Sundance announces lineup for 2025 festival, facing its future head-on

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will have not one but two events potentially drawing eyeballs away from the programming. And that is just an incredible place for discovery.” Among the films in the U.S. dramatic competition are Hailey Gates’ “Atropia” starring Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner and Chloë Sevigny, Evan Twohy’s “Bubble & Squeak” starring Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg and Steven Yeun, Katarina Zhu’s “Bunnylovr” starring Zhu along with Rachel Sennott, Rachel Abigail Holder’s “Love, Brooklyn” starring André Holland, Nicole Beharie and DeWanda Wise, Rashad Frett’s “Ricky” starring Stephan James and Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” starring Victor, Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges. Among them is Mark Anthony Green’s “Opus,” starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis and Amber Midthunder, Meera Menon’s “Didn’t Die,” Bryn Chainey’s “Rabbit Trap” and Michael Shanks’ “Together.” Sly Stone appears in “Sly Lives! While it is not yet clear whether there will be such an organized expression of protest in 2025, one can only assume that some films will play to audiences much differently than if the election had had a different outcome, such as Jesse Short Bull and David France’s documentary “Free Leonard Peltier,” on the imprisoned leader of the American Indian Movement, Kim A. Snyder’s doc “The Librarians,” about the role of librarians amid a wave of state book bans, or Andrew Ahn’s remake of the LGBTQ+-themed “The Wedding Banquet.” “I think that what Sundance has contributed to the culture is a space that celebrates freedom of expression,” said Hernandez, “and nurtures the opportunities for artists of all different backgrounds and experiences and cultures to tell personal stories.” In the episodic section dedicated to work told in multiple episodes, there will be the docuseries “Bucks County, USA,” from directors and executive producers Barry Levinson and Robert May, a look at two 14-year-olds in Bucks County, Pa., who are friends despite their opposing political beliefs. And together we have this opportunity to see what’s on artists’ minds in any given year.” Among the films premiering at the 2024 festival that have remained in the conversation since then are “A Real Pain,” “A Different Man,” “Thelma,” “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Union.” How the films of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival will meet their moment as they are discovered by audiences will form the core of the response to the upcoming program.