Director Fits’ Sundance 2026 Diary: Utah’s Last Dance

 As the purveyor of the finest director fits you’ll ever see on Instagram, my integration into the film industry has been a whirlwind. What started out as a distillery for well dressed filmmakers, @directorfits, my account, has put me in rooms I never thought I’d be in. From attending red carpet movie premieres, to speaking with my film heroes, to collaborating with studios on promotional merch, to now attending my first ever film festival on behalf of Hypebeast, this ascent has nonetheless been an absolutely insane experience. As I approached my first trip to the Sundance Film Festival, a million things ran through my head. The idea of being on the grounds for a major event on the film calendar like this one was always something I wanted to do. Some of the most prestigious names in independent filmmaking got their starts here. Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, just to name a few. Having read Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, the dream I built up in my head was beginning to take the shape of some of my favorite movies about making movies. I imagined I’d bump into Elvis Mitchell on Main Street or talk with Todd Haynes after a midnight screening. But the glamorous fantasy I developed over the years came crashing down once I arrived in Park City, Utah. My first mistake was arriving during the second half of the 10 day festival as all the A-listers began to jump on flights back to New York and LA. My time there felt akin to the feeling you got back in middle school when your mom worked late and you were one of the last kids left on campus waiting to be picked up. That being said, I think it made for a more unique and authentic experience that was all about watching movies and none of the hoity-toity theatrics that typically enshroud festivals. I didn’t attend any cool premieres or after parties or fancy dinners. I sat my ass in mediocre theaters and elevated screening rooms, some of which looked like your typical high school auditorium on a rainy school day. And I watched movies. I loved every second of it.One thing I’ll never forget about Sundance were the reactions from the audience during the screenings. I’m from LA where we love the movies more than anybody outside the French, perhaps? And I truly could not believe how engaged the crowd was for Gregg Araki’s campy dialogue in I Want Your Sex or Natalie Portman’s batshit art world ambitions in Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist. The following is a diary of my first time attending Sundance, which coincided with the festival’s last hurrah in Utah before it moves to Boulder, Colorado for future iterations. Also stay tuned for subsequent articles about the best films I saw, as well as some observations about style at Sundance.Thursday, 1/29 8:15 AM PST Arrived at the airport and immediately saw a TV in the LAX food court playing a Variety interview with John Wilson about his newly debuted documentary, The History of Concrete. Sundance is everywhere for thos