Short takes / Sundance 2026

Hello from Park City, where it is almost certainly warmer—and drier—than New York, a situation unacceptable for both those carving the slopes and people like me whose toxic trait, so to speak, is a deep and abiding love of winter. I’d planned to keep a running festival diary, but I’m on assignment for three different outlets and trying not to scoop myself. I genuinely don’t know how people do this on twitter, or now letterboxd, I suppose.

Also: Diaries imply events, and I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time traversing empty plazas and parking lots during the day. This kind of urban planning is foreign to me, let alone the experience of walking through it, repeatedly.

So as not to spoil the full Sundance report I’m working on for my beloved Screen Slate, or the superlatives I’m awarding for Cultured, here are a few extra-abbreviated opinions, plus some genuinely newsy items for a change.