20 Must-See Films Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Moving a week later in the calendar this year, the Sundance Film Festival kicks off this Thursday and runs through February 2, offering a first glimpse at the year in cinema with (once again) a mix of in-person and virtual offerings. While the annual festival has its fair share of returning filmmakers, it is certainly most renowned as a beacon of discovery, and we look forward to providing extensive coverage that one can follow via our daily newsletter.

Before the festival begins and our reviews arrive, we’re highlighting the premieres that should be on your radar––a few of which we’ve already had the opportunity to see. If you’re interested in experiencing Sundance in person or from afar, one can see available tickets here ahead of Thursday’s in-person opening and an online viewing window that kicks off January 30.

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Khalil Joseph)

Exhibition-turned-feature, BLKNWS actually began as a series of satirical shorts that criticized the corporate-media complex by imagining a cable newscast run by Black people from the Black perspective. It eventually turned into an immersive exhibit, evolved once again into a 47-minute short, and will soon be Khalil Joseph’s feature debut. Drawing on the concept of Black fugitivity––a liberation philosophy that posits a necessary break from oppressive systems as the only way to move society beyond them––and building on the work of critical race theorists like Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Joseph’s ever-evolving work has only become more intriguing as it takes on new forms. – Luke H.

Cutting Through Rocks (Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni)

An engrossing documentary portrait of a woman fighting the patriarchy in her Iranian village, Cutting Through Rocks follows the hard-fought journey of Sara Shahverdi. The first elected councilwoman in her community, she strives to upend the female societal rituals of complacency and subservience under suffocating male dominance. Whether it’s asking a class at an all-girls school to sign pledges to not surrender their young lives away to forced marriages or simply providing a sense of freedom by letting female teenagers ride her motorcycle, the film offers a detailed look at dedicating one’s life to a cause that has a million roadblocks at every step. – Jordan R.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)

Seventeen years after giving Greta Gerwig one of her very first roles in Yeast, director Mary Bronstein is finally returning with her next feature. The A24-backed If I Had Legs I’d Kick You packs quite the eclectic cast: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, A$AP Rocky, Danielle Macdonald, Lark White, Ivy Wolk, Daniel Zolghadri, and Delaney Quinn. Produced by her husband Ronald Bronstein and his frequent collaborator Josh Safdie, the film follows Linda (Byrne) as she navigates her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist. – Jordan R.

Love, Brooklyn (Rachael Abigail Holder)

After Presence last year, Steven Soderbergh won’t be returning to the festival with a new feature but he is backing the directorial debut of Rachael Abigail Holder, led by his collaborator André Holland. Love, Brooklyn follows the actor, DeWanda Wise, and Nicole Beharie as Brooklynites navigating “careers, love, loss, and friendship against the rapidly changing landscape of their beloved city,” per the official synopsis. – Jordan R.

LUZ (Flora Lau)

While Isabelle Huppert’s festivals are more associated with the Euro-centric likes of Berlinale, Cannes, and Venice, she is gracing America with her latest project, LUZ. Helmed by Flora Lau in her first film since 2013’s Cannes-selected debut Bends, the enticing international production’s synopsis goes like so: “In the neon-lit streets of Chongqing, Wei desperately searches for his estranged daughter Fa, while Hong Kong gallerist Ren grapples with her ailing stepmother Sabine in Paris. Their lives collide in a virtual reality world, where a mystical deer reveals hidden truths, sparking a journey of discovery and connection.” – Jordan R.

Magic Farm (Amalia Ulman)

Expanding her scope (and color palette) after her dryly hilarious debut El Planeta, Amalia Ulman is back with Magic Farm. Starring Chloë Sevigny, Simon Rex, Alex Wolff, and Joe Apollonio, the film follows a film crew who travels to Argentina to profile a local musician, but their ineptitude leads them into the wrong country. As they collaborate with locals to create a viral trend, relationships form amid an unfolding health crisis. Already picked up by MUBI for a release this year, this is one of our most-anticipated premieres across the entire line-up. – Jordan R.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (David Borenstein and Pavel Ilyich Talankin)

What does resistance look like in a country that runs on propaganda? As Russia’s horrifying invasion of Ukraine continues nearly three years later, a riveting new documentary explores how the government is forcing teachers to rinse and repeat falsehoods on a daily basis to their impressionable students about the country’s reasoning for attacking Ukraine. While the fact isn’t necessarily shocking, it is essential to see just how willing the brainwashed teachers are to spew the rhetoric. Enter Pasha, a teacher who finds unique ways to push back against the orders and inform students of the reality happening just over their border. Mr. Nobody Against Putin, filmed in secret, joins Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends as a vital guide for how to fight back when the morality of those in power is in shambles. – Jordan R.

