new footage. But the detail that’s getting the most attention is the opening theme: “Recollect,” performed by longtime Re:ZERO vocalist Konomi Suzuki, this time joined by Ashnikko.

It’s an unexpected pairing on paper, but one that feels very in-step with where anime music has been heading lately. Suzuki has been part of Re:ZERO since the beginning, while Ashnikko brings a very different, internet-native energy to the mix. The track is produced by Giga and TeddyLoid, a duo known for pushing J-pop and vocaloid-adjacent sounds into darker, heavier territory.

Beyond the new season, the anniversary plans lean hard into fan engagement. The official 10th anniversary site is rolling out quizzes, episode voting, and Q&A projects with the production team. There’s also a first-ever Re:ZERO exhibition scheduled to run in Tokyo this fall, offering a look back at the anime’s decade-long run.
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