The septet of juried offerings in the second track of the Sundance Short Film program reiterate the strength of this year’s slate in this cinematic format, particularly in the quality of acting across the board. Jake Junkins appears in Gender Studies by Jamie Kiernan O’Brien, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Incidentally, O’Brien is credited as the production sound mixer for another Sundance short film, Crisis Actor, directed by Lily Platt, who is a fellow New York University film student. Crisis Actor (see a forthcoming review and interview with Platt in The Utah Review ) won the Sundance Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction. Filippo Carrozza and Noah Roja appear in The Liars by Eduardo Braun Costa, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.