The annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, is a place to see creativity at its best, and be seen by the film community. Adobe took advantage of the setting and audience there to announce new features to its Premiere 26.0 and After Effects 26.0, including the new AI-powered Object Mask in Premiere and new motion graphics and 3D upgrades in After Effects. The company also announced a new $10 million contribution to the Adobe Film & TV Fund, providing up-and-coming filmmakers with professional video tools, career development, and more.
Adobe Premiere 26.0 gets a new AI-powered Object Mask boost. (Source: Adobe)
Despite the winter chill blanketing the US this week, many filmmakers and film afficionados are happily layering up and forgoing the warm beaches elsewhere, at least for the next several days, to descend on Park City, Utah, for the annual Sundance Film Festival, which kicked off today. There are films of all genres to be seen, events and competitions to witness, along with behind-the-film talks and more talks—an exciting time, for sure.
Amid this backdrop, Adobe announced new AI video tools for Adobe Premiere 26.0 and After Effects 26.0 that are intended to make post-production more seamless. And the setting, picture-perfect in so many ways, with its tranquil alpine scenery and rich cinema selections. According to the annual Sundance Institute survey, 85% of the 2026 festival’s entrants used Adobe Creative Cloud applications—including Premiere, Frame.io, AfterEffects, Photoshop, and the Substance 3D Collection.
Knowing its audience well, Adobe kicked off the festival by announcing:
These new capabilities, available this week, were developed to help editors and designers maintain their creative flow and intent through tasks that are now more intuitive.
With Premiere’s AI-powered Object Mask—which uses a new assistive AI model from Adobe that’s on-device—it is now easier to create, refine, and track precise masks of complex moving persons or objects with a simple hover and click, while redesigned shape masks track up to 20× faster than previous versions of Premiere, Adobe says. Also, users can add or subtract areas from the Object Mask using fast lasso and rectangular editing tools, and adjust the mask with feathering and resizing controls. A new Frame track editing mode eliminates the need to manually adjust every tracked keyframe, as Premiere combines the corrections with the tracked keyframe.
Adobe Premiere’s new AI-powered Object Mask. (Source: Adobe)
Additionally, Adobe has streamlined processes such as storyboarding, filling B-roll gaps, and exploring new concepts collaboratively by forging a link between Firefly Boards and Premiere, enabling users to seamlessly import media from the former into the latter. And to make collaboration easier, too, a new Frame.io V4 panel keeps users in the edit while bringing in comments, media, and versioning; they can also ingest assets, share cuts, and sync notes without leaving Premiere.
Adobe has also added another Premiere enhancement, fully integrating Adobe Stock within Premiere.
In what Adobe calls one of its biggest slate of updates for After Effects, the company has added new motion design capabilities and performance improvements across the application, giving users more speed and control while building, animating, and refining their work.
Some of the updates include:
Native 3D parametric meshes can be created inside After Effects. (Source: Adobe).
These new features follow on the heels of recent video-related announcements, including last month’s public beta release of Firefly Video Editor and more, including a multi-year partnership with Runway to deliver next-generation AI video models across Adobe workflows.
With an eye toward helping to jump-start the careers of the next generation of creatives and those from underserved communities, Adobe used Sundance to announce a $10 million contribution to the Adobe Film & TV Fund, providing aspiring filmmakers with professional video tools, career development, fellowships, apprenticeships, and training opportunities, including those participating in the Gold House, Rideback RISE, and Sundance Ignite programs. The new investment builds on the $10 million Adobe had already committed since launching the fund at Sundance in 2024, bringing the three-year total to $20 million in contributions and donated products.
In partnership with Sundance Institute, Adobe is also introducing Ignite Day—for emerging creatives ages 18–25. Ignite Day consists of hands-on learning, mentorship, and creative exchange for young storytellers, providing an opportunity for them to connect, experiment, and gain real-world insight during their creative endeavors.
Furthermore, Adobe is launching a new direct grant application designed specifically for filmmakers integrating AI into their creative workflows.
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