Fishing village love story Wicker, Scottish Highlands comedy The Incomer and prison drama Frank & Louis are among the projects with UK and Irish producers heading for Sundance 2026 (January 22-February 1), in what is shaping up to be a very strong year for UK-Ireland representation at the festival.
There are around 20 projects with UK and Irish producers out of 97 new features and series in the lineup.
The world cinema dramatic competition includes two films produced by Alex Polunin of Scotland-based Ossian International: Filipiñana is a co-production between the UK and Singapore, the Philippines, France and the Netherlands. It is the debut feature of Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel and is set in the self-contained sphere of an elite golf course and country club in Manila, with Film4 among backers.
Polunin is also the UK producer on Olive Nwosu’s debut, UK-Nigeria co-production Lady, about a taxi driver drawn into the underbelly of Lagos’ sex scene, with backing from Screen Scotland and Film4. HanWay is also selling.
How To Divorce During The War, a Lithuania-Luxembourg-Ireland-Czech Republic co-production, is also in this section. Lithuania’s Andrius Blaževičius directs this feature set in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, about a woman who has a revelation that she wants to leave her husband, right before Russia invades Ukraine in 2022. They navigate the process of divorce as it collides with the ongoing war. Ireland’s Feline Films is among the producers.
Extra Geography, the feature debut of Molly Manners, which unfurls in an all-girls boarding school and is produced out of the UK by Brock Media and written by Screen Star of Tomorrow Miriam Battye. It is one of four debut features backed by Film4 in this year’s festival. Funders also include BFI and Screen Yorkshire, with the UK’s HanWay Films selling.
In the Next strand is Louis Paxton’s debut feature, comedy The Incomer starring Domhnall Gleeson and Gayle Rankin, which shot in the Scottish Highlands. The film follows two siblings whose lives comprise of hunting seabirds, chatting to mythic creatures and defending their isle from dreaded ‘incomers’. Their world is upended with the arrival of an awkward council worker. It is produced by Earth Mama’s Shirley O’Connor and Emily Gotto under the UK banner Pilea Pictures, and co-produced by Wendy Griffin, with UK backers including the BFI, Screen Scotland and Head Gear, plus Ireland’s Inevitable Pictures.
In Premieres is Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s Wicker, starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard, a twisted love story set in a fishing village. The US-UK co-production shot in Hungary. UK producers are Lobo Films’ Andrea Cornwell and Escape Plan’s Oliver Kassman.
Also in Premieres is Petra Biondina Volpe’s Frank & Louis, a Switzerland-UK co-pro and the English-language feature debut of Swiss Late Shift director Petra Volpe, which shot in the UK and centres on a man serving a life sentence who takes a job caring for fellow prisoners in need. Cast includes Kingsley Ben-Adir. The UK producers are Georgie Paget and Thembisa Cochrane for Caspian Films.
In the episodic section is US-UK co-pro series Bait, created and produced by the UK’s Riz Ahmed for Amazon Prime Video, while in the family matinee section (formerly kids) is Australia-shot Fing! from director Jeffrey Walker, with Penelope Wilton and Blake Harrison among the UK cast. Jo Sargent of the UK’s King Bert Productions is lead producer of the UK-Australia co-pro. UK broadcaster Sky is co-financing and developed the feature.
UK sales agent Cornerstone Films is selling Stephanie Ahn’s Brooklyn-set Bedford Park, playing in the US dramatic competition.
UK pop star Charli xcx is also set to make a lot of noise in Park City, starring in three features in the festival: The Moment, I Want Your Sex and The Invite.
Documentary
It’s a bustling year for UK and Irish docs in Sundance. The Premieres section sees US-UK co-pro The Disciple, a doc about an infiltrator in the Wu-Tang Clan, with backing from Film4. It is directed and produced by UK filmmaker Joanna Natasegara of Violet Films alongside her Violet partner Abigail Anketell-Jones, Lauren Dark and Vanessa Kirby.
There is also Edward Lovelace and James Hall’s Courtney Love doc Antiheroine, produced by the UK’s Dorothy Street Pictures; Amir Bar-Lev’s The Last First: Winter K2, with Ventureland a producer; and Antoine Fuqua’s Nelson Mandela documentary Troublemaker, with the UK’s Lorton Entertainment aboard.
Over in the world cinema documentary competition is Sinéad O’Shea’s All About The Money, about the son of one of America’s wealthiest families creating a communist revolutionary base in rural Massachusetts, produced by Ireland’s SOS Productions; Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak’s UK-Syria-Lebanon co-pro Birds Of War, about a love story between a London-based journalist and a Syrian cameraman amidst the conflict, with the UK’s Sonja Henrici Creates producing and support from Screen Scotland; and Felipe Bustos Sierra’s Glasgow civil resistance doc Everybody To Kenmure Street, produced by Glasgow-based barry Crerar, also with support from Screen Scotland.
There’s also Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s US-UK-Pakistan co-pro Hanging By A Wire, about a cable car disaster in northern Pakistan, produced by Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse; and Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes’ BBC Storyville and Frontline Features co-pro One In A Million, filmed across 10 years, following a woman’s journey from Syria, to Germany, and back again.
UK sales agent Dogwoof is repping sales on Sentient, a doc about the animal testing debate, also in this section.
In Spotlight will be the US premiere of UK filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s Marianne Faithfull doc Broken English, following the Venice launch, and in special screenings is Scotland-based filmmaker Mark Cousins’ The Story Of Documentary Film produced by the UK’s Hopscotch Films and sold by Dogwoof.
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