OBEX (Albert Birney)

While the likes of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and Steven Lisberger’s TRON have examined the thrills and fears of humanity’s relationship with screens since the early ‘80s, there’s been a recent, renewed interest as the number of screens in one’s life has ever-expanded. At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Jane Schoebruen explored identity-forming bonds with media and the eventual curdling nostalgia with I Saw the TV Glow. This year, OBEX finds Albert Birney following Strawberry Mansion with another inventive and lo-fi adventure, but one that has a more satisfying focus. Even though our main character spends every waking moment in front of a screen, this is no damning screed but rather an earnest, even poignant look at how entertainment can provide a sense of comfort for the most lonely souls. – Jordan R.

Omaha (Cole Webley)

Returning to Sundance following Past Lives, John Magaro leads the U.S. Dramatic Competition premiere Omaha. Marking Cole Webley’s directorial debut, from a script by Robert Machoian (The Killing of Two Lovers), the drama follows a father who takes his kids on a cross-country road trip after a family tragedy. With Machoian’s strong previous work and Magaro’s talent, hopefully this is one of the festival’s surprises. – Jordan R.

Middletown (Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine)

While most major high school projects consist of school plays, lengthy essays, or elaborate science experiments, one “Electronic English” (aka video production) teacher at an upstate New York school encouraged his students to partake in some investigative journalism concerning a mysterious landfill in their neighbor. The multi-year project eventually resulted in national media attention, government cover-ups, even mob ties. After a pair of documentaries at last year’s Sundance with Girls State and War Game, Jesse Moss is back with Amanda McBaine to craft a story about youthful creative passion, the power a camera can provide, and how it takes just a touch of tenacity to sniff out something foul and snowball a community into fighting for justice. – Jordan R.

Peter Hujar’s Day (Ira Sachs) 

Peter Hujar was tangential to so many of the biggest social and art movements in New York of the 1960s and 1970s; it remains surprising that his photography work didn’t find too wide an audience until he died. Ira Sachs’ latest reunites him with Passages star Ben Whishaw to explore, in the filmmaker’s words, “what it is to be an artist among artists in a city where no one was making any money.” Rather than a typical biopic, Peter Hujar’s Day appears to be exploring the relationship between art and commerce––a recurring obsession for any filmmaker. With Whishaw and Rebecca Hall leading the cast, it sounds like a winner. – Alistair R.

The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir)

With stand-your-ground laws resulting in an increase in murders––and a proven racial bias when it comes to the number of white shooters and Black victims––there’s a sprawling amount of data and stories a documentary could explore on the topic. Geeta Gandbhir’s gripping, infuriating The Perfect Neighbor takes an objectively narrow, focused approach, exploring a single case in Flordia primarily through police bodycam and interrogation footage. Initial police calls involving a neighbor upset at the children trespassing on her property shockingly escalates one chaotic night in a matter of minutes; Gandbhir lets the footage speak for itself, creating a documentary far more upsetting and impactful than any number of talking heads could provide. – Jordan R.

Predators (David Osit)

Following up his fantastic political documentary Mayor, a portrait of the mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, director David Osit is turning his eye toward a ubiquitous TV series. Predators is not, in fact, another entry into the famous sci-fi franchise, but rather a deep look inside To Catch a Predator, exploring every facet of its making and public consumption, including the viewer’s complicity in binging true-crime programs. We imagine it’ll make a perfect double feature with the last film on this list. – Jordan R.

Rebuilding (Max Walker-Silverman)

Directing one of the breakout films of 2022 with his tender directorial debut A Love Song, Max Walker-Silverman is back at the festival with one of the world’s rising stars in tow. Rebuilding stars Josh O’Connor, who is about to embark on Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi blockbuster, as a rancher who attempts to rebuild his life after a fire destroys his farm. Featuring many returning collaborators, we imagine this will be one of the most sensitive, moving films in the Sundance lineup this year. – Jordan R.

Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)

Having produced Aftersun, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski’s PASTEL brings a mark of quality like few others in the field. Their latest project is Sorry, Baby, the directorial debut from Eva Victor, who also wrote and stars in the drama. The film tells a nonlinear story over the course of five years about a graduate student-turned-professor navigating her life after an incident. Also featuring Lucas Hedges, who’s had a relatively quiet last few years, this is poised to be one of the major Sundance breakouts. – Jordan R.

Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)

Following up Jockey and Sing Sing, filmmaking team Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar are back this year with an adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams. Led by Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones, the film follows Robert Grainier as a day laborer building America’s railroads at the start of the 20th century as he experiences “profound love, shocking defeat, and a world irrevocably transforming before his very eyes,” notes the Sundance synopsis. With the filmmakers showing full-bodied compassion and sensitivity with their recent films, we can’t wait to see what they have in store here. – Jordan R.

