Arts & Humanities

Faculty share 7 must-watch films from Sundance Film Festival's 40-year history

Daniel William Strain — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:37:51 +0000

Faculty share 7 must-watch films from Sundance Film Festival's 40-year history Daniel William… Fri, 01/23/2026 - 08:37

Daniel Strain

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This week, auteurs, celebrities, cinema buffs and more are putting on their winter coats and boots to head to Park City, Utah, for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The event, which runs from Jan. 22-Feb. 1, will be the renowned festival’s last appearance in Utah before it heads to ��ý��, Colorado, in 2027.

To celebrate this milestone year, faculty members in the Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts at CU ��ý�� shared their favorite films that have screened at the Sundance Film Festival over its more than 40-year history.

Their picks show the power and breadth of the festival—from an offbeat comedy to documentaries, a thriller and a “sensory tone poem.” They’re also necessary viewing for understanding the history of Sundance, which has shaped filmmaking in the United States and abroad for generations.

So grab your popcorn and check out these films.

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Skinner Myers

Skinner Myers, assistant professor, is an award-winning writer and director whose debut feature film, “The Sleeping Negro,” premiered at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival. His follow-up film, “Before You Fade Away Into Nothing,” premiered at the 2025 Berlinale Critics’ Week.

Directed by Julie Dash, "Daughters of the Dust" is a visually stunning, non-linear portrait of a Gullah family on St. Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina in 1902. As the Peazant clan prepares to migrate to the northern mainland, the film captures their final day together, documenting a unique culture rooted in West African traditions that flourished in isolation.

The film's power lies in its exploration of cultural preservation vs. progress. The matriarch, Nana Peazant, fights to maintain the spiritual scraps of memory that define her family’s heritage, while younger generations look toward the mainland for a new identity.

Ancestral memory, the tension of the Great Migration, and a rare celebration of Black femininity are themes present throughout the film.

Dash presents Black women as the guardians of history and family unity, the ones who carry the culture forward. More than a traditional narrative, the film is a sensory tone poem. It redefined what Black cinema could look like, proving it did not have to follow Hollywood's rules.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon Prime

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Andy Uhrich

Andy Uhrich, assistant professor, is a media historian, archivist and curator. He has worked on the mass digitization of a large 16mm film collection and has helped restore films by Sidney Peterson, Gordon Parks, Sr., Marjorie Keller and others.

Steve James’ documentary about two Chicago high school athletes striving to join the NBA is regularly included in lists of the best sports movies. It’s definitely the best sports film for folks who don’t like sports.

The film follows Arthur Agee and William Gates during their four years of high school. Both are talented basketballers with a lot of promise. But that promise becomes a burden as they deal with injuries, parental divorce and economic challenges.

The film works because it’s a great sports movie. We want them to achieve greatness on the court just as if we were watching “Rocky.” It’s also a great documentary about growing up as young Black men in Chicago. Thanks to the bond that formed between the filmmakers and the two men and their families, we get to see aspects of their lives beyond just the athletes’ on-court identity.

Its success at the 1994 Sundance Festival, and praise from critics including Roger Ebert, took “Hoop Dreams” beyond the traditional documentary circuit into the multiplex. “Hoop Dreams” proved that popular documentaries can be just as entertaining as Hollywood cinema, while providing an unflinching honesty often lacking in fiction films.

Where to watch: Available to stream on HBO Max and Pluto TV

Memento (2000)

Jason Phelps

Jason Phelps, instruction support manager, is the director of the International Film Series program. Based at CU ��ý��, the program showcases films from around the world for students and community members.

Christopher Nolan’s sophomore film, “Memento,” demonstrates the Sundance Film Festival’s unique ability to spot powerful filmmakers in the indie scene—at a point in their careers when taking big swings is the only way to stand out. Here, Nolan made the brazen choice to order the film’s scenes in reverse order as a way for the audience to get inside the mind of a character who suffers from short-term memory loss.

During his search for his wife’s murderer, Leonard doesn’t know what just happened or why he is where is he is, and the reverse scene order makes it so that the audience doesn’t either. And despite the film beginning with the ending, there’s still room for Nolan to throw in twists, turns and shocking revelations throughout.

The film is further proof that the rules and guidelines for filmmaking are sometimes best used as signposts for directors to acknowledge, but then immediately ignore, to create something worth talking about. “Memento,” in my mind, has since become a film that should be required viewing for anyone interested in filmmaking, as well as a further testament of the power of independent films and the importance of festivals like Sundance that support them.

