As another standout year for genre cinema comes to a close, attention naturally shifts to the Sundance Film Festival — a fixture that has long championed the bold and the curious. Running from January 22 to February 1, 2026, the festival has unveiled a programme that feels especially rewarding for anyone drawn to horror, thrillers, sci-fi and the stranger corners of storytelling. It’s a line-up that balances fresh voices with returning favourites, shaped by a clear confidence in filmmakers willing to push at the edges — a programme marked by inventiveness, curiosity and no small amount of nerve.
We’ve combed through the lineup to highlight the titles that have us counting the days. Here are the genre films we can’t wait to experience at Sundance 2026.
The Gallerist (Cathy Yan)
What it’s about: Preparing for her Art Basel premiere, gallerist Polina Polinski (Natalie Portman) hosts an early look for art influencer Dalton Hardberry (Zach Galifianakis) to review emerging artist Stella Burgess (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Dalton is unimpressed – until one particular piece captures his attention and sends the ruthless machinery of the art world into motion.
Why we’re excited: There’s something inherently pleasurable about a film that punctures the balloon of self-importance surrounding the art world, and Cathy Yan looks more than ready to do just that with a sharpened pin. The notion of a gallerist selling a corpse as contemporary art feels like the sort of absurdity that would be unbelievable if the real world weren’t already halfway there. Yan has always shown a knack for turning social farce into something oddly humane, and with Portman and Galifianakis circling the same satirical canvas, The Gallerist looks set to be sharp-edged in all the right ways, while still finding room for something genuinely affecting.
Leviticus (Adrian Chiarella)
What it’s about: Two star-crossed teenage boys must escape a violent, shape-shifting entity that takes the form of the person they desire most – each other.
Why we’re excited: A horror film where desire itself becomes the monster has all the makings of something properly unsettling, and Adrian Chiarella’s debut promises exactly that. There’s definitely a cleverness at the heart of the idea: a creature that turns desire into danger in a town already choking on its own repression. Early buzz hints at a film that’s as poignant as it is unnerving — a coming-of-age story where the emotional stakes leave as much of a mark as the supernatural ones. If it lands, this could very well be one of the festival’s most emotionally shattering shockers.
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant (THUNDERLIPS)
What it’s about: When a messy millennial underachiever accidentally becomes alien-pregnant, she must navigate skeptical doctors, a useless baby daddy, and her oversharing mum in order to survive and reclaim her life.
Why we’re excited: THUNDERLIPS clearly aren’t interested in half-measures, and thank goodness for that. Their original short proved they could take a wildly absurd premise and play it with just enough sincerity to make the chaos land. Expanding it into a feature — complete with intergalactic pregnancy, bodily mayhem, and unapologetic Kiwi humour — promises something joyously chaotic. The promise here isn’t just gross-out gags; it’s the possibility of a comedy that treats its heroine’s crisis with real affection amidst all the slime.
Night Nurse (Georgia Bernstein)
What it’s about: On the first day of her night-shift orientation at a luxury retirement community, Eleni notices something unsettling in the geriatric exercise pool – an odd energy in the water, strange group dynamics, and one resident whose sudden, direct stare cuts straight through her.
Why we’re excited: There’s an unnerving charge to stories set at night in spaces meant to feel safe, and Bernstein’s feature looks set to exploit this fully. A luxury retirement community becomes a stage for desire, delusion, and something sinister lurking beneath the surface. Her focus on the psychological dynamics between caregiver and patient suggests a thriller that leans on subtle horror rather than overt violence, promising a tense and richly atmospheric debut.
Saccharine (Natalie Erika James)
What it’s about: Hana, a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorised by a hungry ghost after participating in an obscure weight-loss craze – eating human ashes.
Why we’re excited: Natalie Erika James has a talent for taking difficult emotions and refracting them through the geometry of horror, and Saccharine looks poised to push that even further. A weight-loss craze involving the consumption of human ashes sounds outlandish until you realise how much of our culture already encourages people to consume themselves in pursuit of an ideal. With James at the helm, there’s every chance this becomes a ghost story that gets under your skin not through jump scares but through the awful recognisability of its anxieties.
Rock Springs (Vera Miao)
What it’s about: After her father’s death, a grieving young girl moves with her mother and grandmother to an isolated house on the edge of a new town – only to discover something monstrous lurking in both the local history and the woods behind their home.
Why we’re excited: Horror has always been a potent vehicle for exploring buried histories, and Vera Miao’s feature debut looks set to tap into that tradition with real scope and ambition. By threading a supernatural mystery through a family shaped by generations of diaspora, Miao appears to be telling a story where the past isn’t merely present, but rather presses in at every turn.
Undertone (Ian Tuason)
What it’s about: Evy (Nina Kiri) cares for her ailing mother by day and co-hosts a paranormal podcast by night – maintaining a sceptical persona until a listener begins sending disturbing tapes that describe the nocturnal rituals of a couple named Mike and Jessa. As the recordings intensify, Evy’s grip on reality begins to fracture.
Why we’re excited: Any horror film that leans on sound as its primary source of tension immediately has our attention, and Undertone seems to understand the unnerving power of what you can’t quite see. A bidding war at Fantasia and A24’s acquisition suggest Tuason’s debut is poised to be one of 2026’s most striking and assured horror films.
