By Emma Kinery
Need a laugh? The 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s lineup delivers with titles ranging from the quirky and giggly to gut-busting. In addition to its reputation for insightful documentaries and engrossing dramas from emerging filmmakers around the world, the Festival has a long history of highlighting the avant-garde work of independent filmmakers who excel in comedy of all sorts (Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine, anyone?), and this year is no exception.
Below, find a wide variety of comedic offerings just waiting to fill the rest of your Festival schedule. Click here to get your in-person and online tickets before they’re gone!
SHORT FILMS AND EPISODICS
BULLDOZER (Episodic Pilot Showcase) — Jo has a lot on her plate. Spiraling after a breakup, she can’t seem to get her bearings straight and, without an iota of self-awareness, ambles through one mishap after another. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this pilot episode as the passionate but misguided protagonist (Joanna Leeds, who wrote and created the series) carries on — or, rather, tries to. It’s a fun watch and everything you want in a TV comedy. Available to watch in person and online as part of the Episodic Pilot Showcase.
Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (Short Film Program 2) — Grandma Nai (Saroeun Nay) maintains her spunk even beyond the grave. She’s initially annoyed when her family members arrive for Qingming and gripes about their vain prayers, but when she realizes her Queer grandson is being pushed into a marriage with a woman, she moves from pranks involving stealing sunglasses to a more purposeful scheme. Directed by Chheangkea, Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites is cute, funny, heartfelt, and the winner of the Festival’s Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction. Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 2.
Hurikán (Animated Short Program) — All Hurikán (Patrik Velek) wants to do is impress the hot bartender at his favorite beer stand in Prague by saving the day with a new keg. Hurikán, a pig-man, faces one hurdle after another from cops to thieves and even his own yearning for a pour fresh from the tap. Available to watch in person and online as part of the Animated Short Film Program.
Out for Delivery (Short Film Program 2) — This short film is a dark comedy about death with dignity. Deanna Rooney delivers a phenomenal wry performance as Joanna, an exasperated woman who faces one mishap after another as she tries to end her life in the wake of a terminal diagnosis. Every time you think things couldn’t possibly get worse for Joanna, they do. Martin Starr also excels in his role as the funeral home worker. Beneath it all, Chelsea Christer’s Out for Delivery has a really touching, unexpected human element to it. Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 2.
remember me (Short Film Program 3) — Claire Titelman is a force of nature as director, producer, writer, and lead actor in this semi-autobiographical short film shot on her own camera. Titelman’s dry humor shines as her character stumbles through life and online dating after moving from Los Angeles back to her midwest hometown to take care of her dying father following her breakup at 40. Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 3.
Somebody Cares (Short Film Program 2) — Poor, wayward Barry. The middle-aged loafer (Shawn Parsons) just wants someone to acknowledge his birthday, but instead he finds himself in a hostage situation begging his sister to answer the phone and wire him his inheritance. Barry and the hit man (Cjon Saulsberry) are each inept in their own ways and turn the very serious situation in this short film directed by Julien Lasseur into a field day. Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 2.
FEATURES
Bubble & Squeak (U.S. Dramatic Competition) — A newly married couple (Himesh Patel and Sarah Goldberg) find themselves on the run after being accused of smuggling cabbages into a country where the cruciferous vegetable is strictly banned. Written and directed by Evan Twohy, Bubble & Squeak’s script was featured on the 2020 Black List and the film is finally hitting the big screen at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Reminiscent of an eccentric storybook fable, the film sees the newlyweds contend with each other’s foibles while evading a ruthlessly persistent customs officer (Matt Berry) dead-set on keeping cabbages out. Available to watch in person and online.
By Design (NEXT) — A question you have undoubtedly pondered: What would happen if you or one of your best friends was to turn into a chair? What? That hasn’t crossed your mind? Well, luckily the implications are laid out by writer-director Amanda Kramer in By Design. Every aspect of Camille’s (Juliette Lewis) life is unsatisfactory — her friends (Samantha Mathis and Robin Tunney), her relationships, her finances — but things begin looking up when she is miraculously transformed into a stunningly designed chair. Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), who is gifted the chair, also finds himself bewitched and his banal life enriched by its presence. Bizarre, funny, and aesthetically beautiful, By Design is full of distinctive characters, and the set and costume design are striking — a true testament to cinematic performance art. Available to watch in person and online.
