Sundance Breakout ‘If I Go Will They Miss Me’ Earns Strong Reviews for Lyrical Coming‑of‑Age Portrait

Expanded from a 2022 Sundance‑winning short, the film channels a Watts childhood into a visually poetic community portrait.

Overview

Walter Thompson-Hernández’s feature screened as an official selection at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, drawing praise for craft and vision.
Set in Nickerson Gardens in Watts, the story follows 12-year-old Lil Ant and his fraught bond with his recently returned father, Big Ant.
Critics highlight a fusion of social realism with dreamlike imagery, including recurring planes overhead and Greek myth motifs.
Performances by Bodhi Dell, Danielle Brooks, and J. Alphonse Nicholson are singled out, with Dell’s narration and Brooks’s grounded warmth noted.
Michael Fernandez’s warm cinematography and influences linked to Barry Jenkins, RaMell Ross, Charles Burnett, and Spike Lee contribute to the film’s “hidden gem” buzz.