Sundance NEXT Entry 'Night Nurse' Defies Festival Conventions
Georgia Bernstein highlights how the 2026 feature uses a memory-care setting to craft an unconventional narrative about a nurse and patient turned accomplices.
Shortfundly Desk · Park City ·
Filmmaker Magazine spotlights Georgia Bernstein's take on "Night Nurse," a 2026 feature that premiered in the NEXT competition at Sundance. Bernstein notes the film immediately distinguishes itself from typical festival fare through its distinctive title sequence, which tracks a telephone cord along a body to establish an intimate, off-kilter tone.
The narrative centers on Eleni, a new nurse played by Cemre Paksoy, who forms an unlikely bond with Douglas, a patient undergoing evaluation for early-onset Alzheimer's portrayed by Bruce McKenzie. During overnight shifts in a memory-care unit, Eleni falls under Douglas's influence and becomes his partner in a phone scam, subverting expectations for a caregiving drama.
Bernstein positions the film as a sharp deviation from Sundance's tendency toward safer programming choices. By blending elements of thriller and character study within a clinical setting, "Night Nurse" exemplifies the kind of formal and narrative risk-taking the NEXT section was designed to showcase.
This brief draws on reporting from Filmmaker Magazine.
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