Clients: Carmen Emmi – Director, Writer; Rashad Frett – Director, Writer, Producer
The Sundance Film Festival is considering a big move for 2027, but the 2025 feature film and episodic programs find the Robert Redford founded gathering very much in its traditional wheelhouse with a mix of big-name projects, politics, and what might just be the next big thing.
“The Sundance Film Festival remains steadfast in its commitment to elevating unique and urgent voices in independent storytelling,” the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid star said today of the 41st iteration of the festival kicking off on January 23. “Audiences can expect a 2025 program that showcases varied and vibrant filmmaking globally,” Redford added of the 87 features and six episodic projects selected for screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and online next month.
It wouldn’t be Sundance without stars in plushy hooded ski coats, and they’ll be aplenty with Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna in the feature take of the Broadway musical and film, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in Jimpa, Melanie Griffth and Juliette Lewis in By Design, Benedict Cumberbatch in The Thing With Feathers, Andre Holland in Love, Brooklyn; Felicity Jones, Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon in Train Dreams, the return of Dylan O’Brien in Twinless, and Dave Franco (Together and Bubble & Squeak) and Chloë Sevigny (Atropia and Magic Farm) both doing double duty at this year’s fest.
Politics, as well, are de rigueur in the ski slopes of Park City in late January with such titles as the Kim A. Snyder directed ITV doc, The Librarians, about librarians’ crusade to fend off book banning in Texas and Florida, as well as David Borenstein’s Mr. Nobody Against Putin which follows a Russian school teacher questioning this institution’s penchant for propaganda and violence during the Ukraine war. There’s also Prime Minister about former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern.
Also there could be some news about the snowy shindig itself. With Cincinatti, OH and Boulder, CO, as well as Salt Lake City, UT vying to shift the festival from its Park City location, a decision on the future home of Sundance is expected some time toward the end of the 2025 fest.
While Sundance doesn’t program by theme, if there’s a motif running through this year’s selection it’s “how personal these films are across fiction, across documentaries. Throughout the program there is a kind of intimacy and authenticity; a very strong artistic voice throughout all of these works that will speak to audiences” per Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming.
More than 80% of this year’s selection is up for sale. Some titles are arriving to Park City already spoken for by distributors, i.e. Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet (Bleecker Street) starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone, The Rose Byrne movie If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (A24), the genre movie Opus starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich and Juliette Lewis (A24), The Legend of Ochi (A24) starring Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe; the Carey Mulligan title The Ballad of Wallis Island (Focus Features); the Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim documentary Deaf President Now! (Apple TV+) among many others.
“There is resilience in the festival world and the arthouse marketplace,” exclaimed Eugene Hernandez, Director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming pointing toward the promising ticket sales for the upcoming edition. “There is a resilience to the audience, and they are coming back. If there was a collapse that happened out of the early days of the pandemic, we got through that, and festivals and arthouses have been building back.”
Thirty-six of the 87 feature titles are repped by first-time feature filmmakers with many returning Sundance alums including Summer of Soul Oscar winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson with the Hulu documentary SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), Forty Shades of Blue Ira Sachs with Peter Hujar’s Day, Gods and Monsters’ Bill Condon with Kiss of the Spider Woman; Better Luck Tomorrow‘s Justin Lin with Last Days; and West of Memphis filmmaker Amy Berg with the docu It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley about the late 1990s alternative rock musician.
This year the film and episodic slate includes 89 (or 96%) world premieres. The annual fundraising gala, Celebrating Sundance Institute, which honors artists and art supporters, will take place on Friday, January 24, at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah.
Of the 85 feature titles, 40 (47%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as women; 3 (4%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as nonbinary individuals; 38 (45%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as people of color; 25 (29%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as LGBTQ+; 2 (2%) were helmed by one or more filmmakers who identify as transgender; 7 (8%) were directed by one or more filmmakers who identify as a person with a disability.
The 2025 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 23 – February 2, 2025.
As always, Deadline will be on the scene, in the screenings and on the streets of Park City and Salt Lake City next month with our coverage of SFF 2025. So, stay tuned.
Also, Sundance’s Short Film Program and schedule is coming out on December 16. Until then, see the full list of the Sundance 2025 Feature Film and Episodic lineup here:
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
The U.S. Dramatic Competition offers Festivalgoers a first look at the world premieres of groundbreaking new voices in American independent film. Films that have premiered in this category in recent years include Dìdi (弟弟), A Real Pain, In The Summers, Nanny, CODA, Minari, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Farewell, Clemency, Eighth Grade, and Sorry to Bother You.
Plainclothes / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Carmen Emmi, Producers: Colby Cote, Arthur Landon, Eric Podwall, Vanessa Pantley) — A promising undercover officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies orders when he falls in love with a target. Cast: Tom Blyth, Russell Tovey, Maria Dizzia, Christian Cooke, Gabe Fazio, Amy Forsyth. World Premiere. Available online for Public.
Ricky / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Rashad Frett, Screenwriter: Lin Que Ayoung, Producers: Pierre M. Coleman, Simon TaufiQue, Sterling Brim, Josh Peters, DC Wade, Cary Fukunaga) — 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. Cast: Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Titus Welliver, Maliq Johnson, Imani Lewis, Andrene Ward-Hammond. World Premiere. Available online for Public.
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