Coexistence, My Ass! (World Cinema Documentary Competition) — A comedy about one of the most controversial geopolitical topics of the moment? It’s a bold move. But that’s just performer Noam Shuster Eliassi’s point. Eliassi, an Israeli comedian fluent in Hebrew and Arabic who is often mistaken as Palestinian, uses her unique background working with the United Nations to frankly address the conversation constantly happening around her. Developed as a one-woman stand-up show at Harvard University, Eliassi’s hilarious set forces viewers to laugh and listen to the reality of a complex situation. Directed by Amber Fares, Coexistence, My Ass! is the winner of the 2025 Festival’s World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression. Available to watch in person and online.
Dead Lover (Midnight) — An absurdist, camp take on horror, Dead Lover sees a lonely gravedigger finally meet the man of her dreams, only to be crushed when he dies at sea. Overcome with grief, she takes a Frankensteinian route and desperately tries to resurrect him with a series of macabre experiments. Director and co-writer Grace Glowicki, who won a Short Film Special Jury Award For Outstanding Performance for her acting in the 2016 Sundance Film Festival short film Her Friend Adam, again shows her chops starring as the woeful undertaker. This film draws inspiration from sources spanning German Expressionism to Bugs Bunny, and the result is a ludicrous, at times grotesque, zany watch. Available to watch in person.
Magic Farm (Premieres) — What happens when a misguided, privileged, and content-starved film crew ends up in the wrong country? Chaos. The crew sets out to interview a musician in Argentina but instead finds themselves in a rural village dealing with issues of its own. Committed to getting something usable out of the trip, the haywire film team soldiers on. Written and directed by Amalia Ulman, Magic Farm features richly developed characters, including Chloë Sevigny’s conceited, out-of-touch celebrity. A satire of exploitative media culture, the film also is an exploration of humanity and finding the ties that bind us. Available to watch in person.
Oh, Hi! (Premieres) — Oh, the perils of modern dating. Iris (Molly Gordon) is excited to spend a long weekend on a trip with her boyfriend. But Isaac (Logan Lerman) didn’t know they were a couple. Iris goes to lengths to salvage what she assumes must be a momentary confusion, leading to increasingly deranged escalations. It’s too bad things had to go this way for these two, because the rustic farmhouse setting is idyllic and sets the stage for what could have been a relaxing, romantic rendezvous. Unfortunately, their reality is anything but. Falling somewhere between a dark comedy and a rom-com, Oh, Hi! is truly a fun ride by writer-director Sophie Brooks. Available to watch in person.
Serious People (NEXT) — At its heart, Serious People is a prank that just keeps going. Successful music director Pasqual (Pasqual Gutierrez) is about to become a father with his partner, Christine (Christine Yuan), when he is presented with a dream project with his collaborator Raul (Raul Sanchez), which includes an opportunity to mentor an up-and-comer (Miguel Huerta). As things come to a head, Pasqual opts to hire a dopplegänger to allow him to balance it all. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Straddling the boundary between autobiography and fiction based on the directors’ (Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson) real-life relationships, Serious People hilariously tackles themes of fatherhood and the pressures of succeeding in a demanding, self-important industry. Available to watch in person and online.
The Wedding Banquet (Premieres) — A contemporary retelling of Ang Lee’s eponymous 1993 film, director Andrew Ahn’s iteration of The Wedding Banquet features James Schamus — who co-wrote the original — as co-writer with Ahn to craft a reimagined version. Min (Han Gi-chan), annoyed with a lack of commitment from his boyfriend, Chris (Bowen Yang), offers to pay for in vitro fertilization treatments for his friend Angela’s partner, Lee (Lily Gladstone), in exchange for Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) agreeing to a green card marriage. Everything is going to plan until Min’s wealthy grandmother (Youn Yuh-jung) insists on an ornate Korean wedding banquet. Turning the original’s romantic triangle into a trapezoid of queer lovers, The Wedding Banquet is a hilarious, unexpected update that explores friendship, matriarchal family dynamics, and the complexities of modern relationships. Available to watch in person.
