The Sundance Film Festival prepares to bid farewell to Park City, and Robert Redford

The Sundance Film Festival may be a little bittersweet this year. It will be familiar in some ways as it kicks off on Thursday in Park City, Utah. There will be stars, from Natalie Portman to Charli XCX, and breakout discoveries, tearjerkers, comedies, thrillers, oddities that defy categorization and maybe even a few future Oscar nominees. The pop ups and sponsors will be out in full force on Main Street. The lines to get into the 90 movies premiering across 10 days will be long and the volunteers will be endlessly helpful and cheery in subfreezing temperatures.

But the country's premier showcase for independent film is also in a time of profound transition after decades of relative stability. The festival is bidding farewell to its longtime home and forging forward without its founder, Robert Redford, who died in September. Next year, it must find its footing in another mountain town, Boulder, Colorado.

Celebrating the legacy of Robert Redford and his creation

It's no surprise that legacy will be a through-line at this year's final edition in Park City. There will be screenings of restored Sundance gems like ''Little Miss Sunshine,'' ''Mysterious Skin,'' ''House Party'' and ''Humpday'' as well as Redford's first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama ''Downhill Racer.'' Many will also pay tribute to Redford at the institute's fundraising event, where honorees include Chloé Zhao, Ed Harris and Nia DaCosta.

''Sundance has always been about showcasing and fostering independent movies in America. Without that, so many filmmakers wouldn't have had the careers they have,'' said ''Mysterious Skin'' filmmaker Gregg Araki. He first attended the festival in 1992 and has been back many times, including at the labs where Zhao was one of his students.

Quite a few festival veterans are planning to make the trip, including ''Navalny'' filmmaker Daniel Roher. His first Sundance in 2022 might have been a bit unconventional (made fully remote at the last minute due to the pandemic) but ended on a high note with an Oscar. This year he's back with two films, his narrative debut ''Tuner,'' and the world premiere of ''The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,'' which he co-directed with Charlie Tyrell.

''We're going through a weird moment in the world … There's something that strikes me about an institution that has been evergreen, that seems so entrenched going through its own transition and rebirth,'' Roher told The Associated Press. ''I'm choosing to frame this year as a celebration of Sundance and the institute and a future that will ensure the festival goes on forever and ever and ever and stays the vital conduit for so many filmmakers that it has been.''

Jay Duplass, who first came to Sundance in 2003 with his brother, Mark, with what he calls a ''$3 film'' said it was the place where his career was made.

''I'd probably be a psychologist right now if it wasn't for Sundance,'' Duplass said.

While he's been to ''probably 15 Sundances'' since, it hasn't lost its luster. In fact, when a programmer called him to tell him that his new film ''See You When I See You'' was selected, he cried. The film is based on a memoir in which a young comedy writer (Cooper Raiff) attempts to process the death of his sister (Kaitlyn Dever). It's one of many films that finds humor amid grim subjects.

Bold swings, comedies and Hollywood stars

As always, the lineup is full of starry films as well, including Cathy Yan's art world satire, ''The Gallerist,'' starring Portman, Jenna Ortega, Sterling K. Brown, Zach Galifianakis and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. The romantic drama ''Carousel,'' from Rachel Lambert, features Chris Pine and Jenny Slate as high school exes who rekindle their romance later in life. Araki is also bringing a new film, ''I Want Your Sex,'' in which Olivia Wilde plays a provocative artist (Araki described as a cross between Madonna and Robert Mapplethorpe) who takes on Cooper Hoffman as her younger muse.

Wilde also steps behind the camera for ''The Invite,'' in which she stars alongside Seth Rogen as a couple whose marriage disintegrates over the course of an evening. Olivia Colman is a fisherwoman looking to make the perfect husband in ''Wicker,'' co-starring Alexander Skarsgård. Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern bride-to-be seeking out her celebrity ''free pass'' (Jon Hamm) in the screwball comedy ''Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.'' And Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe lead the Depression-era crime drama ''The Weight.''

Pop star and noted cinephile Charli XCX will also be out and about, starring in the self-referential mockumentary ''The Moment,'' and appearing in ''The Gallerist'' and ''I Want Your Sex'' as well.

Documentaries about celebrities and urgent subjects

The 2026 festival features a robust lineup of documentaries too, which have a good track record of snagging eventual Oscar nominations and wins. There are a handful of films about famous faces, including basketball star Brittney Griner, Courtney Love, Salman Rushdie, Billie Jean King, Nelson Mandela and comedian Maria Bamford.

Others delve into newsy subjects past and present, like ''When A Witness Recants,'' in which author Ta-Nehisi Coates revisits the case of the 1983 murder of a boy in his Baltimore middle school and learns the truth. ''American Doctor'' follows three professionals trying to help in Gaza. ''Who Killed Alex Odeh'' examines the 1985 assassination of a Palestinian American activist in Southern California. ''Everybody To Kenmure Street'' is about civil resistance to deportations in Glasgow in 2021. And ''Silenced'' tracks international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson in her fight against the weaponization of defamation laws against victims of gender violence.

Saying goodbye to Main Street

There might be a bit of wistfulness in the air too, as everyone takes stock of the last Sundance in Park City and tries to imagine what Boulder might hold.

''It feels very special to be part of the last one in Park City,'' Duplass said. ''It's just a super special place where, you know there are going to be movies there with giant stars and there's also going to be some kids there who made movies for a few thousand dollars. And they're all going to mix.''

Araki, like Redford, knew long ago that the festival had outgrown Park City. It will be strange to no longer have its iconic locations like Egyptian Theatre and Eccles and The Ray anymore, but it's also just a place.

''The legacy and the tradition of Sundance will continue no matter where it is,'' Araki said.