Two Women (Chloé Robichaud)

If, by and large, American cinema has taken a puritanical view on sex, leave it to our neighbors up north to craft a refreshingly frank, hilarious comedy about seeking pleasure when life has hit a dead end. Canadian director Chloé Robichaud’s Two Women is scripted by Catherine Léger, who adapts her stage play Home Deliveries, itself inspired by Claude Fournier’s 1970 feature Two Women in Gold. The two women at the center are Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman) and Violette (Laurence Leboeuf), who speak up on their desires, even when they sprout from the most unexpected places. It’s a fleet-footed, raucous, thoroughly heartfelt comedy of manners. – Jordan R.

The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt)

If the disheartening lack of creativity in Disney’s live-action remakes has one thinking these timeless stories may have, in fact, run their course, leave it to Norweigan director Emilie Blichfeldt to find new life (and blood) with the Cinderella tale. Her impressively mounted, darkly macabre directorial debut follows Elvira (Lea Myren, in a fantastic feature-debut performance) living in the shadow of her stepsister (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) as they vie for the attention of the Prince. A twisted body horror take on the classic tale for how it explores the costs of beauty, Blichfeldt is not afraid to dive into the unflinchingly gruesome while packing an impressive sense of empathy. – Jordan R.

The Wedding Banquet (Andrew Ahn)

With The Wedding Banquet, Andrew Ahn is remaking a beloved film, bringing Ang Lee’s 1993 Taiwanese romantic comedy into the present day. Teaming with original screenwriter James Schamus, Ahn––often empathetic in his view of the humanity and warmth he’s putting onscreen––has created another queer film, this time set for a Sundance premiere. The plot surrounds “Wai-Tung, a gay Taiwanese-American, who agrees to marry Wei-Wei for a green card. When their parents visit for the wedding, Wai-Tung’s homosexuality is revealed, leading to eventual acceptance.” Ahn’s cast includes Lily Gladstone, Joan Chen, and Youn Yuh-jung, an ensemble known for that same empathy. It’s also an opportunity for Bowen Yang in a dramatic role. – Mike F.

Zodiac Killer Project (Charlie Shackleton)

What would a feature-length director commentary look like for a film that was never made? This is the slippery, fascinating conceit for Charlie Shackleton’s rather brilliant Zodiac Killer Project, which finds the director walking through his failed attempt to make the first major documentary about the infamous unsolved case, based on Lyndon E. Lafferty’s book The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge. What emerges, one could argue, is an even more intellectually stimulating project than the original intentions: a sui generis, often humorous stream-of-consciousness journey highlighting the ever-mounting mass of repeated clichés of various true-crime documentaries and series. Instead of a simple hit piece, however, Shackleton investigates why such familiarity often works on the viewer while ensuring you’ll never watch such programs the same way again. – Jordan R.

More Sundance 2025 Premieres to See

With a lineup of nearly 90 features, there’s much more to recommend from the films I’ve had a chance to screen. On the documentary side, GEN_ is a clear-eyed, fly-on-the-wall look at a noble Milan doctor navigating reproductive rights and gender expression. A pair of entertaining music docs, Elegance Bratton’s Move Ya Body: The Birth of House and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), spotlight essential moments in Black music history and should be played as loud as possible. A pair of biographic docs, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore and Prime Minister (a portrait of Jacinda Ardern), offer engaging tales of two figures upending perceived norms and breaking through their respective fields.

A few years after I Didn’t See You There, Reid Davenport returns to Sundance with another moving call for empathy when it comes to advancing the rights of disabled persons as Life After explores one’s right to die mainly through the story of Elizabeth Bouvia. The Dating Game takes an amusing exploration of how the One Child Policy has wreaked havoc on courting in China. Khartoum offers expressionistic tales of five citizens forced to leave their country of Sudan for East Africa during war. Coexistence, My Ass! is an equal-parts humorous and distressing look at trying to find connection through comedy during the Middle East crisis.

On the narrative side, four additional stand-outs in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition category are The Things You Kill, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), Where the Winds Come From, and Sauna, each directed with a distinct vision conjuring impressive moods. In the NEXT section, Serious People will certainly have the most hilarious climactic punchline of the festival while Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) shows strong formal precision conveying the tale of a Bronx hustler. While I haven’t screened much of the U.S. Dramatic Competition yet, the anthology Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) is an early gem, fitting comfortability into a certain Sundance aesthetic while offering narrative surprises. In the Midnight section, the erotic alien tale Touch Me is certainly like nothing else you’ll see this year.

While it’s not a world premiere, we reviewed Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April back in Venice and recommend catching it on the big screen if you’re in Park City ahead of its just-announced April release. Lastly, after premiering at Venice Film Festival alongside another Beatles-adjacent doc, TWST / Things We Said Today, Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwardss’ entertaining One to One: John & Yoko comes to Sundance, offering a sprawling look at 18 months in the lives of its subjects in the early ’70s and the tumultuous world events of the time.

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