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If there’s one word to describe this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s “uncertainty.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as this year’s festival was far more interesting than any festival has been since the COVID-19 pandemic. And, amazingly, despite all the challenges that came their way, Sundance’s organizers were able to make the event feel genuinely fun and memorable. So they deserve massive kudos for that.
The question that was in everyone’s minds at this year’s festival: where will the festival be come 2027? Next year, at least, will still be in Sundance’s long-time home of Park City, UT, but after that, we could see the festival move to Boulder, CO, or Cincinnati, OH — with the possibility of still staying in Park City and nearby Salt Lake City.
Then, there’s the issue of the festival’s online component, which saw two films pulled off the public and P&I platforms and a third pulled that was only on the P&I platforms due to widespread issues ofpiracy and leaks. Because of this, online chatter in the back half of the festival began to surround whether future editions will continue to have an online component. (Although we hope so, considering the importance that virtual Sundance has had for accessibility, we must admit the outlook is pretty bleak.)
This year’s festival was strangely quiet when it came to deals. Before the festival, two films scored distribution: Amalia Ulman’s comedyMagic Farm(picked up by Mubi) and Kevin Macdonald’s John Lennon docOne to One— both of which we’ll talk about later in this article. And during the fest, there were only three acquisitions: NEON bought the Midnight section highlight Together; Netflix bought theSing Singteam’s newest flick, Train Dreams; and A24 got Eva Victor’s competition dramedySorry, Baby.
Even Jennifer Lopez’sKiss of the Spider Womanwalked away without a distribution home — although the lack of industry activity can probably be blamed on the somber mood brought about by the recent LA wildfires, which disrupted the lives of so many in the industry.
And while Sundance, in recent years, has become the launching pad for indie studios to highlight their upcoming slate, there weren’t many big studio premieres, either. A24 debutedThe Legend of Ochi,Opus, andIf I Had Legs I’d Kick You; Bleecker Street brought Andrew Ahn’s remake ofThe Wedding Banquet; Focus premieredThe Ballas of Wallis Island; and Hulu/Onyx Collective had Questlove’sSLY LIVES!That was about it for hotly anticipated studio premieres.
Yet, this made the 2025 Sundance Film Festival a unique opportunity: the chance to discover great indie cinema. This is what Sundance was made for, after all, and there were plenty of unique voices programmed in this year’s lineup who will undoubtedly become big names in the future.
Without further ado, here are FandomWire’s top 10 films of the Sundance Film Festival. And if you keep reading after that, you’ll see our thoughts on more films that we loved at this year’s festival.
FandomWire’s Top 10 Films of Sundance 2025
10Come See Me in the Good Light
Directed by Ryan White (Good Night Oppy),Come See Me in the Good Lightfollows popular spoken word poet Andrea Gibson and their partner, Megan Falley, as they cope with Gibson’s incurable cancer diagnosis. This documentary won the festival’s overall Festival Favorite award, meaning that of all the feature films playing at the festival — documentary and narrative — it was the most highly rated among festival-goers. It’s understandable why, as this documentary is beautiful, vulnerable, and life-affirming. It’s incredible how much White invests the audience in Gibson and Falley’s relationship, which goes a long way in making the film touching and crowd-pleasing.
9The Ballad of Wallis Island
The Ballad of Wallis Island Sundance Review — Charming Indie Comedy Will Warm Your Heart
“Sometimes, a good, old-school, charming romantic comedy comes along that doesn’t reinvent the formula but still finds new humanity in the tried and true.The Ballad of Wallis Islandis that film — quaint but unexpectedly moving in its slightness, with great performances and a script that is both hilarious and emotional.”
8The Perfect Neighbor
Geeta Gandbhir’s documentaryThe Perfect Neighboris one of the most unsettling works of nonfiction filmmaking made in the past several years. The film tells the story of an incident from 2023 in Ocala, Florida, in which a minor altercation escalates into violence and reaches a tragic end. Gandbhir primarily uses body cam and surveillance camera footage to tell this story, making the experience feel all the more visceral and impactful. Audiences will walk away from the film feeling angry and considering the complexities and consequences of Stand Your Ground laws in a way that they may not have thought of them in the past.
Albert Birney’sOBEXis a lo-fi sci-fi film that feels like the type of independent cinema that Sundance was designed to be a launchpad for. The film follows a man who travels into a mysterious video game to rescue his stolen dog. It starts as a quirky comedy before evolving into a cyber-horror and eventually a whimsical adventure. It’s an incredibly weird film, but Birney and co-writer Pete Ohs never lose track of what makes the story entertaining.
