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We’re headed back to Park City this week to bring you reviews of what’s premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Last year’s coverage saw our first takes on “I Saw the TV Glow,” “Ghostlight,” “A Real Pain,” “Love Lies Bleeding,” “Thelma,” and many more of the best films of 2024. What will those be this year? We have no idea. There’s more of a sense of discovery this year than any I can remember in my 13 years of covering Sundance with fewer “names” like Richard Linklater, Kenneth Lonergan, and Steven Soderbergh dotting the program. But this could be a good thing. Sundance, at its core, is about discovery. Based on cast, description, and creative pedigree, here are 20 films we can’t wait to see. Come back for coverage by me, Robert Daniels, Zachary Lee, Marya E. Gates, Monica Castillo, and Cristina Escobar of all these and SO many more.
All Descriptions Courtesy of Sundance
“Atropia”
When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.
Welcome to Atropia: an invented city constructed to exercise Western imaginations and soldiers. Mostly home to war games rendered in dazzling 4D (smells included), Atropia is just close enough to Los Angeles to double as a film set — and just far enough away that the performers who live on-site to bring the bustling faux-Iraqi streets to life are not exactly flourishing in their acting careers. This mirage of a place is a bizarre, liminal construction of writer-director Hailey Gates, whose incisive satire and clever wit are on full display. Co-stars Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner are joined by Chloë Sevigny, Tim Heidecker, and more in this completely original, surprisingly romantic, and sharply amusing directorial debut.
“Bubble & Squeak”
Accused of smuggling cabbages into a nation where cabbages are banned, Declan and Delores must confront the fragility of their new marriage while on the run for their lives.
Writer-director Evan Twohy’s eccentric debut feature — adapted from his acclaimed comedic play — strands bickering newlyweds Declan (Himesh Patel) and Dolores (Sarah Goldberg) in a fictional foreign country, doggedly pursued by Shazbor (Matt Berry), a ruthless customs enforcer who suspects them of smuggling cabbages. Arranged in discreet chapters, Bubble & Squeak is a skewed storybook fable about a marriage tested by tourism and slowly coming apart at the seams. Twohy derives deadpan comedy from his patchwork vision of a cheerfully malevolent European backwater, alternating between scenes of pastoral beauty and whimsical artifice. Patel and Goldberg lead a committed cast who deliver Twohy’s oddball dialogue with utter conviction, gently unearthing the melancholy beneath the film’s idiosyncratic surface. Bubble & Squeak explores the vagaries of love with uncanny humor and heart.
“Come See Me in the Good Light”
Two poets, one incurable cancer diagnosis. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life, and mortality.
“In the good light and in the lightning strike. My love come become beside me,” invites Gibson in their poem “The Good Light.” The Colorado poet laureate and beloved spoken word performer extends this welcome and challenge to audiences in this intimate and heartbreaking yet buoyant documentary. The perspective of such a radically tender, magnanimously thoughtful, and thoroughly in love individual on themes of mortality, grief, legacy, and letting go is a vital instruction on how to both live and die gracefully. Rallied around by powerhouse executive producers Tig Notaro, Brandi Carlile, and Sara Bareilles, director Ryan White (Assassins, 2020 Sundance Film Festival; Ask Dr. Ruth, 2019 Sundance Film Festival) returns with this moving portrait that will dare any eye to stay dry.
“FOLKTALES”
On the precipice of adulthood, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway. Dropped at the edge of the world, they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.
Co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Love Fraud, 2020 Sundance Film Festival) draw on the myth of Norse god Odin as an evocative framing device. Just as Odin observed the Norns, three fates who dwell at the base of the world tree spinning threads of destiny, we witness how this unconventional school shapes the lives of its students. The mission is simple: Return to basics by quieting the chaos of modern life. The teens learn Arctic survival skills and care for sled dogs, building confidence and self-reliance. They bond with their canine companions and practice patience and kindness. It’s a tough journey, and some students resist their wise teachers, quickly discovering that the price for not wearing mittens can be steep.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.
In the second feature film from writer-director Mary Bronstein, life’s responsibilities pile up — parenting alone, house is a construction zone, countless doctors visits, no available parking — all of which grows into an anxiety that overwhelms every aspect of our protagonist’s life. The audience is pushed into a downward spiral of motherhood where there is never any solution or support in sight. But as its title suggests, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is also very funny — very darkly… bizarrely… uncomfortably funny. Rose Byrne’s lead performance brilliantly rides the edge of exhaustion and delirium, bouncing between the pressures of her life that includes two character irritants played by Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky, who have memorable supporting roles.
