Category Archives: Movies

Filipiñana Debuts at Sundance with Red Carpet Screening in Park City

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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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Blood Barn Brings Campy ’80s Horror Energy in New Trailer

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blood-barnA new trailer has dropped for Blood Barn, a throwback horror-comedy that leans hard into summer-camp chaos, practical effects, and unapologetic camp.

Set in the summer of 1985, the film follows Josie, a camp counselor who gathers her closest friends for one last weekend together at her family’s remote barn before everyone heads off to college. It’s meant to be nostalgic. It isn’t. The barn has a past, the vibes are off almost immediately, and things unravel fast once curiosity turns into something darker.

Starring Chloe Cherry alongside Lena Redford, Bambina, and Sam Lanier, Blood Barn doesn’t shy away from excess. It plays like a love letter to ’80s slashers and low-budget horror comedies, complete with wild energy, bad decisions, and a body count that escalates quickly once whatever’s lurking in the barn wakes up.

Written and directed by Gabriel Bernini (with co-writer Alexandra Jade), the film embraces practical effects and group-watch chaos over polish. At just over 75 minutes, Blood Barn looks built for midnight screenings, festival crowds, and horror fans who like their scares mixed with laughs.

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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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The Mortuary Assistant Brings a Cult Horror Game to Theaters This February

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the-mortuary-assistantIf you’ve spent any time around horror games in recent years, The Mortuary Assistant likely sounds familiar. The unsettling indie hit, known for its slow-burn dread and deeply uncomfortable atmosphere, is getting a film adaptation, arriving in theaters on Friday, February 13, 2026.

The movie comes from Epic Pictures and Dread, the genre label behind Terrifier, and is based on the best-selling game created by Brian Clarke. IndieWire has already flagged it as one of the year’s most anticipated horror releases, and the newly debuted trailer leans heavily into the claustrophobic tension that made the game a cult favorite.

Directed by Slapface filmmaker Jeremiah Kipp, the film stars Willa Holland as Rebecca Owens, a newly certified mortician working the night shift alone at a small-town funeral home. As the hours stretch on, routine embalming work gives way to increasingly disturbing events, pulling Rebecca into a web of demonic rituals, buried trauma, and the unsettling influence of her mentor, played by Paul Sparks.

First released in 2022, The Mortuary Assistant gained viral attention through streamers and horror fans for its ability to create sustained unease rather than rely on cheap scares. The film expands on the game’s mythology while aiming to preserve its oppressive tone, including the recreation of the mortuary as a full practical set.

The Mortuary Assistant opens exclusively in theaters on February 13, before streaming on Shudder on March 27, 2026.

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Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Joins ‘The Lake’ Ahead of Sundance World Premiere

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The-LakeAhead of its Day One world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions has boarded the feature documentary The Lake as executive producer, alongside Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson.

Directed by Abby Ellis (Flint’s Deadly Water), The Lake has quickly emerged as one of Sundance’s most closely watched documentaries. The film examines the accelerating ecological crisis surrounding Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which is rapidly shrinking and exposing a toxic lakebed containing arsenic, lead, mercury, and other heavy metals—posing serious health risks to millions living along the Wasatch Front.

The documentary follows two scientists and a political insider as they race to prevent an environmental catastrophe, offering a rare look at bipartisan efforts to address a crisis with both local and global implications. As Sundance prepares for its final year in Park City, the film’s urgency has drawn significant attention.

Ellis described the project as deeply personal:

“What’s happening in Utah is a microcosm for so many environmental stories around the world… Having the support of Appian Way will only help enhance our reach with this incredibly timely and relevant story.”

Appian Way’s involvement reinforces its continued focus on environmentally driven storytelling. Jennifer Davisson noted that the film aligns closely with the company’s mission to support urgent, impact driven narratives.

Blending scientific reality with moral reckoning, The Lake moves beyond traditional environmental documentaries, asking broader questions about responsibility, complicity, and whether communities can act in time to avert disaster.