6The Thing With Feathers
“Horror films aren’t exactly known for their subtlety, butThe Thing With Feathershas no subtlety in sight. On paper,The Thing With Feathersdoes seem like the type of film that could be an ambitious swing and a miss, but thanks to confident direction by Dylan Southern and a phenomenal leading turn by Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s easy to overlook some of the film’s narrative simplicities.”
5Predators
David Osit’s documentaryPredatorsoffers an interrogation of the hit NBC reality TV showTo Catch a Predator, exploring the show’s lasting cultural influences along with the moral ambiguity of the show and its genre. Osit hopes to provoke the audience’s thought on the shortcomings (and merits) of the infotainment genre, making this film much more nuanced and complicated than one would expect of a documentary like this. This nuance begins to make sense in the third act when Osit reveals a deep personal connection to the subject matter, causing the audience to re-evaluate their thoughts on both the film andTo Catch a Predator.
4Heightened Scrutiny
If Sam Feder’s last documentary,Disclosure, offered an essential overview of the role that the media plays in the depiction of trans individuals, their latest documentary,Heightened Scrutiny, is an outright interrogation of the media. The film follows notable trans civil rights lawyer Chase Strangio as he fights against anti-trans laws. However, at a certain point, Strangio begins to ask questions about how the media’s coverage of this legislation is shaping the public perception of not only these laws but also the trans community as a whole. The result is a fascinating, provocative exploration of an issue that has only become more important and timely in recent weeks.
3Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)
The winner of the World Cinema Dramatic competition at this year’s festival,Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), is a quietly compelling and meditative drama that follows two men who find unexpected kinship in rural India during a period of mourning. It’s the type of film that’s incredibly unfussy, with a screenplay by writer-director Rohan Kanawade that perfectly balances naturalism and poetry. With excellent character work and strong performances by Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman,Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)is a film that is simple in its construction but anything but in its emotion.
2SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)
SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) Sundance Review — Questlove One-Ups Himself with an Exquisite Music Documentary
“After winning the Oscar for Best Documentary for his feature debut,Summer of Soul, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is returning to filmmaking with his sophomore feature,SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius). While the concept behind his second film might seem like a more straightforward biography, Questlove brings such a refreshingly deep approach to his subject that the result is utterly fantastic.”
1Rebuilding
Rebuilding Sundance Review — Josh O’Connor Has Never Been Better Than He Is in This Quietly Moving Drama
“Filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman’sA Love Songpremiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022 to much critical acclaim but little fanfare because of its low-key nature. His higher sophomore feature,Rebuilding, is such a beautiful film — both narratively and visually — that it left few dry eyes in the packed audience of its Sundance premiere, and despite having a higher profile cast, it does not sacrifice the qualities that made Walker-Silverman’s debut so special.”
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2000 Meters to Andriivka
Journalist/filmmaker Mystyslav Chernov returns to the Sundance Film Festival after his Oscar-winning20 Days in Mariupolwith another film about the war in Ukraine,2000 Meters to Andriivka. This time, though, instead of following journalists, Chernov follows the soldiers on the front lines. Extensive use of helmet-mounted camera footage makes viewers feel like they are alongside the soldiers. The result is both action-packed and utterly harrowing, making this yet another document of a war that does not receive adequate coverage due to the practical limitations.
After premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April made a stop at the Sundance Film Festival before its spring release. The film follows an OB-GYN whose career is threatened when she faces accusations after one of her patients delivers a stillborn. It’s an incredibly taxing watch due to its difficult subject matter and stark portrayal of the harsh reality of the Georgian patriarchal culture. Although it meanders, the film’s themes and imagery are so effective that it is thoroughly harrowing.
BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions
The feature debut of Kahlil Joseph (Beyoncé’sLemonade),BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions, had a tumultuous road to the Sundance Film Festival. It was pulled from the festival at the last minute due to conflicts between Joseph and the film’s producers but was soon re-added when an angel investor stepped in to rescue the film. We should all be thankful that this film is seeing the light of day, as Joseph’s genre-defying video essay on Blackness is one of the most distinct visions we saw at the festival. Although it’s a little long and unfocused at times, Joseph’s voice is undeniable, important, and absolutely gripping.
