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10 Films to Watch at Sundance 2025

Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed | January 21st, 2025

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival runs in-person January 23-February 2 (with some films available online from January 30-February 2). There are, as always, many fine works to choose from, among them close to 100 features and 57 shorts. You can check out the full program on the fest’s website. Hannah Tran will once again be in Park City on the ground, while Film Festival Today editor Christopher Llewellyn Reed will watch films remotely. Below, you will find 5 choices each from both Hannah and Chris, making for 10 recommendations total of what to see, listed in alphabetical order. Each title is hyperlinked to the movie’s Sundance page.

l-r: Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, and Mark Ruffalo appear in HAL & HARPER, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Doug Emmett.

Hal & Harper (Cooper Raiff): While I was mostly tepid on wunderkind Cooper Raiff’s lauded debut, Shithouse, his follow up, Cha Cha Real Smoothwhich won the 2022 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Audience Award—emotionally floored me and guaranteed my investment in whatever Raiff’s next project would be. And now, it’s finally here. Hal & Harper, an eight-episode series, focuses on two codependent adult siblings and their single father. Starring Raiff and the understated talents of Lili Reinhart (Look Both Ways), who also play their child selves, alongside Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) as their father, I can’t wait to see how Raiff’s knack for bittersweet comedy has evolved into the format of a series. (Hannah Tran)


Jeff Buckley appears in IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Merri Cyr.

It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (Amy Berg): Sundance has an impressive catalog of music documentaries, but there are few figures who could capture my personal interest more than Jeff Buckley. While he only released one studio album, Grace, before tragically drowning at 30, his hauntingly soulful and sincere voice and style remains in a class of its own. However well-made the filmmaking may be, the promise of never-before-seen archival footage is enough to have me seated. (HT)


l-r: John Lithgow and Olivia Coleman appear in JIMPA, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mark De Blok.

Jimpa (Sophie Hyde): From director Sophie Hyde, who was behind the massively underrated 2022 film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, comes a story about three generations of a family. Hannah, played by the always riveting Olivia Colman (Wicked Little Letters), stands between her non-binary teenager as they want to live a year abroad with Hannah’s proudly gay father, Jimpa (John Lithgow, Cabrini). The underrepresented perspectives here will undoubtedly be insightful, moving, and fresh in Hyde’s hands. (HT)


Sky Yang appears in LAST DAYS, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Tanasak “Top” Boonlam.

Last Days (Justin Lin): When 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed during his attempt to contact the isolated Sentinelese people, many around the world were left grappling with the “why” of it all. The 2023 National Geographic documentary, The Mission, directed by Boys State duo Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, provided a nuanced, tragic, and comprehensive portrait of what led him to his last days. Now, Justin Lin, best known for his work on the Fast and Furious franchise, returns to a lower-octane story, and I’m more than intrigued to see how Lin will approach this complex, divisive subject matter. (HT)


Julie Farrar appears in LIFE AFTER, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Roberto Drilea.

Life After (Reid Davenport): As a person with cerebral palsy, documentarian Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) is uniquely positioned to tell the story of Elizabeth Bouvia, a woman who made headlines in the 1980s by suing the State of California for the right to die (she was by then, at 25, severely incapacitated by her congenital condition plus additional arthritis). She failed in her quest, but her travails inspire Davenport to investigate how we view people with disabilities. While Bouvia no doubt should have had the ability to do what she wanted, Davenport is as much interested in the way we devalue the lives of those who appear less fortunate, thereby creating a context where death seems like the only viable option. He examines Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law and anticipates how, one day, health-insurance companies might consider it cheaper for people to kill themselves than seek care. It all makes for a spirited, if often dispiriting, argument, and a very compelling film. (Christopher Llewellyn Reed)


l-r: Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin in LURKER, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Lurker (Alex Russell): I love a good tale of obsession, and Lurker has all the trappings to be a great one. It tells the story of a retail employee (Théodore Pellerin, There’s Someone Inside Your House) who attempts to infiltrate the life of a rising music artist (Archie Madekwe, Saltburn). The directorial debut of Alex Russell, who has written and produced for The Bear and Beef, two shows with extremely distinct and punchy ideas of obsession, we can only hope that this one will not be the exception. (HT)


Marlee Matlin in MARLEE MATLIN: NOT ALONE ANYMORE, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (Shoshannah Stern): Growing up, I well remember deaf actress Marlee Matlin’s meteoric arrival on the film scene with her 1986 debut, Children of a Lesser God. She has since gone on to a long career as an actress (stage and screen) and author, appearing in the heartwarming Oscar-winner CODA in 2021, among many other projects. Now, similarly deaf actress and writer Shoshannah Stern makes her directing debut with what is sure to be a comprehensive portrait of Matlin, who has long deserved such a spotlight. I love good biopics, as one can tell, since three of my five choices are exactly that. (CLR)


Joshua Dickstein appears in MIDDLETOWN, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Middletown (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss): Wife-and-husband directing duo Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss—mentioned above by Hannah Tran in her Last Days paragraph—are back with another engrossing documentary, this one about a group of unlikely investigative journalists. That would be the students at Middletown High School in New York—60 miles north of the Big Apple—in the 1990s, under the tutelage of “Electronic English” teacher Fred Isseks. Initially just interested in offering an alternative to the standard curriculum, Isseks eventually encouraged his pupils to follow him, with cameras, on a quest to discover the source of toxic waste destroying the surrounding community. At first dismissed by town and state officials as meddlers, the intrepid team ended up prompting serious inquiries that led to major consequences (even if, as always, the worst offenders avoided criminal charges). Mixing great archival footage with modern-day interviews, Middletown proves inspiring, showing how even the seemingly dispossessed can take actions that lead to change. (CLR)


Jacinda Ardern in PRIME MINISTER, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister (Michelle Walshe/Lindsay Utz): Jacinda Ardern served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2017 until her resignation in 2023. When she was sworn in, at 37, she was the youngest woman to head a country. A voice for progressive causes, she led New Zealand with joy and optimism, even during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In their documentary Prime Minister, directors Michelle Walshe (Chasing Great) and Lindsay Utz promise to craft a warts-and-all look at the life and career of this now former politician. Ardern has given the filmmakers access to home archives that are sure to make this an intimate look at once (and future?) great leader. (CLR)


Sally Ride in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

SALLY (Cristina Costantini): Documentary director Cristina Costantini (Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado)—who so often works with a co-director—grabs the sole reins with SALLY, a portrait of the late astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. No doubt Costantini, with her usual insights, will create a moving profile, filled with fascinating, heretofore unknown details. Central to the narrative here is her 27-year relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, who plays a significant role in the movie. Though Ride died of cancer in 2012, her legacy very much lives on.

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Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.

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