Celebrities Are Condemning ICE During Sundance Film Festival

Olivia Wilde with an “ICE Out” pin during this year’s Sundance Film Festival. (Photo: Colleen Sturtevant via Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0)

During this year’s Sundance Film Festival, held in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, several high-profile actors condemned the actions of ICE amid its lethal and continued attacks on Minneapolis communities. Earlier this month, ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good, an act that the Trump administration has consistently deemed as self-defense. Last week, Border Patrol agents also killed anti-ICE protestor Alex Pretti, sparking increased outrage and protests throughout the Minnesotan city.

“What’s going on in this country right now is absolutely horrific,” Natalie Portman told Deadline while donning “ICE Out” and “Be Good” pins. “What the federal government, Trump’s government, Kristi Noem, ICE—what they’re doing is really the worst of the worst of humanity.”

Olivia Wilde and Zoey Deutch joined Portman in wearing “ICE Out” pins in solidarity with anti-ICE protestors and immigrant rights activists. “I’m appalled and sickened. We can’t go another day just sort of accepting this as our new norm. People are being murdered,” Wilde told Variety on Sundance’s red carpet. The film she directed, The Invite, sparked an intense bidding war during the film festival. “We’re all here getting to celebrate something really beautiful and hopeful in film storytelling. But the world is hurting right now, and this country is hurting.”

Edward Norton, who stars in The Invite, echoed the sentiment in The Hollywood Reporter: “We’re sitting here talking about movies while an illegal army is being mounted against U.S. citizens.”

Sundance has long served as a site for political expression and activism. Last year, the festival was home to pro-Palestine demonstrations and, in 2017, it was met with the Women’s March on Main. Tensions have escalated during this year’s edition, perhaps most clearly reflected in a man’s racially-charged assault of Florida Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost. Frost sustained the attack during CAA’s Sundance party last weekend, after being warned that he would be “deported.”

“I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” Frost, who identifies as Afro-Latino, wrote on X the day after the assault. “He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay.”

Across the country, protests have erupted in response to federal brutality throughout Minneapolis. There are also calls for a “nationwide day of no school, no work, and no shopping” on January 30, 2026, according to TIME. ICE agents have killed eight people so far this year, including Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, and Víctor Manuel Díaz. In 2025, federal agents fatally shot at least 32 people while in ICE custody, including Keith Porter Jr. on New Year’s Eve. As of this writing, President Trump continues to insist that ICE protestors are “paid agitators and insurrectionists.”

To support activists and immigrants in Minneapolis and beyond, browse this list of resources.