The final Park City and Salt Lake City edition of Sundance Film Festival (January 22-February 1) kicks off on Thursday before the event relocates to Boulder, Colorado, in January 2027.
Among the buyers and sellers expected to attend is a contingent of new or recently-launched US distributors that will be scouring the selection to fill their pipelines.
Row K has its first acquisition, Dead Man’s Wire, currently in release in North American cinemas and will be on the ground, alongside Warner Bros’ untitled specialty distribution arm, Black Bear’s US distribution operation, and the likes of 1-2 Special, Willa, Watermelon Pictures, and Aura.
A handful of Sundance world premieres usually go on to make a splash in awards season and the 2025 edition was no different, with active awards campaigns underway for A24’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You starring Rose Byrne, Netflix pick-up Train Dreams, Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby also at A24, and Andrew Jarecki’s documentary The Alabama Solution at Netflix.
Below are 15 features currently without distribution, culled from a broad pool of attractive propositions, that could spark interest from acquisitions executives. The list includes prime Saturday afternoon and evening Eccles Theatre slots for Olivia Colman in Wicker, Olivia Wilde’s all-star chmaber piece The Invite, and The Gallerist starring Natalie Portman. Schedules are in local Mountain Time.
Buddy
Dir. Casper Kelly
Midnight
A brave girl and her friends must escape a children’s TV show.
Screenings: Jan. 22, 11.55pm, Library Centre Theatre (premiere); Jan. 23, 10am, Holiday Village Cinemas 4 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group, Range
Chasing Summer
Dir. Josephine Deckter
Premieres
After losing both her job and boyfriend, Jamie retreats to her small Texas hometown, where friends and flings from a fateful high school summer turn her life upside down. Iliza Shlesinger and Megan Mullally star. Deckter’s Shirley won the 2020 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking, and directed Madeline’s Madeline premiered in 2018.
Screenings: Jan. 26, 2.45pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 28, 11.30am Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group, Cinetic
Frank & Louis
Dir. Petra Volpe
Premieres
The English-language debut by Volpe, whose Oscar-shortlisted Late Shift is Switzerland’s official submission this season, centres on a man serving a murder sentence who bonds with an aging inmate with dementia. Kingsley Ben-Adir and Rob Morgan star.
Screenings: Jan. 25, 6pm, Library Centre Theatre (premiere); Jan. 26, 12.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 2 (P&I)
Sales: TrustNordisk
The Gallerist
Dir. Cathy Yan
Premieres
Natalie Portman, Zach Galifianakis, Jenny Ortega and Da’Vine Joy Randolph star in the contemporary art world satire about a desperate gallerist who conspires to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami. Yan’s debut feature Dead Pigs premiered in Sundance 2018 and she has directed Birds Of Prey.
Screenings: Jan 24, 9.30pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 25, 11.30am, Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I)
Sales: CAA Media Finance
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Dir. Josef Kubota Wladyka
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Set against the Tokyo ballroom dancing scene as Haru is coaxed back into the studio following a tragedy and falls for her new instructor. Rinko Kikuchi from Tokyo Vice and Babel stars.
Screenings: Jan. 22, 6.45pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 23, 5.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I)
Sales: CAA Media Finance
History Of Concrete
Dir. John Wilson
Premieres
After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, Wilson (a cult favourite in the US with his comedy documentary series How To With John Wilson) tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.
Screenings: Jan. 22, 9.15pm, The Yarrow Theatre (premiere); Jan. 24, 3.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 2 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group
The Incomer
Dir. Louis Paxton
NEXT
Domhnall Gleeson plays an awkward official sent to relocate a pair of siblings from their Scottish island idyll, where they hunt birds and talk to mythical creatures. Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke also star.
Screenings: Jan. 22, 5.30pm, The Ray Theatre (premiere); Jan 23, 3.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 2 (P&I)
Sales: CAA Media Finance, Verve Ventures, Charades
The Invite
Dir. Olivia Wilde
Premieres
Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, and Wilde are the leads in the chamber comedy drama about a couple on the ropes who host the upstairs neighbours for dinner when everything that can go wrong goes worse. Wilde directed the Sundance 2020 short Wake Up and Don’t Worry, Darling.
Screenings: Jan. 24, 6pm, Eccles Theatre (public); Jan. 25, 7pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 4 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group
I Want Your Sex
Dir. Gregg Araki
Premieres
Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde star in the comedic thriller about a young man who gets out of his depth when he secures a job working for the artist and provocateur Erika Tracy. The cast includes Charli XCX joins and Chase Sui Wonders from The Studio
Screenings: Jan. 23, 6.15pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 25, 10am, Holiday Village Cinemas 4 (P&I)
Sales: CAA Media Finance, Black Bear (international)
Josephine
Dir. Beth De Araújo
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and Mason Reeves star in the drama about an the eight-year-old girl who acts up after she witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park and the adults are helpless to console her.
Screenings: Jan. 23, 2.45pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 24, 4pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 4 (P&I)
Sales: WME Independent, CAA Media Finance
Knife: The Attempted Murder Of Salman Rushdie
Dir. Alex Gibney
Premieres
Master documentarian Gibney uses previously unseen footage captured by Salman Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, to document his physical rehabilitation and spiritual revival after his was stabbed on stage in 2022.
Screenings: Jan. 25, 2.30pm, The Ray Theatre (premiere); Jan. 26, 9.30am, Holiday Village Cinemas 2 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group
Lady
Dir. Olive Nwosu
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
A fiercely independent young cab driver in the Nigerian capital Lagos meets a band of sex workers whose sisterhood pulls her into danger and joy, setting her on a journey towards transformation.
Screenings: Jan. 22, 6pm, Library Centre Theatre (premiere); Jan. 23, 8.30am, Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I)
Sales: HanWay Films
The Shitheads
Dir. Macon Blair
Premieres
Blair (FX’s The Lowdown) returns to the site of his 2017 U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore with a caper about two unqualified bozos hired to transfer a rich teen to rehab whose seemingly straightforward gig spirals into mayhem. Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson, and Mason Thames star.
Not available online
Screenings: Jan. 23, 8.45pm, Library Center Theatre (premiere); Jan. 24, 12.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 2 (P&I)
Sales: WME Independent, CAA Media Finance
The Weight
Dir. Padraic McKinley
Premieres
Ethan Hawke stars in a Depression-era thriller as a father sent to a work camp where he is tempted with early release is he smuggles gold for the sadistic warden played by Russell Crowe.
Screenings: Jan. 26, 8.45pm, The Ray Theatre (premiere); Jan. 27, 11.30am, Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I).
Sales: WME Independent (worldwide); CAA Media Finance (US co-rep)
Wicker
Dirs. Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer
Premieres
Oliva Colman, in Sundance last year with Jimpa, stars as a fisherwoman who asks a basketmaker to weave her a husband. Co-directors Wilson and Huston Fischer were last in Sundance with 2020 selection Save Yourselves! Alexander Skarsgard also stars.
Screenings: Jan. 24, 2.45pm, Eccles Theatre (premiere); Jan. 25, 5.30pm, Holiday Village Cinemas 1 (P&I)
Sales: UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance (US); Black Bear (international).
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