“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”
Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
Amy Berg returns to the Sundance Film Festival with her fifth film as director, following Phoenix Rising (2022 Sundance Film Festival). This time, she paints an elegant and compassionate portrait of the late Jeff Buckley, whose one-in-a-generation voice and boundary-pushing artistry are spotlit for both existing fans and newcomers to his catalog. Beautiful scores and resonant, rare live performances underscore Buckley’s fullness of character — a history of the love and loss that shaped him, and thus the international music culture of the late 20th century. Discordant as Buckley’s end is, Berg makes space for the consonances in between, imbuing the film with special archival material and the permeation of Buckley’s own diaristic narration. This film is a hum that echoes, and like Buckley’s “Hallelujah,” it takes on a light and life of its own.
“Jimpa”
Hannah takes her nonbinary teenager, Frances, to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather, Jim — lovingly known as Jimpa. But Frances’ desire to stay abroad with Jimpa for a year means Hannah is forced to reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past.
Sophie Hyde, winner of the World Cinema Directing Award Dramatic for 52 Tuesdays (2014 Sundance Film Festival), returns with an expansive family portrait centered on Jimpa (John Lithgow), an aging, hedonistic patriarch living loud and proud in Amsterdam’s vibrant gay community. Reconnecting with Jimpa during a long working holiday, Hannah (Olivia Colman) navigates ambivalence toward her estranged father while Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) discovers the pleasures and perils of queer life in the big city. Co-written by Hyde and Matthew Cormack (52 Tuesdays), Jimpa is a loving and insightful examination of intergenerational tensions within the LGBTQ+ community and the complex and contradictory attachments that form between family, friends, lovers, and comrades. Lithgow breathes messy life into the mercurial but bighearted Jimpa, complementing Colman’s moving turn as his weary yet loving daughter.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman”
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.
No stranger to the Festival (Gods and Monsters, 1998 Sundance Film Festival) or the megaplex (Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga, Beauty and the Beast), director Bill Condon returns with a stellar, reimagined interpretation of Kiss of the Spider Woman (previously a 1985 film and 1993 Chita Rivera–helmed, Tony-sweeping musical). Set amid Argentina’s Dirty War of the 1980s, Condon marries a textually rich historical and political drama with the flashy technicolor extravagance of an old Hollywood musical.
Jennifer Lopez is an astonishing scene-stealer in a career-highlight performance as Luna/Aurora, with showstopping musical numbers that underscore the exuberant prowess of her dancing and voice. Diego Luna delivers unrelenting revolutionary conviction as Valentín, and Tonatiuh gives his Molina a tenderhearted power and theatrical flair.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is a grounded yet sumptuous spectacle, a masterfully vivacious cinematic experience for our modern times.
“Love, Brooklyn”
Three longtime Brooklynites navigate careers, love, loss, and friendship against the rapidly changing landscape of their beloved city.
With humor and keen observation, first-time feature director Rachael Abigail Holder invites us into a world where past and present collide, mining Paul Zimmerman’s script and her charismatic cast for a layered, later-in-life coming-of-age story.
André Holland is perfect as freewheeling Roger, meeting his match in no-bullshit Nicole (DeWanda Wise), who’s unafraid to call his bluffs as she navigates dating with a young daughter in tow. Nicole Beharie charms as Casey, a woman endeavoring to understand the renegotiation of her relationship with Roger as the evolving arts scene impacts her gallery. Holder guides her actors to do some of their best work as they face the challenge of accepting change in a city transforming around them.
A love letter to NYC that breathes fresh air into a modern romance, Love, Brooklyn firmly marks Holder as a filmmaker to watch.
“Move Ya Body: The Birth of House”
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.
Vince Lawrence was an eccentric, nerdy Black child growing up in Mayor Daley’s segregated Chicago. One summer when his dad couldn’t afford to send him to summer camp, Lawrence embarked on a personal journey that would lead him to become the first person to record a house song. He catalyzed a force of radical togetherness that would break down his city’s invisible walls of segregation, and fundamentally transform the music world.
