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Arts·Here & Queer

The Sundance Film Festival will always be a safe haven for groundbreaking queer cinema

Festival director Eugene Hernandez stops by Here & Queer to chat with Peter Knegt about its great LGBTQ legacy.

Festival director Eugene Hernandez stops by Here & Queer to discuss its great LGBTQ legacy

Peter Knegt · CBC Arts ·
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Eugene Hernandez (right) sits down with Here & Queer host Peter Knegt.
Eugene Hernandez (right) sits down with Here & Queer host Peter Knegt. (CBC Arts)

Here & Queer is a Canadian Screen Award-winning talk series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.

The Sundance Film Festival unquestionably has been one of our greatest launching pads for queer filmmakers over its nearly 50 years of existence. The 2026 edition of Sundance — which kicks off this week and will be the last one held in Utah before the festival moves to Boulder, Colorado in 2027 — will surely be no exception.

Last year, for example, Twinless, Sorry, Baby, Plainclothes, Pee-wee As Himself and Come See Me In The Good Light all premiered at Sundance before becoming some of the best LGBTQ films of 2025. Past editions have introduced the world to the brilliance of Todd Haynes, Gregg Araki, Lisa Cholodenko, Ira Sachs, John Cameron Mitchell, Jane Schoenbrun, among dozens and dozens of others. It's an extraordinary legacy.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Sundance's current festival director, Eugene Hernandez, to chat a bit about this legacy, and also how the festival is looking to the future in these increasingly uncertain times. You can watch the entire conversation below.

WATCH | Eugene Hernandez on Here & Queer:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Knegt

Peter Knegt (he/him) hosts the Canadian Screen Award-winning talk series Here & Queer, produces the essay series Emerging Queer Voices and co-writes the column Holding Space with Anne T. Donahue. His previous work at CBC Arts included writing the LGBTQ-culture column Queeries (winner of the Digital Publishing Award for best digital column in Canada) and spearheading the launch and production of series Canada's a Drag, variety special Queer Pride Inside, and interactive projects Superqueeroes and The 2010s: The Decade Canadian Artists Stopped Saying Sorry. Beyond CBC, Knegt is also the filmmaker of numerous short films, the author of the book About Canada: Queer Rights and the curator and host of the monthly film series Queer Cinema Club at Toronto's Paradise Theatre.

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