by Two Sisters Collective 
KPCW | By Parker Malatesta
The nonprofit Sundance Institute has announced the lineup for the 2025 festival in Park City and Salt Lake City in late January.
Along with up and coming directors, Sundance senior programmer John Nein said the slate also includes established filmmakers.
“I’m thinking of people like Justin Lin, who had ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ also most 25 years ago, goes on to make ‘Fast and Furious’ movies, ‘Star Trek’ – a lot of studio work – and then now has made a film independently again about a subject that’s really interesting to him, about John Cho,” Nein said. “Bill Condon, who made ‘Gods and Monsters’ and then went on to make ‘Chicago’ and ‘Dreamgirls’ and these big musicals, and now independently financed ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ an adaptation of the musical.”
Director and screenwriter Ira Sachs returns to Sundance with “Peter Hujar’s Day,” about the American photographer best known for his black and white portraits.
The film “Omaha” in the U.S. Dramatic Competition has deep Utah roots. Most of the film was shot in and around Salt Lake City. Director Cole Webley has lived in the state for two decades and graduated from BYU’s film school.
Nein said “Omaha” follows a theme connecting many films in the 2025 program.
“This year there are all these really interesting stories about ordinary people and about the notion of portraying authentic people,” he said. “[‘Omaha’] is a slice-of-life film about a father who is driving his young kids across the country after they’ve lost their home to foreclosure.”
Nein also highlighted the film “Rebuilding,” which stars Josh O’Conner as a Colorado rancher who loses his home and family in a wildfire.
“All That’s Left of You,” part of the Premieres section, is a film centered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nein said director, screenwriter and producer Cherien Dabis draws from her Palestinian roots to tell a story that explores the country’s history and collective grief.
“This is a story that chronicles the lives of three generations of a Palestinian family and almost 75 years of history,” Nein said. “It’s really epic, but it’s also really intimate, very deeply personal.”
Sundance’s Midnight category includes a wide range of horror, thrillers and comedies designed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Nein said one of his favorites is “The Ugly Stepsister,” which is a retelling of the fairy tale “Cinderella.”
“All from the point of view of one of the stepsisters, who is trying to be beautiful at all costs,” he said. “Very much a satire of manufactured beauty, basically all centered around the 19th century equivalent of a surgical makeover. It’s really twisted and gruesome and full of tongue-in-cheek body horror. Really fun and really clever from a first-time Norwegian filmmaker.”
The special screening of “The Six Billion Dollar Man,” a documentary that explores Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was withdrawn after American director Eugene Jarecki announced the film will not be finished in time.
The 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Park City and Salt Lake City runs Jan. 23 through Feb. 2. Limited ticket packages are still available. Single-film tickets sales start Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. MT.
Sundance will offer online viewing options for four days starting Jan. 30.
The Short Film Program and the schedule for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival will be released on December 16 and throughout January.
