Podcast

Sundance 2026 #1

Giddy up: Maddie Whittle, Robert Daniels, and Will Tavlin join to discuss early fest premieres Buddy, The Moment, and Josephine

A still from Buddy by Casper Kelly, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute

It’s late January, and the intrepid Film Comment crew is on the ground reporting from an extra special edition of the Sundance Film Festival—the last to take place on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, the festival’s home since 1981, before moving to Boulder, Colorado in 2027. For the next week, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast.

To kick things off, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited programmer Madeline Whittle (Film at Lincoln Center) as well as critics Robert Daniels (RogerEbert.com) and Will Tavlin (n+1) to share their responses to the films premiering during the first few days of the fest. The group discusses the tongue-in-cheek Charli XCX mockumentary The Moment (3:30), Casper Kelly’s dark comedy Buddy (20:15), and Beth de Araujo’s sophomore feature Josephine (29:50).

This story is part of the Winter-Spring 2026 issue of Film Comment.

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