Channing Tatum, Olivia Wilde And Charli XCX Light Up Sundance Film Festival 2026 Premieres

The Sundance Film Festival 2026 continues to underline its reputation as a space for daring, personal storytelling, with Channing Tatum, Olivia Wilde, and Charli XCX leading a high-profile evening of premieres in Park City. Their back-to-back screenings at the Eccles Theatre drew full houses, long waitlists, and enthusiastic audience reactions, reinforcing Sundance’s cultural pull.

Channing Tatum’s ‘Josephine’ anchors the evening

Channing Tatum appeared in Beth De Araújo’s Josephine, a U.S. Dramatic Competition entry rooted in emotional realism. The film centres on an eight-year-old girl whose sense of safety is disrupted after witnessing a traumatic incident, with Tatum and Gemma Chan portraying parents struggling to guide her through fear and confusion. The project draws directly from the director’s own childhood memory, lending the film a deeply personal texture. The premiere concluded with an extended standing ovation and an engaged audience Q&A, a familiar Sundance marker of resonance.

Olivia Wilde headlines Gregg Araki’s provocative return

The mood shifted sharply with Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, a film years in the making that explores power, desire and generational attitudes towards intimacy. Olivia Wilde plays a controversial art-world figure whose relationship with a young assistant upends his understanding of sex and identity. Araki’s approach flips familiar dynamics, reflecting post-#MeToo cultural shifts and his long-standing engagement with feminist film theory.

Charli XCX expands her Sundance presence

Charli XCX made a notable impression with dual appearances, including a supporting role in I Want Your Sex and the premiere of her self-referential mockumentary The Moment. Her involvement highlights Sundance Film Festival 2026’s embrace of artists who move fluidly between music and cinema, blurring creative boundaries.

Together, these premieres reaffirm Sundance as a platform where independent films confront discomfort, experiment with form and foreground personal vision over spectacle.