Director Elegance Bratton concocts a loving mix of interviews with the lively characters of house music blended together with an archive treasure, creating a definitive history of a cultural revolution rarely told. Move Ya Body: The Birth of House is a road map of how a rebellion against bodily repression can clutch joy and creative expression to sidestep empire.
“Opus”
A young writer is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.
Mark Anthony Green’s feature debut is a bold, fun, and flashy pop-horror. Ayo Edebiri delivers as the meek yet hungry journalist Ariel — her unique charm radiating alongside a distinct final-girl prescience. John Malkovich is effervescent and hypnotic as Moretti, a deified global phenomenon making a dramatically malevolent reintroduction.
Amidst eye-catching, synthy musical numbers and the enigmatic desert compound, the facade of civility gradually erodes between the pair, revealing the underbelly of a tense, psychosocial game of cat and mouse. Opus offers an electric, clever indictment of the literal cult of celebrity, presenting characters and dangers within a symphonic ambience — giving way to a foreboding ease through which power is generated and embedded within pop culture.
“Peter Hujar’s Day”
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
In Peter Hujar’s Bloomsday-esque narration of one day in his life, quotidian details like the price of a sandwich mingle with cameos by the likes of Allen Ginsberg. As trivialities and incidents accumulate, softly spoken is the voice of an artist wishing to be truly seen amid his existential fear it won’t happen. In recreating the recounting of Peter’s day to author Linda Rosenkrantz in her 94th Street apartment in New York City in 1974, director Ira Sachs playfully creates a wholly new work of contemporary cinema. With a consciously self-aware style and actors Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall reenacting the encounter with fidelity and elegance, Peter Hujar’s Day is an evocative experience rooted in a particular time and place, but it is also eternal in its recognition of the unstoppable flow of time.
“Rabbit Trap”
When a musician and her husband move to a remote house in Wales, the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, bringing a nameless child to their door who is intent on infiltrating their lives.
Set in 1976, writer and director Bryn Chainey’s extraordinary debut feature invokes the eerie spirit of British folk horror, conjuring supernatural dread in a fecund Welsh forest. Obsessive avant-garde musician Daphne (Rosy McEwen) toils over reel-to-reel tape machines and oscillators in their cottage while her withdrawn husband, Darcy (Dev Patel), collects field recordings in the nearby woods. Their activities draw the attention of a mysterious young rabbit trapper (an unnerving Jade Croot) who beguiles them, disturbing their fragile peace.
Rabbit Trap casts a spell of haunted sensuality and submerged trauma through cinematographer Andreas Johannessen’s tactile 35mm images, and a synesthetic soundscape made in collaboration between composer Lucrecia Dalt and sound designer Graham Reznick. Patel and McEwen are quietly moving as the young couple, grounding this otherworldly fable with a portrait of a marriage sustained through fraught intimacy and restless creative collaboration.
“Rebuilding”
After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.
Max Walker-Silverman’s sophomore feature is a personal, affecting story of a community’s life and resilience. A follow-up to his captivating debut, A Love Song (2022 Sundance Film Festival), Rebuilding similarly operates as a careful, loving portrait of the American West — this time whispered in the quiet aftermath of environmental and personal disaster. Against the backdrop of charred lands and a struggling small town, scattered lives coalesce in grief, and a uniquely resonant love story emerges.
Josh O’Connor is a subdued and assiduous protagonist, embracing a call to heal his fledgling family and newfound community. Authentic, nuanced performances from Meghann Fahy, Amy Madigan, and Kali Reis quilt a narrative enveloped by the multiplicity of the American experience — legacies of land, labor, and family.
Rebuilding is a warm tip of the hat to community building through human tenacity, and the abundance of life and love contained therein.
“Ricky”
Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.
In this warm and beautifully textured feature, director Rashad Frett journeys the interior emotional roads of Ricky, a betrayed teenager living inside of a prison-cut adult body as he attempts to integrate himself back into his Caribbean mother’s God-fearing home in Hartford, Connecticut. Ricky missed out on so many rites of passage of puberty, of learning a way with women, of smartphones, and of social media etiquette. How will he parlay his gift as a barber into gainful employment to meet his parole officer’s work requirements? Ricky is strong, handsome, and well-meaning but also misunderstood. Will he get a chance to live a life?
Actors Stephan James and Sheryl Lee Ralph give powerful and nuanced performances as Ricky and Joanne, his hard-boiled, big-hearted, parole officer. Rashad Frett’s directorial hand overflows with humanity and marks an auspicious feature debut.
