The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will have not one but two events that could divert attention from the programming. The festival, which will run from January 23 to February 2, will begin just days after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Then there will also be a lot of anticipation and expectation surrounding the next announcement of where the festival will move from its 2027 edition.
The 2025 festival programme, announced on Wednesday, should alleviate uncertainty: the usual mix of new talent and provocative themes.
“I think the show will do the job of putting aside for a moment the conversation about long-term home,” said Eugenio Hernández, director of the festival, noting that a decision is expected to be announced after the festival concludes, to late winter or early spring. “This show really underscores what Sundance is and has been for more than 40 years. And that's just an incredible place to discover.”
Among the films in American drama competition are Hailey Gates' “Atropia,” starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner and Chloë Sevigny, Evan Twohy's “Bubble & Squeak,” starring Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg and Steven Yeun, “Bunnylovr” by Katarina Zhu, starring Zhu with Rachel Sennott, “Love, Brooklyn” by Rachel Abigail Holder, starring André Holland, Nicole Beharie and DeWanda Wise, “Ricky” by Rashad Frett, starring Stephan James and Sheryl Lee Ralph, and “Sorry, Baby” by Eva Victor, starring Victor, Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges.
Eva Victor in “Sorry, Baby,” which will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
(Mia Cioffy Henry / Sundance Institute)
In the American documentary competition, titles will include “Andre Is an Idiot” by Anthony Benna, “Life After” by Reid Davenport, “The Perfect Neighbor” by Geeta Gandbhir, “Predators” by David Osit and “Sugar Babies” by Rachel Fleit.
The NEXT section includes “By Design” by Amanda Kramer, which features possibly the show's most striking tagline about a woman who swaps bodies with a chair. Other titles in the section include “Serious People” by Pasqual Gutiérrez and the documentary “Zodiac Killer Project” by Charlie Shackleton.
The Premieres section, which typically includes many of the festival's top titles, has a mix of feature-length fiction and documentaries. Among the films premiering in the section are James Griffith's “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” “Deaf President Now!” by Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, “Folktales” by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, “If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You,” Bill Condon's remake of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Magic Farm” by Amalia Ulman, “Oh, Hi!” by Sophie Brooks “Train Dreams” by Clint Bentley and “Peter Hujar's Day” by Ira Sachs.
The Midnight section is where some of the festival's most anticipated titles are usually found. Among them are Mark Anthony Green's “Opus,” starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis and Amber Midthunder, Meera Menon's “Didn't Die,” Bryn Chainey's “Rabbit Trap” and Michael Shanks' “Together.” .
Sly Stone appears in “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of the Black Genius)” by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.
(Stephen Paley/Sundance Institute)
When Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson premiered his debut documentary “Summer of Soul” at the festival in 2021, he began a career that ended with him winning an Academy Award. Thompson will return to the festival with “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” a portrait of musician Sly Stone and the specific challenges facing black artists.
Other celebrity portrait documentaries include “It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley” by Amy Berg, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” by Shoshannah Stern, “Selena y Los Dinos” by Isabel Castro, “Prime Minister” by Michelle Walshe and Lundsay Utz, about the former New York Prime Minister of Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, “Sally” by Cristina Costantini, about astronaut Sally Ride and “Pee-wee as Himself”, by Matt Wolf, about Pee-wee Herman's performer, Paul Reubens.
“With these films that focus on specific people, we are always analyzing what is the new angle we are seeing. What's so special about this movie? said Kim Yutani, festival programming director.
Still from “Free Leonard Peltier” by Jesse Short Bull and David France, official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
(Sundance Institute)
When Trump's first inauguration coincided with the festival in 2017, an estimated 8,000 people marched in the streets. While it is still unclear whether there will be such an organized expression of protest in 2025, one can only assume that some films will be presented to the public very differently than if the election had had a different outcome, as is the case with Jesse Short Bull and David France. the documentary “Free Leonard Peltier,” about the imprisoned leader of the American Indian Movement, Kim A. Snyder's documentary, “The Librarians,” about the role of librarians amid a wave of state book bans, or the documentary by Andrew Ahn. New version of “The Wedding Banquet”, with an LGBTQ+ theme.
“I think what Sundance has contributed to culture is a space that celebrates freedom of expression,” Hernandez said, “and fosters opportunities for artists of all different backgrounds, experiences and cultures to tell personal stories.”
In the episodic section dedicated to the work told in multiple episodes, there will be the docuseries “Bucks County, USA”, from directors and executive producers Barry Levinson and Robert May, a look at two 14-year-olds in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. , who are friends despite their opposing political beliefs.
“It offers a perspective that is enriched by the exploration of these two individual girls, their friendship, the connection with their families who are on different sides of the red and blue divide,” Hernandez said. “And so it really invites greater understanding and consideration about what awaits us in this country.”
Also in the episode section will be “Hal & Harper,” a series from director and executive producer Cooper Raiff, starring Lili Reinhardt, Mark Ruffalo, Betty Gilpin and Havana Rose Liu.
Eugene Jarecki's “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” a documentary about Julian Assange, will be presented as a special screening.
Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang appear in Andrew Ahn's “The Wedding Banquet,” an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
(Luka Cyprian / Sundance Institute)
Sundance's mission has always had ideas of diversity and inclusion at its core, dating back to when Robert Redford first founded the Sundance Institute in 1981. Even as those core values have become increasingly contentious within broader political discourse, The festival organizers would not describe their work as part of any cultural agenda.
“If we have an agenda, it is to support artists and the artist's voice,” Yutani said. “And that is always our North Star. We receive a lot of pressure and hear many voices outside; There is a lot of noise wherever we go. But what is always so grounded is the idea that we support artists. Every time we start a film, that's what we have in mind: what are these artists saying, what do they have in mind? How do you process the world we live in through your work? And together we have this opportunity to see what artists think in any given year.”
Among the films premiering at the 2024 festival that have remained in the conversation since then are “A Real Pain,” “A Different Man,” “Thelma,” “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Union.”
How the films at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival will meet their moment as they are discovered by audiences will form the core of the response to the upcoming program.
“I know that sometimes things can be photographed a certain way at a particular cultural moment,” Hernandez said. “But Sundance is over 40 years old and remains true to our mission. So whatever city we are in, Sundance will be Sundance and we will be faithful, we will fight and we will preserve that mission that Mr. Redford established for us in founding this institute.”