Where to watch: Available to stream on Amazon Prime, Peacock and Pluto TV

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Erin Espelie

Erin Espelie, associate professor and department chair, is a writer, editor and filmmaker whose work connects with scientific research, environmental precarity and more. Her poetic, nonfiction films have shown at the New York Film Festival, the British Film Institute's London Film Festival and beyond.

SALESWOMAN: “I think everything’s going to be computerized in 20 years.”
SYLVIE: “Soup won’t be computerized.”
SALESWOMAN: “Why not?”
SYLVIE: “It’s a liquid.”

So plays an exchange in Miranda July’s feature debut “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival after having been workshopped in the festival’s 2003 Screenwriters Lab. Miranda July, who expresses unabashedly offbeat humor and raunchy honesty in her characters, went on to win a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and the Camera d’Or at Cannes for the film, for which she wrote the screenplay, directed and served as a main actor.

Her second feature film, “The Future” (2011), also premiered at Sundance. Since then, Miranda July has continued to make films, write and create art across a wide spectrum of forms, most recently writing the novel “All Fours” (2024), shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Miranda July moves through the world at a distinct cadence, and her career represents all the best of what the Sundance Film Festival champions: fostering the development of moving-image artists who are at the margins of industrial cinema and who show transformative potential. Sundance can bring these cinematic artists to wider audiences, offering full creative independence and posing as counterweights to overly commercial films.

Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC+ or Sundance Now

Sleep Dealer (2008) and The Infiltrators (2019)

Kelly Sears

Kelly Sears, associate professor, is an award-winning filmmaker and experimental animator who reimagines the social and political legacy of the United States. She’s screened five films at Sundance, including the animated short film “The Lost Season” in 2024.

My favorite science fiction films are the ones that hold a mirror to contemporary politics, and Alex Rivera’s “Sleep Dealer” does this with remarkable prescience.

Set in a dystopian future where migrant labor is essential but migrant bodies are unwelcome, the film imagines cyber maquiladoras where workers plug into a digital network to perform jobs virtually across the border. Nearly two decades later, Rivera’s critique of exploitative globalization feels even more resonant.

After people watch “Sleep Dealer,” I always recommend they see Rivera’s follow up film. Rivera, along with Cristina Ibarra, returned to Sundance in 2019 with their hybrid documentary “The Infiltrators.”

Blending documentary footage with reenactments, the film follows a group of young, undocumented activists who deliberately put themselves in the path of ICE to enter detention centers and work undercover to halt deportations. This formally inventive film was awarded both the NEXT Innovator Prize and the NEXT Audience Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Where to watch: “Sleep Dealer” is available to rent on Apple TV; “The Infiltrators” is not currently available for streaming

Minari (2020)

Kalpana Subramanian

Kalpana Subramanian, assistant professor, is an experimental moving-image artist interested in transcultural and embodied approaches to film and media. Her work investigates the world through an interdisciplinary poetics of breath, as expressed through her art, curation and writings.

“Minari,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung, tells a poignant, semi-autobiographical tale of a Korean American family moving from urban California to rural Arkansas in the 1980s, hoping to build a more stable life through farming. They leave behind tedious labor in the chicken-sexing industry, driven by the patriarch Jacob’s dream of growing Korean produce for local vendors. His wife, Monica, feels burdened by the move away from city life and worries for their young son David, who is battling a cardiac condition. The arrival of Monica’s intrepid mother, Soon-ja, from South Korea both eases and intensifies household tensions, revealing the complex dynamics of a family under pressure to succeed in a new environment.

The film draws viewers into an intimate family portrait tracing overlapping journeys of characters and the invisible threads that hold them together. The titular minari references the hardy water-dropwort plant commonly used in Korean cuisine. Planted by Soon-ja in a quiet corner of their land, it emerges as a metaphor for resilience amid adversity.

"Minari" challenges the stereotype of the “American Dream” through its insightful account of the emotional and relational costs of migration. Rejecting a conventional rags-to-riches narrative, it offers hope through a more realistic portrayal of migrant life, grounded in survival, endurance and being human.

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV

The picks capture the breadth of the renowned festival, from an offbeat comedy to documentaries, a "sensory tone poem" and more.

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Arts & Humanities

Faculty share 7 must-watch films from Sundance Film Festival's 40-year history

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Memento (2000)

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Sleep Dealer (2008) and The Infiltrators (2019)

Minari (2020)

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Arts & Humanities

Faculty share 7 must-watch films from Sundance Film Festival's 40-year history

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Memento (2000)

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Sleep Dealer (2008) and The Infiltrators (2019)

Minari (2020)

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CU ������ý���� scholar helps unite Navajo culture and modern science

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CU ��ý�� scholar helps unite Navajo culture and modern science