Next year's Sundance Film Festival will feature Jennifer Lopez singing and dancing in Bill Condonapps appKiss of the Spider Woman,app Questlove exploring the legacy of Sly & The Family Stone and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov's latest documentary about the war in Ukraine.
The Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled 87 feature films set to premiere at the 2025 festival, kicking off Jan. 23 in Park City, Utah.
Now in its 41st year, the festival remains a place of discovery for independent cinema and emerging voices. Because of its January timing, itapps also a gathering that arrives alongside the presidential inauguration. At the 2017 festival following Donald Trumpapps first inauguration, Main Street was taken over by a lively womenapps march full of celebrities. This year, no such plans have been announced.
appSundance as a festival has endured as a place to gather through inaugurations every four years, through different cultural moments and political moments,app said festival director Eugene Hernandez. appWe have a program that both engages with the world and also offers at the very same time an escape.app
Narrative films and documentaries premiering this year will touch on politicized topics like transgender stories and rights, appstand your groundapp laws, incarceration, the right to die and book banning. But Sundance doesnappt program by theme or have mandates about topics, said Kim Yutani, the festivalapps director of programming.
appI think what you see across the program are stories that are told with real authenticity. Thereapps an innovative quality to many of these films,app Yutani said. appAnd the idea of free expression is something that is just as important to us.app
Documentaries are always a highlight at Sundance, where the conversation starts and often continues through the year into the Oscar race. Chernov follows his Oscar winningapp20 Days in Mariupolapp with app2000 Meters to Andriivka,app which looks at a Ukrainian platoon on a mission to liberate a village from Russian occupation. It's a joint project between AP and PBS appFrontline."
appFree Leonard Peltierapp looks at the Indigenous activist who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota. In July he was denied parole.
Hernandez further spotlighted Barry Levinson and Robert Mayapps episodic series appBucks County, USAapp about political divides in small town America and the friendship of two teenage girls despite their opposing views.
There are also several docs about famous musicians and actors including Ahmir appQuestloveapp Thompsonapps appSLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),app Shoshannah Sternapps appMarlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,app Amy Bergapps appItapps Never Over, Jeff Buckleyapp and Matt Wolfapps appPee-wee as Himself.app Elegance Bratton also looks at the roots of house music in appMove Ya Body: The Birth of House.app
Some performances that may have people talking into the year include: Benedict Cumberbatch in appThe Thing with Feathers,app about a father processing the loss of his wife; Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones in appTrain Dreamsapp about a railroad day laborer from the appSing Singapp writer and director; John Lithgow and Olivia Colman as father and daughter in appJimpaapp; Lopez in Condonapps lush and vibrant musical adaptation; Lily Gladstone and Youn Yuh-jung in Andrew Ahnapps appThe Wedding Banquetapp; Josh OappConnor in appRebuildingapp; and Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall in appPeter Hujarapps Day,app about New Yorkapps downtown art scene in the 1970s, from Ira Sachs.
More than 40% of the films, selected from nearly 16,000 submissions, are directorial debuts, like Rachael Abigail Holder's appLove, Brooklynapp with André Holland.
Yutani also highlighted Rashad Frettapps appRicky,app starring Stephan James as a man trying to rebuild his life post incarceration. Another notable debut is appSorry, Baby,app which Eva Victor wrote, directed and stars in and Barry Jenkins produced.
appThere are scenes in this film that I have never seen before,app Yutani said. appIt was a real revelation.app
Film enthusiasts donappt need to make the trek through the snow to pricey Park City to engage with the festivalapps offerings anymore. As with the past few years, about 60% of the program will be available online starting on Jan. 30. Tickets go on sale for individual films on Jan. 16 for the general public and even earlier for members.
appIt's a really a great opportunity to just get a sampling of whatapps to come in the new year for films that will travel far and wide to other festivals or make it into theaters down the line,app Hernandez said.
This will be one of the last years that the festival is primarily based out of Park City. Over the past year, the Sundance Institute has been exploring options for host cities starting in 2027. Finalists include Salt Lake City, Utah (with some events still in Park City), Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio. An announcement is expected in the first quarter of 2025.
