The Sundance Film Festival was envisioned as a place to champion new voices in cinema and celebrate non-studio films. This year, it’s become just another platform for established Hollywood celebrities—many of whom haven’t drawn broad public attention in years—to rail against ICE and the Trump administration.
Donald Trump sits down at an interview with Sean Hannity – YouTube, Fox News
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“What’s going on in this country right now is absolutely horrific. What the federal government, Trump’s government, Kristi Noem, ICE—what they’re doing is really the worst of the worst of humanity,” Natalie Portman told Deadline.
Natalie Portman shares her support for “ICE OUT” and “BE GOOD” – an ACLU-endorsed campaign honoring Renee Macklin Good and Keith Porter – as she voices her concern with the Trump administration pic.twitter.com/AV0ezA9nvH
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) January 24, 2026
Like many celebrities at Sundance, the actress wore an “ICE Out” pin at the event.
Crafting a Narrative
Director Olivia Wilde, who was at Sundance to promote her comedy The Invite, said, “In a tiny way, wearing a pin does nothing but at least we’re able to show support.”
On the red carpet, she told Variety, “We’re all here getting to celebrate something really beautiful and hopeful in film storytelling,” before adding that she’s appalled and sickened by the news cycle. “People are being murdered,” she said. “If we can do anything out here to support the movement to cast ICE out, to delegitimize this unbelievably criminal organization, then that’s what we should be doing.”
Olivia Wilde speaking with the Associated Press – Associated Press, YouTube
The Hollywood elites’ perception of ICE was a frequent talking point at the film festival. Edward Norton, who appears in The Invite alongside Wilde and Seth Rogen, told The Hollywood Reporter, “We are sitting here talking about movies while an illegal army is being mounted against U.S. citizens.”
More than the pins—tokens of support for protesters—it’s the repetition of alarming words and phrases that’s shifting the focus away from the celebrities’ work and onto national debates over ICE. The off-screen narrative crafted by black-and-white moral descriptors is storytelling at its most basic level, with little room left for nuance.
At the same time, they can’t resist emphasizing the dramatic irony. This year’s Sundance Film Festival is a celebration of film, as always, juxtaposed against a time of national crisis and grief. While discussing her film, The Gallerist, Portman told Variety, “It’s a bittersweet moment to celebrate something we’re so proud of on the backdrop of our nation in pain.”
The “Empathizing Machine”
Ultimately, the live protests and national news events have taken some of the spotlight off Sundance, forcing the celebrities in attendance to share their industry-approved opinions on ICE if they want to hit the algorithm. Perhaps if the films they were there to promote were designed to appeal to, and even inspire, the people in the parts of the country they claim to support, political commentary wouldn’t need to be brought into the festival.
Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, and Edward Norton during an interview for ‘The Invite’ – Los Angeles Times, YouTube
“I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge everything that is happening in Minnesota,” filmmaker Kogonada told a Sundance audience. “I’m a believer in what [Roger] Ebert says that cinema is an empathizing machine. In the darkest time, you hope that art doesn’t feel indulgent but that it deepens our sense of humanity.”
Unfortunately, many may find that the machine doesn’t run smoothly when operated by those whose cultural empathy moves only in one direction.
How do you feel about Hollywood celebrities using Sundance to speak out against ICE? Let us know in the comments!
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These Hollywood clowns who live in a gate communities show support for waves of illegals flooding regular people’s neighbourhoods. Think about that next time you decide to spend money on their movies.
It’s “Wilde” how old and haggard Olivia is looking now. I guess these tards didn’t get the memo – their opinions aren’t shit to us anymore.
This is what makes people MORE anti-immigration. They don’t like seeing millionaires protecting criminals who threaten their own way of life.
They forgot Ricky Gervais speech from Golden Globes few years ago…