12 Movies I Want to See at Sundance 2025

I'm writing to you from American Airlines flight 2229, seat 27D, en route to Phoenix and then Salt Lake City. The festival recently announced it's shopping for a new city to call home in 2027, so this looks to be the second-to-last Sundance in Park City ever. Between that and all the rattled nerves from the L.A. fires and what's going on in Washington, I'm expecting the festival vibe to be weirder than usual. Let's see how the movies live up to the challenge; Sundance 2025 seems relatively low on A-list star power (and the often middling films that accompany them) and longer on new moviemakers, topical hot buttons and oddball plot lines. Here's a dozen I'm going to try to catch while I'm in town. Festival reports to follow, along with special content for paid subscribers.

"All That’s Left of You (اللي باقي منك)" (Fiction) Festival logline: "After a Palestinian teen confronts Israeli soldiers at a West Bank protest, his mother recounts the series of events that led him to that fateful moment, starting with his grandfather’s forced displacement." Sounds like a fictional equivalent of Rashid Khalidi's best-selling "The Hundred Year War on Palestine," with a similar multigenerational focus. Produced, written, directed by and starring Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis.

"By Design" (Fiction) Festival logline: "A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair." Remember what I said above about oddball plotlines? Juliette Lewis stars, but the sensibility behind the film is that of writer-director Amanda Kramer, who has said in an interview "Actresses deserve to have as complex, bizarre, and difficult parts as their male co-stars." So, apparently, do chairs. (Available for online viewing.)

"Free Leonard Peltier" (Documentary) Festival logline: "Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies." Jesse Short Bull directs. This week, on his last day in office, President Biden commuted the ailing Peltier's sentence to indefinite house arrest without pardoning him for the crimes for which he was controversially found guilty, so the post-screening discussions should be interesting.

"GEN_" (Documentary) Festival logline: "At Milan’s Niguarda public hospital, the unconventional Dr. Bini leads a bold mission overseeing aspiring parents undergoing in vitro fertilization and the journeys of individuals reconciling their bodies with their gender identities. He navigates the constraints set by a conservative government and an aggressive market eager to commodify bodies." Early buzz cites this as the "feel-g00d movie of the festival" based on the good doctor's irrepressible charisma. (Available for online viewing.)

"If I Had Legs I’d Kick You" (Fiction) Festival logline: "With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist." I'm sold on this film from writer-director Mary Bronstein by the cast alone: Rose Byrne in a rare and welcome lead, A$AP Rocky, and ... Conan O’Brien?

"Jimpa" (Fiction) Festival logline: "Hannah takes her nonbinary teenager, Frances, to Amsterdam to visit their gay grandfather, Jim — lovingly known as Jimpa. But Frances’ desire to stay abroad with Jimpa for a year means Hannah is forced to reconsider her beliefs about parenting and finally confront old stories about the past." Writer-director Sophie Hyde gave audiences and Emma Thompson a mitzvah with "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" (2022), and here she promises to do the same for Olivia Colman and John Lithgow. I'm in.

"LUZ" (Fiction) Festival logline: "In the neon-lit streets of Chongqing, Wei desperately searches for his estranged daughter Fa, while Hong Kong gallerist Ren grapples with her ailing stepmother Sabine in Paris. Their lives collide in a virtual reality world, where a mystical deer reveals hidden truths, sparking a journey of discovery and connection." Why do I want to see this? Because Isabelle Huppert is in it and it sounds cool. (Available for online viewing.)

"Pee-wee as Himself" (Documentary) Festival logline: “A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman. Prior to his recent death, Reubens spoke in-depth about his creative influences, and the personal struggles he faced to persevere as an artist.” A two-part 205-minute non-fiction feature making its world premiere. The secret word is “genius.”

"Peter Hujar’s Day" (Fiction) Festival logline: “A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.” You always pine for the scene you just missed, and for me that’s downtown Manhattan from the late 1960s to early 1970s, or from the Warhol Factory to CBGB. Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall star in what appears to be a two-hander from Ira Sachs, a Sundance favorite whose last movie, “Passages,” was beloved by everybody except me.

"Rebuilding" (Fiction) / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter:, Producers: Jesse Hope, Dan Janvey, Paul Mezey) — Festival logline: “After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.” Sounds simple to the point of sketch-y, but writer-director Max Walker-Silverman spun indie gold out of the slender desert romance “A Love Song” (2022), and star Josh O'Connor (“Challenger,” “La Chimera”) is on a roll. Plus that plotline is topical – maybe too much so for a lot of festivalgoers.

"SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)" (Documentary) Festival logline: “An examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone — the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone — captures the band’s rise, reign, and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.” I’ve been waiting for this one – and so has Mrs. Movie Critic – ever since musician-turned-director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson announced he was making it as a follow-up to his incendiary 2021 “Summer of Soul” reclamation project.

"The Wedding Banquet" (Fiction) Festival logline: “Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend, Chris, and out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green card marriage with his friend Angela in exchange for expensive in vitro fertilization treatments for her partner, Lee. Plans change when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an elaborate Korean wedding banquet.” Yes, it’s a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 breakthrough film. Why? Because SNL’s Bowen Yang is ready to become the gay Asian romantic comedy lead we all know he is anyway (and that he already proved in his 2022 pairing with director Andrew Ahn, “Fire Island.” Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari”) co-star.

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