Bubble & Squeak
Evan Twohy’sBubble & Squeakhas perhaps the most unique premise of any film at this year’s Sundance: a newly married couple on their honeymoon find themselves on the run because they smuggled in one of the country’s most illegal substances… cabbages. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t live up to the wild and wacky potential of this concept, feeling more like an imitation of the twee, quirky style of comedy of the early works of Taika Waititi. Still, thanks to the efforts of a committed cast, including Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, Matt Berry, Sarah Goldberg, and Himesh Patel, the film manages to stay mostly charming.
Cutting Through Rocks
Mohammad Reza Eyni and Sara Khaki’s biographical documentaryCutting Through Rockstook home the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary competition, and that is a testament to the power of its subject. The film tells the story of Sara Shahverdi, a woman who wins a landslide mayoral election in a remote Iranian village, challenging patriarchal norms. This is the type of documentary that is carried by its subject, and Shahverdi is a wonderfully fascinating and inspiring person to follow. Her story is more than compelling enough to keep audiences invested in the story despite its somewhat conventional filmmaking.
Atropia Sundance Review — Painfully Unfunny Wartime Satire Squanders Talented Cast
Deaf President Now!
Still: A Michael J. Fox Storydirector Davis Guggenheim andAmerica’s Next Top Model-turned-filmmaker Nyle DiMarco team up to bring audiencesDeaf President Now!, a documentary that is both inspiring and entertaining. The film follows the students at Gallaudet University, one of the world’s only Deaf universities, as they protested in 1988 to have the university’s first Deaf president appointed. Guggenheim and DiMarco do an excellent job of taking this very specific story and connecting it to the wider disability rights movement, creating an experience that is crowd-pleasing yet meaningful.
East of Wall
Kate Beecroft’s feature debut,East of Wall, feels indebted to the work of other American neo-realist filmmakers like Chloé Zhao (Nomadland). If you’re willing to get past the fact that it feels like an imitation of better, more substantial works, this story of a horse trainer living in poverty in the midwest might be compelling. However, it largely lacks the originality that it would have needed for its naturalistic style to work. That being said, the performances by Tabatha Zimiga (playing herself), Scoot McNairy, and Jennifer Ehle are all pretty great, as is the cinematography by Austin Shelton.
The Italian documentaryGEN_may not seem like much on its surface — composed mostly of fly-on-the-wall footage of its subject, a doctor, seeing his patients — but the context in which it occurs is what makes it special. Dr. Maurizio Bini’s matter-of-fact approach to gender-affirming care and fertility care, among other forms of healthcare that are somehow “controversial” in American society, is inspiring, and it is refreshing to see this film be such a powerful reminder of the humanity and empathy with which we should be treating each other.
The Sudanese documentaryKhartoumis the type of ambitious filmmaking swing that you can’t help but admire, even if not all of its crazy ideas pay off. The film follows five refugees from Khartoum who flee Sudan after the outbreak of a vicious war. What sets this documentary apart from other refugee tales is that it uses green screen footage to reenact their experiences. The result is a take on the refugee experience that feels uniquely whimsical and hopeful.
Love, Brooklyn
Written by Paul Zimmerman and directed by Rachael Holder,Love, Brooklynhas maybe the most literal title of any film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s about love, and it’s about Brooklyn, and… that’s pretty much it. But even though this Steven Soderbergh-produced romantic drama is straightforward, it’s surprisingly compelling thanks to the work of its talented trifecta of leads: André Holland, Nicole Beharie, and DeWanda Wise. Holland, in particular, is fantastic, elevating the role above its conventional shortcomings.
Twinless Sundance Review — Dylan O’Brien Shines Twice Over in Funny, Heartfelt Dramedy
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
With his feature debut,Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), Joel Alfonso Vargas attempts to approach difficult subject matter in a way that is nuanced and complex. Unfortunately for Vargas, he doesn’t quite pull it off.Mad Bills to Payfollows a 19-year-old peddler whose laid-back lifestyle is thrown into disarray when he knocks up his underage girlfriend and she moves in with his family. Although Vargas’s interest in interrogating the systemic challenges that created these events is admirable, some of the things we see on screen are simply so morally objectionable that it’s difficult to get behind the film.
