Sundance 2026 lineup includes 3 BFI-backed world premieres 

Three films backed by the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund have been announced for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The annual celebration of independent cinema in Utah in January will include world premieres of Molly Manners’ Extra Geography and Olive Nwosu’s Lady in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and Louis Paxton’s The Incomer in the festival’s NEXT section. 

Elsewhere, the festival, which runs from 22 January to 1 February, will also showcase new work from directors including Kogonada, Mark Cousins, Cathy Yan, Josephine Decker, Gregg Araki, Olivia Wilde, Judd Apatow, Jay Duplass and Alex Gibney.

World premiere in NEXT 

Writer-director: Louis Paxton 
Producers: Shirley O’Connor, Emily Gotto 
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O’Rourke, Emun Elliott, Michelle Gomez, John Hannah 

The film is set on a remote Scottish island, where two siblings survive by hunting seabirds, retelling the stories of their ancestors, and defending the isle from dreaded ‘Incomers’. Their world is upended with the arrival of an awkward council worker who has come to uproot them from their homeland. 

World premiere in World Cinema Dramatic Competition 

Director: Molly Manners 
Writer: Miriam Battye 
Producer: Sarah Brocklehurst 
Starring: Marni Duggan, Galaxie Clear, Alice Englert 

Adapted from the acclaimed short story by award-winning author Rose Tremain, this funny, authentic coming of age story is an intimate snapshot of the challenges and joys of teenage girlhood. Flic and Minna are best friends and high achievers at a British girls’ boarding school, fiercely focused on their futures and making it into the best possible university. Their intimate friendship and universe are challenged when they decide to become more worldly and embark on their big summer project to fall in love with the first person they see, who happens to be their geography teacher, Miss Delavigne.  

World premiere in World Cinema Dramatic Competition    

Writer-director Olive Nwosu 
Producers: Alex Polunin, John Giwa-Amu, Stella Nwimo 
Starring: Jessica Gabriel’s Ujah, Amanda Oruh, Tinuade Jemiseye, Seun Kuti 

In the restless night of Lagos, one of the city’s few female cab drivers, Lady, survives by staying tough and focused. She dreams of escape, saving her earnings for a new life far from the chaos of this Nigerian metropolis. But when long-lost childhood friend, Pinky – now a sex worker – returns with a burst of colour and trouble, Lady is pulled reluctantly into her orbit. Soon she’s driving a crew of glamorous, reckless, fun-loving women through the underbelly of Lagos nightlife. What begins as judgement becomes unexpected sisterhood: wild, tender and disarming.