Sundance Film Festival 2025: A Short-Centric Guide

The last weekend of January is already here, so Sundance is in full swing. With the festival planning to leave its current host city, the film industry is in Park City for the Winter festival for the last time before its official farewell. But don’t worry, you don’t need a warm parka to partake, with the films in competitive sections available to stream in the US.

Now in its 41st edition, Sundance remains one of the major stops on the festival circuit and kicks off the new festival season thanks to its early calendar slot. While its premiere requirement with features is pretty strict, Sundance proves once more that they are much more flexible with shorts. Inkwo for When the Starving Return, Vox Humana and Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail? all screened at Toronto; Azi had its World Premiere at the Palm Springs ShortFest; Neredeyse Kesinlikle Yanlış (Almost Certainly False) debuted in Venice; B(l)ind the Sacrifice in Locarno; and Hurikán has already traveled all around the world.

— Curator Picks: Sundance 2025 —

It has become a tradition here at S/W to watch the whole shorts lineup. As Sundance is notoriously the festival that gets the most shorts submissions, we’re always fascinated by their curatorial choices. In the feature sections, we were happy to spot two alums of the Sundance shorts: Rashad Frett, featured in the U.S. Dramatic section with Ricky, following his 2023 short of the same name, and Georgi M. Unkovski, in the World Dramatic section with DJ Ahmet, after showcasing his short Sticker at the 2020 festival.

As we often do at major festivals with manageable programs, we carefully went through the whole line-up in the hopes of finding S/W alums. Our deep dive uncovered 12 features and five shorts. So if you’re a fan of these filmmakers or like to follow S/W alums, don’t hesitate to check out these films!

Features

A still from Atropia by Hailey Gates, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Last year, six S/W alums premiered their feature films at the festival. This year, that number has grown to 12, with their work showcased across the U.S. Competitions, NEXT, Family, Midnight and Premieres sections. Below is the list of features we’re excited to check out.

• Atropia by Hailey Gates
  S/W Film: Shako Mako
  Synopsis: 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.
  Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
  
  
• Omaha by Cole Webley
  S/W Film: Dark Blue
  Synopsis: After a family tragedy, siblings Ella and Charlie are unexpectedly woken up by their dad and taken on a journey across the country, experiencing a world they’ve never seen before. As their adventure unfolds, Ella begins to understand that things might not be what they seem.
  Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
  
  
• Twinless by James Sweeney
  S/W Film: Normal Doors
  Synopsis: Two young men meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.
  Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
  
  


Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney appear in Twinless by James Sweeney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greg Cotten.

• The Perfect Neighbor by Geeta Gandbhir
  S/W Film: Call Center Blues
  Synopsis: A seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. Police bodycam footage and investigative interviews expose the consequences of Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
  Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
  
  
• Selena y Los Dinos by Isabel Castro
  S/W Film: Darlin
  Synopsis: Selena Quintanilla — the “Queen of Tejano Music” — and her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, rose from performing at quinceañeras to selling out stadium tours. The celebration of her life and legacy is chronicled through never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archive.
  Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
  
  
• Rebuilding by Max Walker-Silverman
  S/W Film: Lefty/Righty
  Synopsis: After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.
  Section: Premieres
  
  


Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre appear in Rebuilding by Max Walker-Silverman, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jesse Hope.

• BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions by Kahlil Joseph (NOW PULLED FROM THE FESTIVAL)
  S/W Film: Until The Quiet Comes
  Synopsis: Preeminent West African curator and scholar Funmilayo Akechukwu’s magnum opus, The Resonance Field, leads her to the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, drawing a journalist into a journey that shatters her understanding of consciousness and time.
  Section: NEXT
  
  
• Train Dreams by Clint Bentley
  S/W Film: 9 Races
  Synopsis: Robert Grainier is 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.
  Section: Premieres
  
  
• Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton
  S/W Films: Lasting Marks, Copycat, Fish Story, Personal Truth
  Synopsis: Against the backdrop of sunbaked parking lots, deserted courthouses, and empty suburban homes — the familiar spaces of true crime, stripped of all action and spectacle — a filmmaker describes his abandoned Zodiac Killer documentary and probes the inner workings of a genre at saturation point.
  Section: NEXT


A still from Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

• The Wedding Banquet by Andrew Ahn
  S/W Film: Dol (First Birthday)
  Synopsis: 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.
  Section: Premieres
  
  
• The Legend of Ochi by Isaiah Saxon
  S/W Films:The Tale of Hillbelly
  Synopsis: In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an animal species known as Ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby Ochi has been left behind, she escapes on an adventure to bring him home.
  Section: Family
  
  
• Dead Lover by Grace Glowicki
  S/W Films: Her Friend Adam
  Synopsis: A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love..
  Section: Midnight

Shorts

A still from Flower Show by Elli Vuorinen, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Böhle Studios

Five shorts in this year’s program are new works from S/W alums. In fact, three of the seven films in Short Film Program 1, which premiered yesterday on Day One, are actually by members of the S/W family. It’s always fun for us to not only catch new shorts but fresh projects from directors whom we’ve featured before. Below, you’ll find the shorts that we were the most excited to see.

• Unholy by Daisy Freedman – Short Film Program 1 – Featured just last year with As You Are, Friedman’s new short is one of the most promising of the new year. Heading to SXSW after its premiere at Sundance, it’s already one of my favorites of the year.
• A Round of Applause for Death by Stephen Irwin – Short Film Program 1 – multiple-time alum (World To Roam, Wood Child & Hidden Forest Mother, Moxie, Atomic Hubbub, The Black Dog’s Progress), Irwin is back with a bold, original, satirical and fun animated film.
• Debaters by Alex Heller – Short Film Program 1 – We promised two new shorts from Heller in our coverage of her previous short Holiday House and here is the first one. Featuring real life couple J. Smith-Cameron and Kenneth Lonergan, Debaters cements her place on the indie short scene.
• We Were The Scenery by Christopher Radcliff – Short Film Program 4 – Radcliff who had co-directed The Strange Ones with Lauren Wolkstein, is back with a powerful documentary.
• Flower Show by Elli Vuorinen – Animated Short Film Program – Featured on S/W with Sore Eyes For Infinity and Benigni that she had co-directed, Flower Show is a clever and inventive animation film that crafts a poignant narrative through its colors and style.