Sundance adds two documentary premieres

Andrew Jarecki's The Stringer and Bao Nguyen's The Stringer join line-up

by Amber Wilkinson

The Alabama Solution and The Stringer, which have been added to the Sundance line-up
The Alabama Solution and The Stringer, which have been added to the Sundance line-up Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

The Sundance Film Festival has announced two non-fiction films will be added to the Premieres section of this year's line-up.

Bao Nguyen's The Stringer follows a two-year investigation that uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognised photographs of the 20th century.

Andrew Jarecki's The Alabama Solution sees incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.

Both directors have been at the festival before - Jarecki brought Capturing The Friedmans (2003), Just A Clown (2004), and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015), while Nguyen premiered Be Water (2020) and The Greatest Night in Pop (2024).

Director of programming Kim Yutani said: “Adding these two nonfiction features to our robust slate of documentary offerings at the festival, both told by filmmakers who have been a part of our Sundance community for many years, completes our programming with compelling explorations around justice and truth-telling.”

The festival runs from January 23 to February 2.

Share this with others on...

Movies out this week include:

Little Amélie The President’s Cake
News

Swapping the narrative Amanda Kramer on giving her body-switch film By Design a modern twist

'I love murkiness where no one's good or bad' Zak Hilditch on making modern zombie film We Bury The Dead

'Children can understand a lot more than we think..' The makers of Little Amélie on why perceptions about animation are changing

'This was absolutely the most personal film for me' Lovisa Sirén on highlighting bond between mother and child in Without Kelly

'I don't like that feeling of things that look alike' The Love That Remains director Hlynur Pálmason on the idiosyncratic and personal

Frederick Wiseman dies Filmmaker of rare vision passes away at 96

More news and features

We're currently bringing you news, reviews and more direct from the Berlinale.



We're looking forward to the Glasgow Film Festival.



We've recently brought you coverage of Sundance, Palm Springs, the French Film Festival UK, Thessaloniki Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the Leeds International Film Festival.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

As we move into 2026, don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.

With awards season in full flow, you can keep track of the latest news on that here:

Independent Spirit Awards Train Dreams is Best Picture

César nominations Nouvelle Vague leads the race for France's biggest awards

BAFTA nominations One Battle After Another and Sinners almost neck and neck

Oscars Sinners dominates the nominations