Cinema News: Sundance 2026: Charli XCX and more

January 24, 2026 | View in browser

Two girls look up at their teacher, smitten.

By Vanessa Franko, Samantha Masunaga, Amy Nicholson, Mark Olsen and David Viramontes

Welcome to a special Sundance Daily edition of the Wide Shot, a newsletter about the business of entertainment. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Good morning! It's another crisp, beautiful day in Park City: Saturday, Jan. 24. It will be mostly cloudy today with a high (if you can call it that) of 28 degrees.

Are you following along at our page collecting all our videos? Everything from celebs visiting our photo studios, quick reactions outside of screenings, carpet arrivals and more — you can find it right here.

Today's newsletter brings you some scene reports (what exactly went down at Charli XCX's world premiere of "The Moment"?) and recommendations for what to watch today, plus Samantha's thoughts on crowdfunding and its potential in the indie sphere.

A listening party for the world's most expensive album

On Thursday night I watched Cappadonna take viewers through the Wu-Tang Clan's humble Staten Island origins in "The Disciple," the documentary partially about the creation of the group's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," the most expensive album ever sold.

Friday afternoon I was in a swanky house a couple of miles away from downtown Park City listening to a portion of the only copy in the world as Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins wrote in a notebook a few feet away. All attendees obviously had phones locked away, while others sampled an incredibly fancy charcuterie spread.

Billed as an album listening party, we got to hear the 13-minute sampler that was originally played for potential buyers and two other tracks, including the title cut of the 31-song album, totaling about 20 minutes.

It matched what was described in Joanna Natasegara's documentary: a return to the early Wu-Tang Clan sound. The rhymes were layered with strings, sirens, gunshots and a horn part reminiscent of Jr. Walker & the All Stars' "Shotgun," the latter of which got some of the biggest reaction from the pretty stoic crowd, except for the people who kept talking over the rare listen. — Vanessa Franko

Waiting on line for Charli XCX

Charli xcx's "The Moment" was easily the buzziest film going into Sundance 2026 — at least to those of us still reliving the highs of "brat" summer. That 2024 album unleashed a pure, unadulterated strain of Charli's particular brand of celebrity into the world and became a ubiquitous pop culture sensation.

When the movie "inspired by an original idea by Charli xcx" was announced, many were curious what her first major foray into film would look like. Well, the moment has come.

An hour before the premiere, moviegoers crowded in front of the Eccles, many of them in "brat green" beanies, some homemade and some that looked like official swag, waited for a chance to see Charli. A group of fans were seen walking down the line of attendees trying to buy tickets, with someone offering me $150 for mine. (I was never going to miss the opportunity to see the film at the premiere.)

Inside, some of Charli's tracks played before the film. During their intro, director Aidan Zamiri said, "This movie is about the end of an era," setting the tone for the film. What followed was part fever trip through the machine of the music industry and part satirical mockumentary that felt both real and exaggerated.

"She's mocking herself," The Times' Suzy Exposito said immediately following the screening, "but she's also at her commercial peak."

Charli has three films playing at this year's fest. That feels like both an exclamation point on her pop-music conquest and a signal of the next evolution of her career, which includes the soundtrack for the upcoming "Wuthering Heights" adaptation.

One audience member wanted to know, how does she find the time? Charli couldn't have responded more perfectly, quoting her own lyrics: "365. Don't eat, don't sleep, just put it on repeat." — David Viramontes

The movies worth standing in line for

"Extra Geography" (Megaplex Redstone, 1:10 p.m.)

I haven't seen a good new teen movie in ages. My era had oodles, most of which still hold up. But Generation Alpha deserves their own potential classics.

Maybe one will be Molly Manners' "Extra Geography" which combines the friendship psychodrama of "Heavenly Creatures" and the aspirational-chic of "Clueless" into a comedy about two competitive and codependent girls, Minna and Flic (fantastic first-time actors Galaxie Clear and Marnie Duggan), who act in lockstep from joining the school play or forcing themselves to both fall in love with their awkward geography teacher, Miss Delavigne (Alice Englert).

Minna is rich and pretty; Flic, her follower, is a scholarship student who mimics everything her idol does a millisecond later. Life is destined to divide them and maybe that's fine. (It's at least brutally hilarous.)

But what elevates the movie is Manners' recognization that Minna also wishes they could stay best friends forever. Don't hate her because she's beautiful. — Amy Nicholson

"The Invite" (Eccles Theatre, 6 p.m.)

Part of the excitement of festival premieres is when a movie arrives with a certain what-is-this? air of mystery about it. So it is with the first feature directed by Olivia Wilde since her ill-fated "Don't Worry Darling" from 2022.

The new film feels like a purposeful reset, reportedly based on Spanish filmmaker Cesc Gay's "The People Upstairs" with a screenplay adapted by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. The movie features Wilde and Seth Rogen as a couple who invite their neighbors (played by Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz) over for dinner, setting in motion an emotional evening of revelations as long-simmering tensions come to a boil.

Said to be shot chronologically on 35mm film with a cast of four unpredictable performers, this could go off in any number of directions, which makes it feel like a must-see. — Mark Olsen

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Will crowdfunding keep growing in the film business?

Indie filmmakers have had a tough last few years.

They've faced a softer market at festivals like Sundance, where all-night bidding wars or at least the hope of a distribution deal after a premiere have become few and far between.

That, in turn, has made it tough to get financing to make more films, as private equity has shied away.

As the industry shifts, that has left a gap for alternative sources of funding, including crowdfunding.

I spoke with Taylor K. Shaw-Omachonu, film lead at Kickstarter, to learn more about why some filmmakers are turning to crowdfunding and the company's expansion into distribution.

Though crowdfunding campaigns are typically ways for filmmakers to raise money for their projects, it can also allow them to build an audience and prove there's a market for their work — a key aspect, particularly for indie films.

"It's an opportunity to say, 'I know who my audience is, and I have a direct relationship with them,'" Shaw-Omachonu said. "And that is the future."

Kickstarter itself has also branched out beyond funding. The company now has a partnership with streaming service Tubi, where users can watch dozens of films that got funding through Kickstarter. There's no guarantee that all Kickstarter-backed films will get a distribution deal with Tubi, but it's a potential option, Shaw-Omachonu said.

Crowdfunding isn't the silver bullet to the financing woes of the film business. But it can make sense for some films, like 2024's "The Apprentice," which struggled to find a distributor after legal threats from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Producers turned to Kickstarter to raise money for the film's marketing and release. (The film was distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment.)

"What I always say to filmmakers is work the traditional system, if you can get millions of dollars that way, amazing," Shaw-Omachonu said. "Also leveraging, connecting with your audience, running a Kickstarter campaign — it is a tool that you can put in your toolbox of how you get your slate made." — Samantha Masunaga