Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watch

One of the most anticipated appointments of the festival season, Sundance Film Festival is gearing up to screen some of your future indie favourites.

Co-founded by Robert Redford, the festival has been championing filmmakers working outside the studio system since the late 1970s, drawing attention to movies like American Psycho, The Blair Witch Project, Whiplash, and more.

For ten days every January, Sundance transforms snowy Utah into an independent filmmaking hub, with viewers across the US able to tune in online. To ensure you’re Sundance-ready, here’s a round-up of some films we’re looking forward to watching this year.

Off the back of her 2022 dazzling, campy opera Please Baby Please, Amanda Kramer presents body-swap furniture fable By Design. Slamming conventions, Kramer’s upcoming feature takes social uncomfortableness to the next level when Camille (Juliette Lewis) turns into a chair. Yes, you read that right.

Part of Sundance’s ever-intriguing horror slate, Meera Menon’s gory zombie flick Didn’t Die conjures post-apocalyptic images of George Romero’s beloved saga. The black-and-white movie zeroes in on podcaster Vinita (Kiran Deol) as she grapples with a shrinking audience, her ex’s return and the collapse of civilisation.

Another from the Midnight section is star-studded musical horror Opus, snapped up by A24 for a March release. The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri plays writer Ariel Ecton, involved in a psychosocial game of cat and mouse when she’s invited to the compound of a deified popstar (John Malkovich) who disappeared 30 years prior.

The latest in a growing canon of sex workers' stories, Bunnylovr stars first-time writer-director Katarina Zhu as cam girl Rebecca. Longing for connection, she develops an unsettling relationship with a client while rekindling her bond with her dying father. Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott serves as producer and features as Rebecca’s best friend.

Comedian Eva Victor — who went viral with their 'straight pride' video in 2019 — makes their directorial debut with Sorry, Baby. Infusing the movie with their honest voice as a sexual assault survivor, Victor portrays Agnes, a college professor attempting to process the magnitude of what happened to her.

James Sweeney returns with a follow-up to Straight Up, his 2019 thought-provoking asexuality movie disguised as a rom-com. Expect the same tonal shifts in his sophomore feature Twinless, a humorous grief study about two men striking up a friendship at a bereavement group for twinless twins.

After Sundance’s intimate sex comedy Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Sophie Hyde premieres queer movie Jimpa. Accompanied by her non-binary kid Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde), Hannah (Olivia Colman) reunites with her gay dad Jim ‘Jimpa’ (John Lithgow) as their gathering brings about a reexamination of their family dynamics.

Dysfunctional family patterns are also central to Mary Bronstein’s dark comedy, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Rose Byrne plays Linda, a Long Island psychologist juggling her clients and crumbling under the weight of maternal responsibilities. It promises to be a tour de force for Byrne as Linda and a brilliantly anxiety-inducing ride for the audience — no wonder as it’s produced by Uncut Gems’ Josh Safdie.

Acquired by Mubi, absurdist sci-fi comedy Magic Farm from writer-director Amalia Ulman stars Chloë Sevigny as part of an Argentina-bound, inept film crew ending up in the wrong country whilst trying to profile a musician.

Finally, Andrew Ahn helms a queerer take on Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet, heading to cinemas in April.

Expanding the original triangle into a ‘quad goals’ gang, the remake celebrates chosen family as Min (Han Gi-chan), in a relationship with avoidant boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang), proposes a green card marriage to his friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) in exchange for funding her partner Lee's (Lily Gladstone) IVF. Confused? Wait till their families surprise them with a grand Korean wedding celebration.

More must-see films from Sundance Film Festival 2025

Atropia is, for all intents and purposes, a rom-com, but not like one you’ve ever seen before. Directed by Hailey Gates of Uncut Gems and Challengers, now making her directorial debut, this spin on the genre takes place in a military role-playing facility. One of the participants, an aspiring actress (Alia Shawkat), falls for a soldier assigned to play an insurgent (Callum Turner). What ensues is as quirky as it sounds: as the pair get closer, their emotions veer off-script and threaten the carefully-staged operation.

Writer: Anna Solomon

Rebuilding

This gentle drama follows a rancher named Dusty who loses his farm to a wildfire – a plotline that is likely to resonate in the context of Hollywood’s current crisis. Director and producer Max Walker-Silverman transports audiences to the American West as Dusty, played by Josh O’Connor, attempts to rebuild and recover, finding a community of others whose lives have been devastated, including his ex-wife and daughter.

Writer: Anna Solomon

The Thing with Feathers

A psychological thriller with a tragic overtone, The Thing With Feathers is a hallucinatory take on Max Porter’s novella Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. Director Dylan Southern traces a young father’s mental struggle after the unexpected death of his wife. Haunted by the loss, he becomes convinced that a malevolent presence is stalking him, lingering in the corners of his apartment. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the central character in a story about the crushing weight of bereavement.

Writer: Anna Solomon

Ricky

This is the feature-length version of writer and director Rashad Frett’s short film of the same name: an eye-opening, life-affirming story of the titular character’s struggle to reenter society after more than a decade in prison, with the help of his tough-but-fair parole officer. Ricky, portrayed by Stephen James of If Beale Street Could Talk and Homecoming, is ever-sympathetic as he tries to stay on the straight and narrow while being his own worst enemy.

Writer: Anna Solomon

Kiss of the Spider Woman

If you didn’t expect to see Jennifer Lopez on the Sundance itinerary, prepare to be surprised. The singer appears in Bill Condon’s (who adapted the screenplay of Chicago and directed Dreamgirls) Kiss of the Spider Woman, a big-screen reimagining of the musical of the same name. The story traces the unlikely bond between Valentín, a political prisoner in 1980s Argentina, and his cellmate, Molina, convicted of public indecency, as they reminisce about a legendary silver screen diva (played by J. Lo).

Writer: Anna Solomon

LUZ

In LUZ, virtual reality connects the lives of Wei, a Chongqing resident searching for his estranged daughter, and Ren, a Hong Kong gallerist living in Paris with her ailing stepmother. In the VR world, a mystical deer reveals hidden truths and forges unexpected connections. Featuring indie stalwart Isabelle Huppert, considered by those in the know to be one of the greatest actors of her generation, this film sounds slightly unhinged – but that’s the beauty of Sundance.

Writer: Anna Solomon

Rabbit Trap

Since thrillers and horrors seem to be the name of the game at this year’s festival, we’ve ended on a spooky one. Playing in the Midnight section, whose forerunners have included The Blair Witch Project, Hereditary and The Babadook, ’70s-era folk horror Rabbit Trap features Rosey McEwan and Dev Patel as a musician and her husband who relocate to a secluded cottage in Wales, disturbing something primordial in the forest and summoning a mysterious child.

Writer: Anna Solomon

The 2025 edition of Sundance Film Festival will run from 23 January-2 February

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