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Sundance ’26: BURN Brings Hyper-Color and Chaos to the NEXT Section

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burnOne of the films at Sundance this year that feels like it’s daring people to either love it or walk out is BURN, the new feature from Makoto Nagahisa, who previously made We Are Little Zombies. It’s premiering in the festival’s NEXT section, which feels like exactly where it belongs.

The movie centers on Ju-Ju (played by Nana Mori), a runaway teen who ends up in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, falling in with a loose group of kids living on the edge. At first, it feels like she’s finally found somewhere to land. That doesn’t last. What starts as freedom slowly turns into something tighter, darker, and harder to escape.

Visually, BURN is doing a lot, neon colors, hyper-stylized shots, constant motion. It’s bright, almost playful on the surface, even when the story underneath is clearly heading somewhere painful. That contrast is the point. The movie looks fun right up until it very much isn’t, and it doesn’t really warn you when the switch happens.

Nagahisa has always been good at capturing youth culture in a way that feels chaotic instead of nostalgic, and BURN seems to push that even further. It’s not trying to explain its characters or soften their choices. It just drops you into their world and lets things unravel.

Director Bong Joon Ho has already weighed in on the film, calling it intense and even frightening, which tracks. This feels like one of those Sundance titles people will be arguing about afterward, not whether it’s good or bad, but whether they were ready for it at all.

BURN premieres January 25, with additional screenings throughout the festival.

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‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Hamnet’ Come Out on Top at the 2026 Golden Globes

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goldenglobes2026The Golden Globes did what they usually do best this year: set the tone for the rest of awards season while reminding everyone which films are actually building momentum.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another walked into the night as a frontrunner and walked out looking even stronger, picking up Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) along with wins for directing, screenplay, and Teyana Taylor’s supporting performance. The film’s mix of political satire and emotional stakes clearly connected with voters, and Anderson used his moment to spotlight the kind of filmmaker-driven studio support that made the film possible.

On the drama side, Hamnet took Best Motion Picture, with Jessie Buckley also winning for her performance. Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel continues to quietly build awards-season credibility, leaning into intimacy and grief rather than spectacle.

The TV categories followed a similar pattern, rewarding shows that already felt unavoidable this year. Netflix’s Adolescence had the biggest night overall, while The Pitt and The Studio took top series honors, with Noah Wyle and Seth Rogen winning acting prizes. The wins reinforced how much streaming dramas and sharp industry satire continue to dominate the conversation.

Elsewhere, Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, and The Secret Agent all picked up multiple awards, underscoring how wide the Globes’ tastes have become, from genre films to international titles to animated hits.

Hosted by Nikki Glaser, the ceremony aired January 11 from the Beverly Hilton on CBS and Paramount+. With the Globes now behind us, the field is narrowing, and the next stretch of the awards season is officially underway.

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2026 Sundance Film Festival Unveils Beyond Film Talks and Events

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Sundance-exploring-art-and-innovationSundance isn’t just about the films, it’s also where a lot of the conversations around them happen.

The Sundance Institute has announced the Beyond Film lineup for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, featuring talks and events with Olivia Wilde, Richard Linklater, Ava DuVernay, Billie Jean King, Salman Rushdie, John Turturro, Nicole Holofcener, Elijah Wood, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Wan, and more.

The Beyond Film program runs January 23–30, alongside the Festival, which takes place January 22–February 1, 2026, in Park City and Salt Lake City, with select events available online.

New this year is Sundance Institute’s Story Forum: Exploring Art and Innovation, a one-day event on January 26 focused on how storytelling is evolving across creative and technological spaces.

The free public program includes filmmaker conversations, artist talks, and live events like Cinema Café and The Big Conversation, with participants ranging from filmmakers and writers to cultural figures across disciplines.

The 2026 Festival will also spotlight Robert Redford’s legacy through the Park City Legacy program, featuring archival screenings, alumni talks, and community events celebrating Sundance’s history.

Most Beyond Film events are free to attend, with full schedules and access details available at festival.sundance.org.

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