Sundance 2025 movie lineup options Jennifer Lopez, John Malkovich, Lily Gladstone and extra

The forty first Sundance Movie Competition, one of many world’s main festivals for impartial and documentary filmmakers, opens Thursday, with in-person screenings in Park Metropolis and Salt Lake Metropolis in Utah, and choose movies and occasions accessible to stream throughout the U.S. by way of Sundance’s digital platform starting January 30.

This yr’s lineup contains 88 function movies and 7 episodic titles from around the globe, most of that are worldwide premieres, in extra to brief movie packages (narrative, documentary and animation). Almost half are by first-time filmmakers.

The competition runs by means of Feb. 2. Single tickets and passes may be bought right here.

Fairly than a gala opening evening screening, the primary day of Sundance showcases the premieres of 15 options and a brief movie program unfold throughout 4 venues. Movies embrace documentary debuts about actress Marlee Matlin, Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive towards Russia, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, courting in China, and comic and efficiency artist Paul Reubens (a.okay.a. Pee-wee Herman), in addition to dramas from Norway, Hong Kong, North Macedonia, Georgia, Australia, and america. On Friday, the competition expands to screens in Salt Lake Metropolis. 

Fiction

A number of the competition’s narrative options embrace “Kiss of the Spider Girl,” Invoice Condon’s movie model of the Tony-winning musical (tailored from the Manuel Puig novel), starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna and Tonatiuh. In “Omaha,” John Magaro takes his two younger kids on a cross-country trek after a household tragedy. Based mostly on the Max Porter novella “Grief Is the Factor with Feathers,” “The Issues With Feathers” stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a newly-widowed father of two boys.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” actress Lily Gladstone and SNL’s Bowen Yang star in “The Marriage ceremony Banquet,” a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy. Juliette Lewis stars in “By Design,” a unusual story through which a younger girl covets a chair a lot that she turns into it. Actually.

Olivia Colman stars in “Jimpa,” as a lady whose non-binary baby (Aud Mason-Hyde) seeks to maneuver to Europe to dwell with their grandfather (John Lithgow). “Twinless” stars Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney as males attending a twin bereavement group. Josh O’Connor (“Challengers”) stars in “Rebuilding,” as a rancher whose household farm has been destroyed by a wildfire.

Within the Québécois comedy “Two Girls,” Violette and Florence are lonely neighbors whose disaffections, melancholy and household points encourage one another to department out into infidelity. Plumbers and exterminators are solely too completely happy to oblige.

From Tunisia, “The place the Wind Comes From” is a highway film through which childhood associates Alyssa and Mehdi “borrow” a automotive to attend an artwork competitors that, if received, will take them to far-off Germany, and the promise of a brand new life.  

In Iranian American director Alireza Khatami’s psychological thriller “The Issues You Kill,” filmed in Turkey, a person seeks revenge for the demise of his mom with assistance from a mysterious confederate. “DJ Ahmet” tells of a teenage boy falling for a younger woman being ready for an organized marriage to a different in a small village in North Macedonia.

“The Ballad of Wallis Island,” written by and starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, tells the story of musicians being invited to a distant Welsh island for a reunion gig. It options Carey Mulligan and Sian Clifford. Chloë Sevigny stars in two movies: “Magic Farm,” through which a movie crew finds themselves within the incorrect nation; and “Atropia,” a couple of romantic relationship that intrudes upon a navy role-playing facility.

Willem Dafoe is featured within the household movie “The Legend of Ochi,” through which a younger farm woman on the island of Carpathia rescues a wounded legendary creature.

Stephan James stars in “Ricky” as a younger man, simply out of jail, coping with the difficulties of changing into impartial at age 30. In “LUZ,” which options parallel tales set in Paris and Chongqing, China, a younger girl estranged from her stepmother, and a person making an attempt to reconnect together with his daughter, cross paths in a digital actuality world. The movie stars Isabelle Huppert.

Actor-comedian Eva Victor directed and stars in “Sorry, Child,” a couple of girl instructing on the identical school the place, as a grad pupil, she was the sufferer of sexual assault. “Rabbit Lure” is a thriller set in Wales starring Dev Patel and Rosy McEwan. “Plainclothes” options Tom Blyth as an undercover police officer tasked with arresting homosexual males on indecency fees, solely to fall for considered one of his targets.

André Holland, Nicole Beharie, Cassandra Freeman and Roy Wooden Jr. are among the many solid of “Love, Brooklyn.” Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien are featured within the comic-drama “If I Had Legs I would Kick You.”

“Prepare Goals,” a interval drama in regards to the growth of the railroad within the early twentieth century, stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon and William H. Macy. Impressed by a real story, “Final Days” follows a younger missionary (Sky Yang) out to transform a distant tribe on an island off the Indian coast. Within the Indian drama “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” a younger man returns to his house village for a 10-day mourning interval following his father’s demise — and to many questions on his single standing.

Documentaries

Final yr, journalist Mstyslav Chernov‘s haunting movie in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “20 Days in Mariupol,” received the Academy Award for greatest documentary. He returns with “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” which follows a platoon of Ukrainian troopers making an attempt to retake a village that had been captured by Russians, throughout Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive. The movie, a coproduction of PBS’ “Frontline” and the Related Press, makes in depth use of bodycam footage from troopers on the bottom.

