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

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.