Film Festival Watch: 8 Sundance Institute-Supported Films to See at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival

By Jessica Herndon

The fall film season is kicking off, and Sundance Institute-supported projects are making their way to Toronto, Canada, for one of cinema's biggest annual gatherings: the Toronto International Film Festival. Eight projects connected to the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and our artist programs will screen at TIFF, which runs from September 10-20.

Among the lineup are 2026 Festival premieres and award winners Bedford Park, a romance about a Korean American woman confronting the wounds of her childhood, Josephine, which follows an 8-year-old girl grappling with the aftermath of witnessing a crime, and Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, which finds love, loss, and new possibilities within Tokyo's ballroom dance scene. Audiences can also screen The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a drama that sends a veteran thief on a quest across the city after a job goes wrong, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, the late filmmaker William Greaves' look back at an iconic 1972 gathering of Harlem Renaissance luminaries.

TIFF will also screen projects nurtured through Sundance Institute artist programs. Seventeen, supported by the Indigenous Program, follows three sex workers whose lives intersect in downtown Vancouver, while Feature Film Program-supported thriller Elephants in the Fog centers on a village matriarch navigating desire and duty amid the disappearance of a young woman.

There's plenty of Sundance Institute-supported films to put on your TIFF radar, including a showing of the classic sports drama Hoosiers, directed by David Anspaugh and starring Gene Hackman as the new coach of a scrappy Indiana high school basketball team, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1987. Explore all of the titles screening at the festival below. And for more about the programs and initiatives supporting these artists and their work, click here.

Moon Choi and Son Sukku appear in Bedford Park from director Stephanie Ahn, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeong Park.

Bedford Park - 2026 Sundance Film Festival (winner of the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature)

Logline: Haunted by an abusive childhood, Audrey, a Korean American woman in her 30s, faces her emotional past. When her mother's car accident brings her back to her parents' home, she meets the man responsible for the accident. Their relationship builds, passions ignite, and they form a loving connection.

Like Magic (Por Arte de Magia) - Documentary Film Program

Logline: A woman journeys through the city of her childhood in search of what she was taught to forget.

Seventeen - Indigenous Program

Logline: Seventeen follows the intersecting lives of three young, queer, Indigenous sex workers in gritty downtown Vancouver over 17 hours as they face significant challenges.

Josephine - 2026 Sundance Film Festival (winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic); Feature Film Program; Artist Accelerator

Logline: After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety while adults are helpless to console her.

Elephants in the Fog - Feature Film Program

Logline: A village matriarch (Puspa Thing Lama) must choose between her heart's desires and her duty to her community when a young woman disappears into the forest in this delicate, riveting thriller.

Rinko Kikuchi and Alejandro Edda appear in Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! by Josef Kubota Wladyka, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Daniel Satinoff.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! - 2026 Sundance Film Festival (winner of the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic); Feature Film Program

Logline: Haru and Luis love competing in Tokyo's ballroom dance scene, but after tragedy strikes, Haru withdraws into isolation. When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with the new instructor. She must face what comes next as sparks fly.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem - 2026 Sundance Film Festival

Logline: A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York - 2026 Sundance Film Festival

Logline: When a theft goes awry, a veteran pickpocket is sent on a mission through New York to reclaim the stolen goods.

Documentaries Invite Active Reflection, Connecting Past and Present

Kikuyu Land Chronicles Historic Injustice and One Woman's Quest for Truth

Merrell and Sundance Collab Announce Three-Year Global Storytelling Program and 2027 Sundance Film Festival Partnership

LINK:	https://www.sundance.org/blogs/film-festival-watch-8-sundance-institut...
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