Nelson Kim

Spent last weekend at #Sundance2026, my first visit in many years, and the festival's last in Park City before it moves to Boulder next year. It was a great pleasure to reconnect with old friends and make new ones, and to be in a place where — despite the hype and the Hollywoodization and the corporatization and the overcrowding — the love of independent film and filmmaking powers everything.
The highlight of my trip: the premiere of THE FRIEND’S HOUSE IS HERE, co-written and co-directed by my dear friends @hossein.k.arshadi and @maryam.ataei THE FRIEND'S HOUSE IS HERE is about a group of young theater artists in Tehran, who put on underground plays for small audiences — until word reaches the authorities. This moving story of friendship and community in the face of state surveillance and state terror mirrors the conditions under which the film was made: Hossein and Maryam shot the movie without government approval, which is to say, illegally. Cast and crew put themselves at great risk to tell this tale — and some of them are doing so again by taking part in the current anti-government protests. But as Adrian Horton wrote in her four-star Guardian review, "...THE FRIEND'S HOUSE IS HERE is far from dour, suspicious or even expressly political. This is, against great odds and surely some western expectations, a beguiling hangout film – an invitation to [a] dinner party."
The film has just been given a Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, and is available to view on Sundance's online viewing platform until midnight Sunday. (Go to Sundance.org to set up an account and buy a ticket.) Or take your chances in the hopes that it will play at a theater near you — this is really a film designed for the big screen.