“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” profiles the Oscar-winning actress (the primary Deaf actor to win the Academy Award), whose final movie, 2021’s “CODA,” was each a Sundance prize-winner and the Oscar-winner for greatest image.

In 2021, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, band chief of The Roots, debuted his documentary “Summer time of Soul” at Sundance; it might go on to win an Oscar. This yr he brings “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” a have a look at the affect of Sylvester Stewart, generally known as Sly Stone, whose inclusive and dynamic funk group Sly and the Household Stone transcended ’60s pop music, however at an amazing private value. Within the early ’70s John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent 18 months dwelling in New York’s Greenwich Village. Private archives, and restored footage of a charity live performance, illustrate the couple’s inventive partnership in “One to One: John & Yoko.”

“Transfer Ya Physique: The Delivery of Home” traces the Chicago origins of the impartial label Trax Data, and of a music style that grew out of disco whereas presaging a swath of EDM and pop artists who picked up the beat. “Selena y Los Dinos” makes use of never-before-seen footage of the Tejano music star to inform the story of her and her household band, Selena y Los Dinos.

“Sally” explores the non-public lifetime of Sally Trip, the primary American feminine astronaut, whereas “Prime Minister” traces the lifetime of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The challenges confronted by librarians defending the liberty of their establishments from ebook banners is recounted in “The Librarians,” whereas “How you can Construct a Library” tells the story of two Nairobi ladies who rework what was as soon as a whites-only library into a middle for the entire neighborhood.

“Seeds” explores the legacy of Black farmers within the South throughout generations. In “Chopping Via Rocks,” Sara Shahverdi turns into her Iranian village’s first elected councilwoman, however her efforts to enhance the lives of girls and women come up towards the traditions and biases of a extremely patriarchal city construction. In “Mr. No person Towards Putin,” a schoolteacher in Russia goes undercover to doc navy recruitment in colleges after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Director Andrew Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans”) returns with “The Alabama Resolution,” about efforts by the incarcerated to reveal corruption of their jail. “The Stringer” investigates the unknown secrets and techniques behind the making of one of the vital acknowledged pictures of the twentieth century. In China, the place the One Little one Coverage resulted in a disparity of 30 million extra males than females, a courting coach instructs a number of determined bachelors on easy methods to discover a mate in “The Relationship Recreation.”

“Life After” seems on the journey of Elizabeth Bouvia, a disabled California girl who, in 1983, fought for her “proper to die,” whereas “André Is an Fool” is an irreverent have a look at one man going through his mortality.

“Communicate” follows a cohort of highschool college students getting ready for a public talking competitors. “Deaf President Now!” chronicles a 1988 protest motion at Gallaudet College, the world’s solely college for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, directed by Davis Guggenheim (“Nonetheless: A Michael J. Fox Film”) and activist Nyle DiMarco.

“Free Leonard Peltier” tells of efforts to win the liberty of the Native American activist convicted of murdering two FBI brokers (and who, at age 80, had his sentence commuted simply earlier than President Biden left workplace).

Midnight

Style movies enjoying within the competition’s Midnight sidebar embrace “Did not Die,” a post-zombie apocalypse image through which “biters,” and an previous flame who turns up among the many survivors, make a younger podcaster’s life increasingly sophisticated. In its retelling of the story of Cinderella, the Norwegian horror movie “The Ugly Stepsister” put the “grim” again in Grimms’ fairy tales.

“Opus” is a darkish comedy starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich and Juliette Lewis, a couple of pop star who resurfaces after a long time, now as head of a seeming cult.

In “Contact Me,” an alien’s mere contact can show addictive. The folks horror movie “Rabbit Lure,” set in Wales, stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen, whereas the Dave Franco-Alison Brie physique horror movie “Collectively” includes a supernatural encounter that, as you may case, does not end up properly. “Lifeless Lover” is about what you’d count on: a gravedigger searching for to reconnect with their recently-deceased beau.

Episodic

A number of pilots and episodic collection are premiering at Sundance. Amongst them: Comic and efficiency artist Paul Reubens, interviewed shortly earlier than his demise in 2023, opens up about his creation Pee-Wee Herman, in “Pee-Wee as Himself.”

Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”), Robert Could (“The Fog of Conflict”), and Jason Sosnoff carry the primary two episodes of “Bucks County, USA,” a five-part doc collection about two teenage associates in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who attempt to surmount the political divide that has riven their neighborhood.

Director Cooper Raiff and Lili Reinhart star as “Hal & Harper,” siblings whose relationship is constructed on inside jokes and familial injury. With Mark Ruffalo as their dad.

“Bulldozer” traces the assorted crises affecting an “undermedicated” younger girl. Starring creator Joanna Leeds (whose credit embrace “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Superstore”), it additionally stars Mary Steenburgen and Kate Burton.

The Sundance Movie Competition Awards ceremony shall be held in Park Metropolis on Friday, Jan. 31.

For the whole competition lineup, program descriptions and extra, go to the Sundance Movie Competition web site.