What to Watch in November: Sundance Film Festival Release Rundown
Eight films that premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival are arriving in theaters and streaming services this November, sundance.org reported. Five of these releases collected awards during their festival runs.
Nonfiction projects dominate the November calendar with six documentaries reaching audiences. Viewers can watch features ranging from a long-distance relationship between journalists to a chronicle of the first all-Black special operations team in Vietnam.
Co-directors Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak chronicle their own romance in Birds of War. Boulos, a Lebanese journalist at the BBC in London, first contacted Syrian photojournalist Habak in 2016 asking for footage from Aleppo.
The documentary captures their relationship through voice memos, video calls, and text messages while violence affected their home countries. The film won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact and opened in select theaters on November 4, sundance.org reported.
Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman explore human-wildlife proximity in Nuisance Bear. Narrated by the late Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, the documentary shows Churchill, Manitoba, where tourists watch polar bears adapt to human territory. The feature won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary and arrived in select theaters on November 6 ahead of a December 4 expansion, sundance.org reported.
J.M. Harper combines archival photographs, Super 8 footage filmed by soldiers, and contemporary interviews in Soul Patrol. Based on Ed Emanuel’s memoir, the hybrid documentary examines the first all-Black long-range reconnaissance patrol in the Vietnam War. The project won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary and hit select theaters on November 6, sundance.org reported.
Fictional narratives join the documentary lineup this month. Director Kogonada presents Zi, following an accomplished violinist named Zi, played by Michelle Mao, wandering Hong Kong while awaiting biopsy results for a brain tumor. The experimental film opened in select theaters on November 6, sundance.org reported.
William David Caballero uses animations, voice recordings, and dioramas in Theydream to explore decades of memories with his Puerto Rican family. The project won the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression and arrives in select theaters on November 13, sundance.org reported.
Dawn Porter investigates the 1983 killing of a 14-year-old student inside a Baltimore junior high school in When A Witness Recants. The documentary examines how teenager convictions collapsed thirty-six years later due to recanted witness testimony and police coercion. Executive-produced by Ta-Nehisi Coates with animations by Dawud Anyabwile, the film debuts on HBO and HBO Max on November 17, sundance.org reported.
Beth de Araújo directs Josephine, following an eight-year-old girl named Josephine, played by Mason Reeves, who witnesses a violent assault in Golden Gate Park. Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan portray her parents in the drama, which won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize Dramatic and the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic. The feature reaches theaters on November 20, sundance.org reported.
Filmmakers Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff trace the athletic career and activism of Billie Jean King in Give Me the Ball!. The documentary utilizes archival footage and contemporary interviews to examine King’s fight for pay equity in sports. The feature airs on ESPN on November 22, sundance.org reported.
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