Touch Me
Addison Heimann's feature debut is this gloriously well-crafted horror-comedy about two BFFs who become addicted to an alien's drug-like touch. Olivia Taylor Dudley gives a star-turning performance, alongside great roles for Lou Taylor Pucci, Jordan Gavaris, Marlene Forte and Paget Brewster.

Midnight

Bubble & Squeak
This oddball feature debut from Evan Twohy stars Himesh Patel and Sarah Goldberg as a couple trying to smuggle cabbages into a fictional country. Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, and Matt Berry co-star.

US Dramatic Comp

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Questlove's follow-up to his Oscar-winning Summer of Soul is another musical documentary exploration of a revolutionary Black artist and the legacy of Sly & The Family Stone.

Premieres

Opus
Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, and Amber Midthunder star in Mark Anthony Green's debut feature about a writer who gets trapped in a twisted celebrity world at a vanished pop star’s compound. A24 is distributing.

Midnight

By Design
Amanda Kramer has shown her chops directing both dramatic and documentary. From her feature debut Ladworld to the wonderful recent exploration of cyberworld cinema So Unreal, her films all posses an intense artistic flare. Her latest is a dramatic outing about a woman who swaps bodies with a chair. Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Melanie Griffith, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, and Udo Kier star.

NEXT

The Dating Game
This documentary by Violet Du Feng follows a group of unlucky-in-love men in China as they travel to the big city to attend a hardcore dating bootcamp and learn about "strategic deception" from a famous dating coach.

World Docu Comp

Rabbit Trap
The latest from SpectreVision is Bryn Chainey's feature debut. This 35mm horror is set in 1973 Wales and stars Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, and Jade Croot.

Midnight

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Rose Byrne stars in Mary Bronstein's (Yeast) A24 comedy about a woman on the verge, struggling for control. The cast list features such names as A$AP Rocky, Conan O'Brien, and Sundance king Josh Pais.

Premieres

Rains Over Babel
Not a ton is known about this feature debut from Gala del Sol, but the description of "a tropical Colombian steampunk fever-dream," about a dive bar in purgatory, begs to be seen.

NEXT

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
Elegance Bratton explores the intimate details of house music's birth in Chicago from its disco roots to its cultural appropriation, in this compelling documentary.

Premieres

DJ Ahmet
The feature debut coming-of-ager from Macedonian filmmaker Georgi M. Unkovski follows a 15-year-old boy taking refuge from his rural life in music.

World Dramatic Comp

Bunnylovr
Newcomer Katarina Zhu stars as Chinese-American cam girl struggling to separate her work from her personal life in this debut Zhu wrote and directed. Rachel Sennot both produced and co-stars.

US Dramatic Comp

Predators
Inside the controversial reality television phenomenon of the mid-aughts, To Catch A Predator. Director David Osit won a host of awards, including a Peabody for his 2020 documentary Mayor, about the mayor of Ramallah.

US Docu Comp

OBEX
Albert Birney is perhaps best known for his films he co-directed with Kentucker Audley, Sylvio and Strawberry Mansion. Here he makes his solo live-action feature directorial debut with this pre-internet story of an outcast who travels into a video game to find a missing dog.

NEXT

Dead Lover
Grace Glowicki won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her short Her Friend Adam. She returns as director/star of this midnighter about a unlucky-in-love gravedigger.

Midnight

The Things You Kill
This psychological thriller from Terrestrial Verses director Alireza Khatami follows a timid Turkish college professor who confronts family secrets when a mysterious day laborer shows up on his doorstep. This unsettling film features a strong ensemble Turkish cast of Ekin Koc, Erkan Kolcak Kostendil, Hazar Ergucu, and Ercan Kesal

World Dramatic Comp

André is an Idiot
Animator Anthony Benna makes his feature directorial debut in this docu-portrait of a "brilliant idiot" confronting his terminal illness via filmmaking.

US Docu Comp

Together
Alison Brie and Dave Franco star as a couple who move to the country and find some freakish body changes accompany their move. Damon Herriman co-stars in Michael Shanks's feature debut.

Midnight

Last Days
Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast & Furious franchise) returns to the festival that started his incredible career in 2002 with this dramatization of the story of a missionary travelling to a protected remote island to "convert the heathens" as seen in Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss's compelling 2023 documentary The Mission.

Premieres

Mr. Nobody Against Putin
David Borenstein's latest documentary (Can’t Feel Nothing, Love Factory) tells the story of a small town Russian school teacher, putting his life at risk to expose the changes to education in Putin's Russia.

World Docu Comp

The Ugly Stepsister
Part Cinderella and part The Substance, Emilie Blichfeldt's feature debut is a twisted Norwegian fairy tale. Shudder is releasing stateside.

Midnight

Zodiac Killer Project
Charlie Shackleton's dreams of making a true-crime documentary about the Zodiac Killer are dashed when he fails to secure the rights to a book. So he sets out to make a true crime documentary about losing the rights to the true crime documentary.

NEXT

Didn't Die
The latest from Meera Menon (Farah Goes Bang, Equity) answers the long-standing question of what happens to your podcast audience during the zombie apocalypse.

Midnight

Sundance 2025 Preview: Another Year of Exciting Films

Sundance 2025 Preview: Another Year of Exciting Films

Ryland Aldrich, Editor, Festivals; Los Angeles, California (@RylandAldrich)

January 22 2025, 12:02 PM

It's been a bit of a weird start to 2025, but festival season is kicking off in earnest with the traditional chilly celebration of indie film that is the Sundance Film Festival.

The fest includes 88 feature films in this edition, as well as a few episodic projects and the typical host of best-of-the-best short films. We've poured over the lineup and are here to draw your attention to a few of the standout films that caught our eyes. As always, Sundance is an incredible festival of discovery, so there are bound to be some real gems we missed. But here are a few highlights.

Do you feel this content is inappropriate or infringes upon your rights? Click here to report it, or see our DMCA policy.