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Sundance 2025 film lineup features Jennifer Lopez, John Malkovich, Lily Gladstone and more

Written by on January 23, 2025

2025 Sundance Film Festival Taking Place January 23–February 2 - sundance .org

(CBS News) – The 41st Sundance Film Festival, one of the world’s leading festivals for independent and documentary filmmakers, opens Thursday, with in-person screenings in Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah, and select films and events available to stream across the U.S. via Sundance’s digital platform beginning January 30.

This year’s lineup includes 88 feature films and seven episodic titles from around the world, most of which are international premieres, in additional to short film programs (narrative, documentary and animation). Nearly half are by first-time filmmakers.

The festival runs through Feb. 2. Single tickets and passes can be purchased here.

Rather than a gala opening night screening, the first day of Sundance showcases the premieres of 15 features and a short film program spread across four venues. Films include documentary debuts about actress Marlee Matlin, Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive against Russia, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, dating in China, and comedian and performance artist Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman), as well as dramas from Norway, Hong Kong, North Macedonia, Georgia, Australia, and the United States. On Friday, the festival expands to screens in Salt Lake City.

 Some of the festival’s narrative features include “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Bill Condon’s film version of the Tony-winning musical (adapted from the Manuel Puig novel), starring Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna and Tonatiuh. In “Omaha,” John Magaro takes his two young children on a cross-country trek after a family tragedy. Based on the Max Porter novella “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers,” “The Things With Feathers” stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a newly-widowed father of two boys.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” actress Lily Gladstone and SNL’s Bowen Yang star in “The Wedding Banquet,” a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy. JulietteLewis stars in “By Design,” a quirky tale in which a young woman covets a chair so much that she becomes it. Really.

Olivia Colman stars in “Jimpa,” as a woman whose non-binary child (Aud Mason-Hyde) seeks to move to Europe to live with their grandfather (John Lithgow). “Twinless” stars Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney as men attending a twin bereavement group. Josh O’Connor (“Challengers”) stars in “Rebuilding,” as a rancher whose family farm has been destroyed by a wildfire.

In the Québécois comedy “Two Women,” Violette and Florence are lonely neighbors whose disaffections, depression and family issues encourage each other to branch out into infidelity. Plumbers and exterminators are only too happy to oblige.

From Tunisia, “Where the Wind Comes From” is a road movie in which childhood friends Alyssa and Mehdi “borrow” a car to attend an art competition that, if won, will take them to far-off Germany, and the promise of a new life.  

In Iranian American director Alireza Khatami’s psychological thriller “The Things You Kill,” filmed in Turkey, a man seeks revenge for the death of his mother with the aid of a mysterious accomplice. “DJ Ahmet” tells of a teenage boy falling for a young girl being prepared for an arranged marriage to another in a small village in North Macedonia.

“The Ballad of Wallis Island,” written by and starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, tells the tale of musicians being invited to a remote Welsh island for a reunion gig. It features Carey Mulligan and Sian Clifford. Chloë Sevigny stars in two films: “Magic Farm,” in which a film crew finds themselves in the wrong country; and “Atropia,” about a romantic relationship that intrudes upon a military role-playing facility.

Willem Dafoe is featured in the family film “The Legend of Ochi,” in which a young farm girl on the island of Carpathia rescues a wounded mythical creature.

Stephan James stars in “Ricky” as a young man, just out of prison, dealing with the difficulties of becoming independent at age 30. In “LUZ,” which features parallel stories set in Paris and Chongqing, China, a young woman estranged from her stepmother, and a man trying to reconnect with his daughter, cross paths in a virtual reality world. The film stars Isabelle Huppert.

Actor-comedian Eva Victor directed and stars in “Sorry, Baby,” as a woman professor with a secret. “Rabbit Trap” is a thriller set in Wales starring Dev Patel and Rosy McEwan. “Plainclothes” features Tom Blyth as an undercover police officer tasked with arresting gay men on indecency charges, only to fall for one of his targets.

André Holland, Nicole Beharie, Cassandra Freeman and Roy Wood Jr. are among the cast of “Love, Brooklyn.” Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien are featured in the comic-drama “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

“Train Dreams,” a period drama about the expansion of the railroad in the early 20th century, stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon and William H. Macy. Inspired by a true story, “Last Days” follows a young missionary (Sky Yang) out to convert a remote tribe on an island off the Indian coast. In the Indian drama “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” a young man returns to his home village for a 10-day mourning period following his father’s death — and to many questions about his unmarried status


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