72 hours at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance, the largest independent film festival in the US, hosted its 42nd edition from January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Utah – its last edition at that venue. Starting in 2027, the premiere festival for independent films in North America will begin a new era in Boulder, Colorado.

Opening night saw the premiere of LADY, the debut feature written and directed by Olive Nwosu, a Nigerian British filmmaker who first participated in 2022 with her short Egúngún (Masquerade). Set in Lagos, Nigeria, LADY is a visually dynamic ride with newcomer Jessica Gabriel’s Ujah in the driver’s seat as the titular character, a fiercely independent cab driver who experiences transformation when she spends time with a posse of irrepressible sex workers.

LADY played in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section. The film comes alive when Nwosu is flexing her visual instincts, portraying a specific experience of Lagos at night that is both realistic and mythical. The cast of LADY was awarded a special jury prize for acting ensemble. 

OkayAfrica spent 72 hours in Park City (from 24 to 26 January) trailing and connecting with a trio of filmmakers of African origin who were invited to screen their work at the festival. 

Here’s what those 72 hours at Sundance look like: 

January 24:

2 pm — Venue: United Airlines Lodge on Main Street

What would Sundance be without engaging panels? The Sundance Institute collaborated with United Airlines to deliver How Creative Visions Take Flight, moderated by producer Diana Williams. Nwosu joined festival alumna Bernardo Britto and Lana Wilson to chat about creative processes and making the long trek to Sundance.

7 pm — Venue: The Park

Nwosu was also part of a celebration titled Bans Off Our Stories put together by Population Media Center and Level Forward, a public benefit company partnering with Nwosu to drive the impact campaign for LADY. 

Nwosu tells OkayAfrica about this partnership. “Level Forward cares about giving back to the community. Within this partnership, we have created a working women’s empowerment fund where we want to put a percentage of what LADY makes away. The funds will be stewarded by the female cast of the film, who will then decide how that money is used to support women in Lagos.” 

For Nwosu, apart from the aesthetic and political qualities of art, it is important to give back to the communities where stories like LADY are harvested from. 

Nwosu then joined a panel titled More To Talk About alongside law professor and Sundance Institute board of trustees member Kimberlé Crenshaw. She presented a brief clip from LADY, highlighting the sisterhood that is celebrated. In her remarks, Nwosu stressed, “We see the agency and energy that we have in the streets of Lagos. It is a shared sisterhood, a shared brotherhood, and a shared solidarity.” 

10 pm

After spending some time chatting with guests, Nwosu headed 30 miles away to Salt Lake City to participate in a talkback following the third public screening of LADY. But not before introducing the playwright now simply known as V (formerly Eve Ensler), who delivered a powerful closing call of solidarity that touched on the tragic deaths in Minnesota as well as the United States’ seeming march towards fascism.

Seated quietly in the audience for most of the evening was Praise Odigie Paige, a Nigerian-born filmmaker whose latest, Birdie, is also in the festival’s short film program. Set in 1970’s Virginia and produced by Yetty Akinola, Birdie follows the female members of an Igbo family who have escaped the Nigerian civil war. Incidentally, Sheila Chukwulozie — who also appeared in Nwosu’s 2022 short, Egúngún — plays the traumatized mother trying to keep her family together even as her younger daughter rebels. An atmospheric, intensely confident short, Birdie is certainly one of the highlights of the festival. 

Odigie Paige talked to OkayAfrica about the intense emotions that come with presenting her film to the Sundance audience. “In the process of making the film, it [became] about many things, some of which have to do with the film, some [otherwise]. I am really keen to see what happens when people watch it on the big screen. I have never had that experience.” 

The characters in Birdie exist in a sort of middle space, mourning the home they left behind but still trying to set up a semblance of home in their new environment. It is a unique situation familiar to Odigie Paige, who moved to the United States as a teenager in 2013. She observes, “Moving to New York is a pretty common story. But what is it like for a Nigerian to move to Oklahoma or some rural place in Massachusetts? It really exaggerates this sense of cultural alienation.”

January 25: 

11.30 am — Venue: Acura House of Energy

Nwosu is booked and busy. She was part of a panel put together by Women in Film titled Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Activism on Film and the Women Fighting for Change. Nwosu was in community with five other filmmakers who had their films in the selection, including Cathy Yan (The Gallerist) and Alexandria Stapleton (The Brittany Griner Story). Her remarks about telling stories about underserved communities echoed her chat with OkayAfrica in which she revealed, “LADY was very much about looking at danger in the city and the people who, in my point of view, are ‘disappeared.’ Who are these people, and how do we give them real humanness? It was a way of unveiling that curiosity I have always had.”

12 pm — Venue: Yarrow Theater

The Kenyan hot streak at Sundance continued with the world premiere of the expansive Kikuyu Land, which played in the World Cinema Documentary section. Co-directed by Bea Wangondu and American Andrew H. Brown, Kikuyu Land follows journalist Wangondu as she investigates a land battle that soon poses far-reaching implications- both personal and political.

Visibly overcome with emotion after the screening, Wangondu managed a few words about finding a fulfilling partnership with her co-director. “I knew it had to do with colonization. I knew it was a big story, and I had seen what he’d done previously… this is what we made.” Brown adds, “Bea was in front of the camera, and we let her discover things in real time and kept that sight line there. She is collecting puzzle pieces, handing them to me, and I’m trying to figure them out.”

2 pm — Venue: Tupelo

The post-premiere gathering for Kikuyu Land was a celebratory affair with the filmmakers partying and expressing gratitude to the teams of people who worked with them on the project. N’ganga Mungai, one of the film’s participants, chimed in with a guitar and performed two musical numbers, assisted by Nyokabi Kariuki, who composed the film’s score. 

January 26:

4.30 pm — Venue: The Impact Lounge

One of the hottest tickets at The Impact Lounge was the conversation with Black women directors. Olive Nwosu, Praise Odigie Paige, and Bea Wangondu sat down in conversation with American filmmaker Cheryl Dunye, whose 1996 film The Watermelon Woman is regarded as a landmark of queer cinema. 

Encouraged by the full room capacity audience, Odigie Paige grappled with the ways her film contends with religion. In her words, “There are moments where Birdie might feel like a critique of religion, but the question I am really asking is what people do with religion and what it does for these characters.” 

Religion might be a useful coping mechanism in Birdie, but in Kikuyu Land, the legacy of the British colonial adventure is a damning one that continues to reveal its consequences. Wangondu, however, does not want to dwell on this, choosing to center and speak for herself instead. “The film is about my identity, what I am now learning to be true, and how I am finding myself.”

7 pm — Venue: Grub Steak

The panel was followed by a reception welcoming the cast and crew of Birdie. In attendance was Afropop star Jidenna, who joined the project as executive producer.

11.05 pm — Venue: Library Center Theater

Birdie scored its world premiere, programmed in a block of six other short films dealing with similar themes of displacement and isolation. Odigie Paige, exhausted, can finally exhale, “It was fun, but I am glad that is over.”