Searching for “Cheers Queers” at Sundance 2026

Before I left for the final Sundance in Utah, I heard about a party called “Cheers Queers.” I didn’t have a ticket, but I optimistically stuffed a sharp suit and thrifted yellow snakeskin boots into my suitcase, hoping an invitation would be dropped into my gloved hand.

Gloves were essential while waiting 90 minutes in the Park City cold to enter a stellar panel,“The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers,” led by Columbia Law Professor and Sundance Board Director Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw.

The elegant Crenshaw, developer of “intersectionality,” “critical race theory,” and #SayHerName, likened current aggression by the Federal Administration to the 1950s’ U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee. Testimony by Paul Robeson and Lorraine Hansbury was fearsomely performed by Tony-award winning actor Kara Young and CBS’s Elementary actor Jon Michael Hall. Crenshaw implored us to support Black creatives who could face career- shattering political repression.

My favorite panelist was stunningly beautiful director Ava DuVernay (Selma, 13th), dressed in baggy jeans and $1,250 running shoes from social activist company Pyer Moss. (Yes, I was Google Lens-ing ‘fits throughout.) She declared that the actions of the administration were intended to distract us, but that we must focus on telling our stories within our communities’ contexts, saying, “There are riches in the niches.” Viet Thanh Ngyuen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer reinforced this, stating, “don’t translate, don’t apologize.”

Getting closer to the Cheering Queers, or so I thought, I attended, “We Will Always Be Here: A Highlight Reel of LGBTQ+ Sundance Film Festival History.” I scored a second-row seat for two lesbian filmmakers that were life-changing to me as a 20’s queer person in the 1990s, Christine Vashon (Go Fish, Boys Don’t Cry, Past Lives) and Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman). Dunye ‘dropped’ her next project, Black is Blue starring a Black trans man. Perhaps it gets selected for Sundance 2027?

I stayed glued to my seat for “The New & Next Queer Cinema: A Conversation with Queer Icons of Then and Now.” Andria Wilson Mirza interviewed Jamie Kiernan O’Brien and two other young queer/trans directors who, also wearing chic footwear, seemed “next gen” to Vashon and Dunye. The younger filmmakers talked about normalizing stories about lesbian romance, trans sci fi, trans-Asian romance, and other genres. (Look out for Girl Fight!)

I was cheering with queers, but I still hadn’t found the party. I attended one more panel, a wall-to-wall affair with Latino filmmakers, “Access, Allies & Action,” moderated by Yael Stone (Lorna Morello on Orange is the New Black), but ran out of time for panels on Indigenous and rural filmmakers, AI, IMDb, Audible recording, and more. I actually attended two films, Silenced about the international #MeToo movement, and Forever Barbara about lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer.

I finagled an invite for a party with Boulder’s Mayor Aaron Brockett and City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. Both were effusive about Sundance moving to Boulder. But will this be good for our LGBTQ+ community? In my opinion, if we manage it, rather than it being managed for us.

As evidenced by the panels, Sundance has a long tradition of supporting queer films and filmmakers. Sundance also provides free movies to locals. And, Sundance’s year-round programs could hone skills and launch the careers of queer Boulder County creatives.

Sadly, I never found the LGBTQ+ party. But as I snapped photos on the last day, I realized that I was standing against a giant projection reading, yes, “Cheers Queers.” Perhaps like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the party has always been right here, at home.