Category: Watchlists

At the Sundance Film Festival, support of films that focus on music dates back to the ’80s. The 2026 slate continues that legacy with projects about the fast, messy, and influential lives of musicians.

By Gina McIntyre
From rock stars, artists, and authors to athletes, political luminaries, and youthful chess grandmasters — some of the most colorful, innovative, and fascinating individuals in modern history share

Across feature films, episodic works, and short films, more than 70 new projects by women are premiering and screening this year, each offering a distinct lens on love, identity, power, and more.

Given the number of features, short films, and episodic works playing the Festival in 2026, it’d be impossible to catalog every comedy, dramedy, or comedy-adjacent project in the lineup. But if you’re looking to watch something laugh-out-loud funny in person or at home, you can’t go wrong with any of the following.

The slate of films by Black artists, across documentaries, narrative features, episodic storytelling, and short films, asks audiences to recognize and understand Black life as multifaceted.