Magic Farm
Amalia Ulman’s feature debut,El Planeta, premiered at Sundance in 2021, and she returns to the festival with her more ambitious, much weirder sophomore feature,Magic Farm. The film follows a documentary crew who finds themselves in over their heads when they end up in the wrong country in search of an enigmatic musician. There are plenty of interesting themes inMagic Farm, from cultural tourism to journalistic ethics and the struggle of parenthood, but in trying to juggle all these storylines, Ulman fails to say anything compelling about any of them. She also squanders a star-studded cast that includes Chloe Sevigny, Simon Rex, and Alex Wolff.
Middletown
Reteaming the Emmy-winning directing duo behindBoys State, Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, is the documentaryMiddletown, which similarly uses the story of a group of teenagers to reveal greater issues in society. This time, the film uses the story of a class of high school filmmakers in Middletown, New York, who begin to investigate a conspiracy that is literally poisoning their community. The story that McBaine and Moss have to tell is fascinating, but in having the subjects revisit their experiences as adults, it starts to feel bloated and nostalgic, keeping it from being as hard-hitting as it could have been.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
Filmmaker Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) returns to the documentary form for the music documentaryMove Ya Body: The Birth of House, charting the origins of house music from the South Side of Chicago. Admittedly,Move Ya Bodyis mostly a surface-level exploration of the genre, recounting its events in a matter-of-fact way. That being said, these creators and this genre rarely get the spotlight, so it’s easy to forgive its somewhat straightforward storytelling since it’s fair to assume that many viewers won’t know this story. Still, glimpses of deeper exploration touching on themes such as cultural appropriation may leave viewers wishing this went into a bit more depth.
Past LivesandSeptember 5breakout John Magaro delivers one of the best performances in his underappreciated career in Cole Webley’sOmaha. The film follows a struggling father and his young children as they bond on a cross-country road trip. While the first hour or so of the film is pretty conventional, if effective and sweet, it’s the final act of the film that will really connect with viewers. After ending with an unexpected and urgent message, it’s hard to imagine that this film is one that will be easy to shake.
Train Dreams Sundance Review — Poetic New Film from Sing Sing Filmmakers Is Meandering
One to One: John and Yoko
Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September,The Last King of Scotland) brings us the latest Beatlemania documentary, although this is anything but the standard rock doc.One to One: John and Yokois structured around the iconic “One to One” concert — the only solo performance given by John Lennon after splitting from the Beatles — and it has some awesome concert footage. However, what makes Macdonald’s approach to this story so interesting is that it is as much (if not more so) a political documentary as it is a music one. It’s a fittingly unique approach for one of the most unique and powerful musical artists whose work we have ever had the joy of experiencing.
Plainclothes
Starring Tom Blyth (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and Russell Tovey (Years and Years), Plainclothes is a mix of a police thriller and a gay romantic drama. The film follows an undercover agent who has been tasked with entrapping gay men into public indecency charges as he finds himself in over his head when he falls in love with a target. Blyth and Tovey are both very good in their roles, and writer-director Carmen Emmi utilizes an interesting retro shooting style, but the film’s struggles to balance its genres and pacing — especially in its second act — keep it from fully connecting.
Rains Over Babel
Gala del Sol’sRains Over Babelis a Dante-esque fantasy set in a Colombian dive bar that also serves as a sort of purgatory. If there’s one thing thatRains Over Babeldoes not lack, it’s visual style. There is so much going on in the film, from the cinematography to the production design, that shows that Gala del Sol is an absolutely visionary filmmaker who has the potential to make something great. Unfortunately, the script isn’t quite there for this one, but if you’re willing to embrace it as pure vibes, you may have a good time nevertheless.
Like many indie dramas these days, Rashad Pratt’sRickyis the type of film that is elevated by the power of its message and the strength of its performers. In the film, Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk) plays the eponymous parolee, recently released from prison because of a crime he committed when he was a teenager. James’s performance is stunning, making the most of a character that is frustratingly conventional and dialogue that is overly expositional, and allowing the film to resonate despite its weaknesses.
Brittany Shyne’s documentarySeeds, which tells the story of a group of Black farmers in the American South, won the Grand Jury Prize in the US Documentary section, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous and atmospheric work of nonfiction filmmaking. It’s very slice-of-life-driven, offering little commentary in its verite-esque portrait of these subjects. However, Shyne does an incredible job of capturing this community with some awe-inspiring black-and-white cinematography, and if viewers are willing to connect the dots between what they are being shown, they will have a rewarding experience.
