Sundance 2026 Exclusive: Daryl "Chill" Mitchell On Going To Sundance To Watch His 1990 Classic ‘House Party’
Among the films that played at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in its final year at Park City, Utah was the legendary 1990 classic House Party.
House Party premiered at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival in the Dramatic Competition, where it won the Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic and the Filmmaker Trophy: Dramatic. Supervised by director of photography Peter Deming and approved by director Reginald Hudlin, this new 4K restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery using the 35 mm original camera. The original 4.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the LCRS 35 mm magnetic DME stems.
Released by New Line Cinema on March 9th in 1990, the film was written and directed by Reginald Hudlin and starred the rap duo Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin of Kid ‘N Play
Also featured in the comedy were Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, A.J. Johnson, Gene “Groove” Allen (of Groove B. Chill), Darryl “Chill” Mitchell, Full Force (B-Fine, Paul Anthony and Bowlegged Lou), Kelly Jo Minter, the late John Witherspoon, who passed away in 2019 and Robin Harris (who died of a heart attack nine days after the film was released).
Play’s parents are out of town, and he’s planning the house party to end all house parties. His best friend, Kid, wants to go more than anything, knowing Sydney (Tisha Campbell-Martin), the hottest girl in school, is sure to be there. But when Kid gets into a fight at school, his father grounds him. Still determined to go, Kid sneaks out of the house and faces one calamity after another as he makes his way to Play’s house and the party of the school year.
House Party was Chill's first film, launching a career that includes film and TV projects such as Inside Man, Galaxy Quest, NCIS: New Orlearns, Fear the Walking Dead, and 10 Things I Hate About You, among many others.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales spoke to Daryl "Chill" Mitchell on his 1990 film House Party being shown at Sundance 2026. Many people don't know that the film is loosely based on his life, when he earned money in his youth by throwing house parties.