This year, a blend of exciting debuts and familiar faces highlight the 2025 Sundance Film Festival lineup. Amid the innovative feature films, episodics, and short films are 47 new projects by celebrated directors who have previously showcased their work at the Festival.
Discover films about legendary funk band Sly & the Family Stone (SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)), a podcast host navigating a zombie apocalypse (Didn’t Die), and a student election at the world’s only Deaf university (Deaf President Now!), among the many other offerings from Sundance alumni at the 2025 Festival.
Here’s a look inside all the new projects from returning Sundance filmmakers. Start browsing ticketing options now — Single Film Tickets are on sale today! — then create your schedule by adding titles to your favorites list.
FEATURES
Director: Mstyslav Chernov
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Co-Director: Andrew Jarecki
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
All That’s Left of You (اللي باقي منك)
Director: Cherien Dabis
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
After a Palestinian teen confronts Israeli soldiers at a West Bank protest, his mother recounts the series of events that led him to that fateful moment, starting with his grandfather’s forced displacement.
Director: Kahlil Joseph
Section: NEXT
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Ryan White
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Two poets, one incurable cancer diagnosis. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life, and mortality.
Co-Director: Davis Guggenheim
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person and online
During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob — and change the course of history.
Director: Meera Menon
Section: Midnight
Available to watch in person and online
A podcast host desperately clings to an ever-shrinking audience in the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Georgi M. Unkovski
Section: World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love — a girl already promised to someone else.
Director: Zackary Drucker
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Two legends contested their identities as women in the court of public opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgender history; and Amanda Lear, who has consciously denied and obfuscated her history for decades. Their divergent paths reveal disparate but intertwined legacies.
Directors: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
On the precipice of adulthood, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway. Dropped at the edge of the world, they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.
Director: David France
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies.
Director: Sam Feder
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person and online
Amid the surge in anti-trans legislation that Chase Strangio battles in the courtroom, he must also fight against media bias, exposing how the narratives in the press influence public perception and the fight for transgender rights.
Director: Amy Berg
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer.
Director: Sophie Hyde
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Hannah takes her nonbinary teenager, Frances, to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather, Jim — lovingly known as Jimpa. But Frances’ desire to stay abroad with Jimpa for a year means Hannah is forced to reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past.
Director: Bill Condon
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna.
Director: Justin Lin
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Determined to fulfill his life’s mission, 26-year-old John Allen Chau embarks on a dangerous adventure across the globe to convert the uncontacted tribe of North Sentinel Island to Christianity, while a detective from the Andaman Islands races to stop him before he does harm to himself or the tribe.
Director: Kim A. Snyder
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.
Director: Reid Davenport
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.
Directors: Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s made a student film that uncovered a vast conspiracy involving toxic waste that was poisoning their community. Thirty years later, they revisit their film and confront the legacy of this transformative experience.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
Director: Elegance Bratton
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.
Director: Albert Birney
Section: NEXT
Available to watch in person and online
Conor Marsh lives a secluded life with his dog, Sandy, until one day he begins playing OBEX, a new, state-of-the-art computer game. When Sandy goes missing, the line between reality and game blurs and Conor must venture into the strange world of OBEX to bring her home.
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Section: Spotlight
Available to watch in person
An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s.
Director: Geeta Gandbhir
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Ira Sachs
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
Director: Max Walker-Silverman
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.
Director: Rashad Frett
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Available to watch in person and online
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.
Director: Cristina Costantini
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person and online
Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.
Director: Isabel Castro
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
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.
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Available to watch in person
Section: Premieres
An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone — the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone — captures the band’s rise, reign, and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.
Director: Bao Nguyen
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
A two-year investigation uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognized photographs of the 20th century. Five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as “the stringer.”
Director: Dylan Southern
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
Struggling to process the sudden and unexpected death of his wife, a young father loses his hold on reality as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Director: Tadashi Nakamura
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Available to watch in person and online
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “the godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. Robert’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease leads to an exploration of art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.
Director: Clint Bentley
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
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.
Director: Andrew Ahn
Section: Premieres
Available to watch in person
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.
Director: Charlie Shackleton
Section: NEXT
Available to watch in person and online
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.
EPISODICS
Director: Cooper Raiff
Section: Episodic
Available to watch in person and online
Hal and Harper and Dad chart the evolution of their family.
Director: Matt Wolf
Section: Episodic
Available to watch in person
A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman. Prior to his recent death, Reubens spoke in-depth about his creative influences, and the personal struggles he faced to persevere as an artist.
SHORT FILMS
Director: Jianjie Lin
Section: Short Film Program 5
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 5
In the suburbs of a northern Chinese city undergoing urbanization, a quirky girl who wants to see animals in the zoo is taken for a ride that will forever change her perspective on life.
Director: Glenn Kaino
Section: Short Film Program 1
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 1
The untold story about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and an all-star team of civil rights activists took to basketball courts to rally young voters while winning hearts of communities, and how their strategy has echoed in contemporary politics.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return
Director: Amanda Strong
Section: Animated Short Film Program
Available to watch in person and online as part of the Animated Short Film Program
Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Indigenous medicine, Inkwo, to protect their community from an unearthed swarm of terrifying creatures.
Directors: Robert Machoian, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
Section: Short Film Program 5
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 5
Documenting the people and landscapes of the Salinas Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in California.
Director: Joe Hunting
Section: Documentary Short Film Program
Available to watch in person and online as part of the Documentary Short Film Program
Virtual reality creator Hiyu is facing kidney failure. His online friend Photographotter travels from New York City to Stockholm to be a live donor to Hiyu.
Director: Stephen Irwin
Section: Short Film Program 1
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 1
Death takes center stage and faceless spectators applaud the inevitable in a series of murderous dreams.
Directors: Gerardo Coello Escalante, Amandine Thomas
Section: Short Film Program 1
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 1
A middle-aged American tourist finds herself alone in Mexico City. When she encounters a group of young Americans, she jumps at the opportunity for a little adventure.
Co-Director: Megan Griffiths
Section: Documentary Short Film Program
Available to watch in person and online as part of the Documentary Short Film Program
A singer confronts inspiration porn, exploitation, and impostor syndrome in pursuit of a life on the stage without legs.
Director: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Section: Short Film Program 3
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 3
An eccentric biologist interrogates a wild man who was found in the forest after an earthquake hit a small mountain town.
Director: Christopher Radcliff
Section: Short Film Program 4
Available to watch in person and online as part of Short Film Program 4
In 1975, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che fled from Vietnam by boat and docked in the Philippines, where they were utilized as background extras during the filming of Apocalypse Now.