“Seeds”
An exploration of Black generational farmers in the American South reveals the fragility of legacy and the significance of owning land.
In her stunning directorial debut, Brittany Shyne crafts a poetic and poignant portrait of Black farmers in the American South. With an intimate lens, Shyne immerses us in the rhythms of everyday life. The rich black-and-white cinematography relishes simple moments — wind through hair, candy from grandma’s purse, conversations through car windows — turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other. A sobering statistic underscores the urgency of their story — Black farmers owned 16 million acres in 1910, but today, that number has dwindled to just a fraction. The farmers in this community struggle to access funding that white farmers nearby seem to secure with ease. The dream of continuing to pass their land to future generations is at stake, and Shyne’s portrait vividly and lovingly captures a legacy that deserves to endure.
“SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)”
An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone — the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone — captures the band’s rise, reign, and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.
Academy Award-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson returns to the festival with a music-rich, profound exploration. Eschewing conventional biographical methods, the film immediately envelops us in band leader Sly Stone’s extraordinary musical talent while asking: What is the burden of Black genius? Sly transcended musical boundaries like no one else, but trailblazing comes at a personal cost. While many fear failure, the film highlights how success can bring its own pain. The result is a revelatory journey born from a deep understanding of the band’s far-reaching influence and impact. Through an incredible soundtrack, exuberant archival footage and thought-provoking discussions with family, band members, scholars, and musicians, Thompson presents a powerful tribute to the visionary musical artistry of Sly & The Family Stone, while honoring and celebrating Black creativity.
“The Thing with Feathers”
Struggling to process the sudden and unexpected death of his wife, a young father loses his hold on reality as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Two-time Sundance Film Festival alum Dylan Southern’s (Shut Up and Play the Hits, 2012; Meet Me in the Bathroom, 2022) adaptation of the acclaimed Max Porter novella Grief Is the Thing with Feathers artfully emphasizes the transformative and terrible momentousness of one family’s bereavement. The film’s inspired execution of the physical manifestation of their grief on screen creates an exquisite visual rendering of the sinister reality dominating the family’s unkept home and shattered lives.
Benedict Cumberbatch submerges himself in his performance of a shell-shocked father while the film juxtaposes his character’s altered reality with that of his two vivacious boys. The sons, played with sensitivity by Richard and Henry Boxall, grapple with both the enormity of their loss as well as their unmoored father’s attempts to carry on parenting them alone.
“The Ugly Stepsister”
In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira battles to compete with her incredibly beautiful stepsister, and she will go to any length to catch the prince’s eye.
A twisted retelling of Cinderella with gruesome fidelity to the Grimm-est rendition, The Ugly Stepsister shifts the focus to stepsister Elvira’s pursuit of beauty at all costs. But where fairy tale Cinderellas have silkworms, this one has tapeworms. For good measure, Norwegian filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt throws in decomposing corpses, tongue-in-cheek body horror, and a 19th-century surgical makeover, creating a darkly funny, blithely grotesque debut feature. It shrewdly satirizes manufactured beauty and its industries, selling body image as the means to attain desirability, success, and social status. We can’t help but empathize with Elvira, who is insecure and drawn into her avaricious mother’s barbaric beautification scheme largely as a means to an end: acceptance and happiness (ever after). From nose to toe, the vessel of Elvira’s disturbing transformation is breakout talent Lea Myren, who gives a heroically committed performance.
“The Wedding Banquet”
Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend, Chris, and out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green card marriage with his friend Angela in exchange for expensive in vitro fertilization treatments for her partner, Lee. Plans change when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an elaborate Korean wedding banquet.
Andrew Ahn returns to Sundance (Spa Night, 2016 Sundance Film Festival) with an exuberant romantic comedy that pays tribute to the unexpected ways friendship and community form modern family. Ahn collaborates with James Schamus, co-writer of Ang Lee’s beloved 1993 classic The Wedding Banquet, to create a contemporary reimagining that playfully complicates the original film’s conflict and comedy, updating a romantic triangle into a codependent queer quad of young lovers.
Led by a cast of some of the most acclaimed and funny actors working today, the core four’s charming performances are complemented by the beautifully articulated work of Joan Chen and Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-jung (Minari) as the complex, formidable matriarchs of the bride and groom’s families.
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