Peter Hujar’s Day Sundance Review — Ben Whishaw is Stunning in Ira Sachs’s Formal Experiment
Sorry, Baby
Comedian and actress Eva Victor’s debut in the director’s chair,Sorry, Baby, was one of the most buzzed-about premieres at this year’s Sundance, leading to one of the festival’s few pick-ups and the only one from fan-favorite indie studio A24. Unfortunately, this writer didn’t connect with Victor’s story of an academic dealing with trauma in her own sardonic way. For a film that so desperately wants to be authentic,Sorry, Babyfeels frustratingly hokey due to stilted and expositional dialogue. That being said, there are enough strengths here to make Victor a talent to watch.
Sukkwan Island
Adapted from a semi-autobiographical novella by David Vann,Sukkwan Islandfollows a father and son who bond over the course of the summer in the Scandinavian wilderness. Although the premise is pretty standard, calling to mind young adult survivalist dramas such as Gary Paulsen’sHatchet, it mostly resonates thanks to fantastic performances from Swann Arlaud (the hot lawyer fromAnatomy of a Fall) and Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon). It feels very classical in a “they don’t make ‘em like they used to anymore” sort of way, and it’s pretty charming.
The Things You Kill
Iranian-American filmmaker Alireza Khatami’s Turkey-set thrillerThe Things You Killhas an incredibly intriguing concept that simply isn’t explored with enough depth. The film follows a professor and his gardener who decide to undertake an act of revenge, only for things to go awry. Like many films from this region of the world,The Things You Killis more of a morality play than anything else. While the question at the center of the film is compelling, it is not enough to carry the film’s nearly two-hour runtime.
Tadashi Nakamura’s documentaryThird Actis both an ode to an unsung hero of Asian-American filmmaking and a film about a father from his son. Like many documentaries in which the director is telling their own family’s story,Third Actisn’t quite able to escape feelings of sentimentality and self-importance. However, Nakamura makes a great case for his father, Robert A. Nakamura’s, legacy, and when the film explores his very prolific advocacy, it is very compelling.
Chloé Robichaud’s sex comedyTwo Womenis a relatively straightforward film — remaking the Quebecois cinema classicTwo Women in Gold— but it feels incredibly refreshing in how it offers a distinctively feminist take on the familiar tropes of the genre. The film follows two mothers who, growing dissatisfied with their lives, begin to re-evaluate their roles after they begin love affairs. It’s breezy and witty, but the biggest strengths of the film are its character development and performances, with Karine Gonthier-Hyndman and Laurence Leboeuf both giving utterly engrossing turns.
Last Days Sundance Review — Justin Lin, Xenophobic Christian Propaganda Does Not Suit You
The Virgin of the Quarry Lake
Fans of genre cinema are certainly familiar with the production company Filmax, which is behind some of the biggest Spanish-language horror hits of the 2000s, like the[REC]series. They’re also behindThe Virgin of the Quarry Lake, a coming-of-age horror film adapted from the short stories of Mariana Enríquez. Although the film does occasionally feel conventional, director Laura Casabé brings such confidence and empathy to the camera that it’s incredibly engaging despite its familiarity.
Where the Wind Comes From
The Tunisian road movieWhere the Wind Comes Fromhardly defies the formula of its genre. However, as is the case with pretty much any road movie, Amel Guellaty’s feature debut rides or dies on the strength of its leads, and Eya Bellagha and Slim Baccar are excellent in their roles. It also helps that Guellaty brings several mesmeric aesthetic flourishes to the table, from a great, hip-hop-infused soundtrack to some surrealistic sequences used as a nice juxtaposition to the groundedness of the film’s emotion.
Zodiac Killer Project
Charlie Shackleton’s NEXT Innovator Award-winning documentaryZodiac Killer Projectis not another documentary about the Zodiac Killer… at least, that’s what Shackleton would tell you. Instead of giving up after losing the rights to the book on which he intended to base the film, Shackleton instead makes it into a documentary about what COULD have been. He takes the audience through the film he would have made, delivering commentary along the way on the clichés and tropes of the true crime documentary genre. The result is a clever work of meta-filmmaking that is a tad condescending to the audience but rightfully so.
The 2025 Sundance Film Festival ran January 22-February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, UT, and January 30-February 2 online.Check out our full ranking of every film we saw at Sundance onLetterboxd.
Sean Boelman
Managing Editor for Film and TV
Articles Published :441
Sean is the Managing Editor for Film and Television, working to determine editorial strategy for the critics team. He has been on the FandomWire team since 2022.In addition to writing reviews himself, Sean helps match writers on the FandomWire team with assignments that best fit their interests and expertise.
