More than two decades after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and shook the horror community to its core, James Wan’s seminal horror film Saw is set to return to the festival for a special screening. As part of the Park City Legacy initiative, the 2004 film that started a franchise will play at the festival again. The version to screen is a digital restoration from a 4K scan supervised by the director, who will also attend alongside other special guests.
Per a report from Bloody Disgusting, Saw will screen at the 2026 edition of Sundance, and fans who are fortunate enough to head over to Park City can already purchase their tickets at the following link. Passes already on sale are part of a festival package, while single-show tickets will be sold in January 2026.
Eugene Hernandez, who’s in charge of programming at the Sundance Film Festival, spoke about adding entries like Saw to the regular schedule while honoring late founder Robert Redford, who passed away recently. 2026 will be the last year the festival is held in Park City, Utah, before it makes its move to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.
“This will be an especially poignant year for us as we reflect on the vision of our late founder, Robert Redford, who redefined cinema and provided a home for generations of artists when he created Sundance Institute. In the coming weeks as we announce the projects premiering at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, we aim to have these compelling new stories in conversation with films from the Festival’s first four decades and also share moments that connect our history as a Festival with the present and future of independent filmmaking.”
How ‘Saw’ Caused an Impact After Its Release at the Sundance Film Festival
Before Saw‘s first Sundance screening, Lionsgate purchased the domestic and international distribution rights. The studio was able to foresee the impact the film would have on the festival, as the midnight shows were packed and fans were ecstatic at James Wan’s almost perverse presentation of a new killer in cinema. (Yes, technically, Jigsaw isn’t a killer, but who are we kidding?)
Although Lionsgate was positive a straight-to-DVD release would work, executives decided to gamble on a theatrical release during the spooky season. The $1.2 million film became a worldwide horror phenomenon, grossing $104 million during its first theatrical run. When the film was released on DVD, it found a new audience, and producers were able to see the potential of a franchise with films released annually as part of a Halloween tradition. Up until 2010’s Saw 3D, the seventh installment in the series, fans had the chance to see a Saw sequel released in October of every year. Those were the days.
- Release Date
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October 29, 2004
- Runtime
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103 minutes
- Director
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James Wan
- Producers
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Gregg Hoffman, Mark Burg, Oren Koules
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Leigh Whannell
Adam Faulkner-Stanheight
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Monica Potter
Alison Gordon
