Overview Variety's Sundance Interview Studio puts the casts and directors of the festival's premieres in front of Variety's cameras over the opening weekend, and the 2026 lineup ran from Natalie Portman and Olivia Colman to Charli xcx, Channing Tatum and Ethan Hawke. Audible presented the studio in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and the videos run on Variety.com and on both companies' Instagram, X and TikTok accounts. Sundance began in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival, held its last Park City edition in 2026 and signed a ten-year deal to move to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027. On site The studio runs Friday through Sunday of the festival's first weekend, and talent comes in by film: in 2025 Olivia Colman and John Lithgow sat with director Sophie Hyde for Jimpa, and Dave Franco and Alison Brie came in with Michael Shanks for Together. On two of those evenings Variety and Audible hold Cocktails and Conversations, panels moderated by Variety journalists. In 2026 the Saturday session, Storytelling for Modern Audiences, was billed with Daveed Diggs, Natasha Lyonne and Iliza Shlesinger, and the Sunday one was built around an Audible audio mystery with Jessica Chastain, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Stuhlbarg and Carmen Ejogo. Seats at the panels go by invitation, requested through Variety. Talent and Influencers Jodie Foster, Pedro Pascal, Will Ferrell, Lionel Richie, Kieran Culkin, Glen Powell, Richard Linklater and June Squibb were on the 2024 studio list. In 2025 it named Jennifer Lopez, Questlove, Benedict Cumberbatch, Josh O'Connor, Dev Patel, Sarah Jessica Parker and Carey Mulligan. Judd Apatow, Taika Waititi, Riz Ahmed, Keegan-Michael Key and Rob Lowe joined Portman, Colman and Charli xcx on the 2026 list. Kenya Barris headlined the 2024 evening panel, and Ronan Farrow and Jon Hamm the 2025 ones. Track record Variety was already billing its Sundance studio as a return in 2020. Going into the 2026 festival, Audible's chief content officer called the Variety arrangement a longstanding partnership. Brand presence From 2024 to 2026 Audible's name went on the studio and both evening panels, and its own executives sat on stage beside the talent: chief content officer Rachel Ghiazza in 2024 and 2025, then Marshall Lewy and Kate Navin in 2026. The panels have been built around Audible titles, such as The Big Fix, its audio drama starring Jon Hamm, in 2025. In Park City, Audible also ran its Listening Lodge on the outside terrace of Kimball Terrace on Main Street, open to the public, with podcasts and audiobooks, hot drinks and light bites against the mountains; in 2024 it had fireplaces and listening gondolas.