Hello, friends! Welcome to the IT list Sundance Guide, where I share my choices for the best of the films of the festival. Catch the Weekly IT list here For the latest releases that we can’t wait to watch, stream, listen, read and Binge.
This year, 88 films were shown at the Sundance Film Festival 2025. The titles varied from A24-produced Opus to Netflix Train dreams.
The festival ran between January 23 and February 2. I caught about 15 films on the floor and 25 at home during the online screening section of the festival. I am so sad that I missed it The wedding banket And Peter Hujar’s Day“ But I trust that they will soon be available to the general public.
I have assigned superlatives to 11 of the best films I saw, together with some honorable mentions. Prepare your watch lists – I will lead you through it.
Best debut for a social media star: ‘Sorry, baby’
Eva Victor in Sorry honey. (Mia Cioffi Henry/Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: Writer-director Eva Victor shines like an academic confronted triumphs and setbacks while she is going to be really very bad that it happened to her.
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Why I recommend it: If you know as little as possible about this film and its complexity, sadness and bitter humor over you, the right choice is. It is a brute debut for Victor who has placed their big break viral videos on X.
Best breakout -Rol for an actor who is known for a YA Novel adjustment: ‘Twinless’
Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney in Twinless. (Greg Cotten/Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: Twin Is a story about two men who meet and film an unlikely friendship in a support group for people who have lost twins.
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Why I recommend it: I interviewed writer-director-Star James Sweeney about the film and he hesitated to spill many juicy details. He was extremely free about his co-lead, Dylan O’Brien (van Maze runner Film Fame), who plays two characters with a huge distinction and heart.
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How to look: Distribution plans have not yet been announced.
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Honorable mention: In Oh, hi!, Logan Lerman is no longer the young star of the Percy Jackson Films-Hij is the elusive and always so-slimy love interest of the character of Molly Gordon, who is becoming more and more released to ensure that their holiday is perfectly romantic.
Most Biting Satire: ‘Magic Farm’
Chloë Sevigny in Magic farm. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: An ensemble -cast including Alex Wolff and Chloë Sevigny -star in this film that cultivate Edgy Media companies that recover foreign locations for unusual stories. Moments of sweetness also arise in one way or another.
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Why I recommend it: It felt like Girls Mixed with the Vice News YouTube channel, which is perhaps the highest praise that a millennial can offer.
Most moving documentary: ‘André is an idiot’
André Ricciardi in André is an idiot. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: It is an intense starting point: advertising legend André Ricciardi dies of cancer because he did not get colonoscopy when he should do that, and the audience watches that happens slowly.
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Why I recommend it: I saw many a complicated documentary at Sundance-that is often the atmosphere, I hear me stay with me. You fall in love with Ricciardi while he dies, and the simple procedure he has overlooked, becomes a necessity for everyone who looks. It is his last and most powerful advertising campaign, as director Tony Benna told me.
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How to look: André is an idiot Was produced by A24, but plans for distribution have not yet been announced.
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Honorable mention: Sugar Babies Follows a young woman who took his way through the university who ran an online sugar baby company. The documentary shares so much about what it is like to live in a rural area that offers community where it has no resources.
Dear musical: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
Tonatiuh and Diego Luna in Kiss of the spider wife. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: This remake of the musical from 1992 (which, just like the original film from 1985, is based on the book from 1976) is perhaps the best iteration so far. It plays Tonatiuh as a prisoner who tells stories about his favorite old Hollywood legend (Jennifer Lopez) to his roommate (Diego Luna) to bring the time through miserable circumstances.
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Why I recommend it: On the red carpet, director Bill Condon said that he cast Lopez because she is a real diva, which he means as a genuine compliment. This is her best role so far, and I will run to the theater to come again as soon as it is available.
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How to look: Distribution plans have not yet been announced.
Most current: ‘Train dreams’
Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton Train dreams. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: The film follows an American railway worker who deals with loss and loneliness all his life. But this is more than a normal bummer of an indie film-it is a beautiful, radical look at survival and dealing with sadness after a devastating fire, which is more relevant than ever.
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Why I recommend it: It is written and directed by the same team behind Sing” One of my favorite movies of 2024. If you can find it in your heart to see something slow and sad, both films will make you better for it.
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How to look: Train dream was taken over by Netflix at the festival, but a release date has not yet been announced.
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Honorable mention: Did not die Is a zombie film about finding out how you can live through constant loss. I spoke with the writer-director of the film, who had just lost her house in the forest fires in Los Angeles, but came to the festival to support her film.
Wildste romp: ‘Opus’
Ayo Edebiri in Opus. (A24/Courtesy or Everett Collection)
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What to know: Ayo Edebiri plays as one of a handful of journalists who tapped the compound where a mysterious pop star (John Malkovich) makes his first album debut in decades. Things get weird.
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Why I recommend it: I saw this at midnight, where the theater was full of viewers on the edge of their seats, both for the fears and for the shockingly good musical versions of Malkovich.
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Honorable mention: Touch me Follows two co-dependent housemates while becoming addicted to the heroin-like touch of an alien cult leader. I came for the brightly colored aesthetics and stayed for the bloody practical effects with tentacles.
Most relevant my heart rate tracker: ‘If I had legs, I would kick you’
Rose Byrne In If I had legs, I would kick you. (A24/Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: A woman is struggling to navigate her child’s mysterious disease and to maintain relationships while her house starts to fall apart. She never gets a moment of peace and the audience is not either.
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Why I recommend it: People will tell you that this is the best performance of Rose Byrne ever, and it is, but don’t miss $ AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien in their incredible supporting roles.
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How to look: If I had legs, I would kick you will be distributed by A24, but a release date has not yet been announced.
Best body horror: ‘Together’
Alison Brie and Dave Franco Together. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: While moving to the countryside is testing the power of their relationship, a few (played by Alison Brie and Dave Franco) must also have to contend with something supernatural that she pulls closer and closer.
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Why I recommend it: This film is wonderfully dirty. I have not experienced this kind of squeaking inducing disgust and Glee since then The fabric.
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How to look: Together was taken over by Neon at the festival and is in the cinema on 1 August.
The most successful crying: ‘Ricky’
Stephan James in Ricky. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: The film follows 30-year-old Ricky (Stephan James) while he comes back into the free world after being trapped as a teenager. Danger lies with every turn despite the best intentions of Ricky. Sheryl Lee Ralph plays against the type as his tough conditional officer.
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Why I recommend it: In his introduction to the premiere of the film, writer-director Rashad Frett said that he has lost many loved ones to recidivism. If more people knew how relevant this film is, the world would be a better place.
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How to look: Distribution plans have not yet been announced.
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Honorable mention: Jimpa Is just as sweet as it is complicated. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow Star as a woman trying to relate to (and to make a film about) her father, a civil right icon, as he gets older but stays all by himself.
The most successful in shrinking: ‘Atropia’
Alia Shawkat in Atropy. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
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What to know: Alia Shawkat plays the leading role as an aspiring actress who takes a performance in a military role-lens facility that simulates life in Iraq for soldiers. Things get shaky when she falls in love. Writer-director Hailey Gates told me on the red carpet that this film is based on a real-life thing.
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Why I recommend it: You will be just as likely to cramp as you are to cry at Sundance, but this film grabs your emotions with a goal – to criticize war and the ways in which we deal with it. There is a reason why it won the main prize of the festival!
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How to look: Distribution plans have not yet been announced.
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Honorable mention: Silence Follows a fan who infiltrates the inner circle of an emerging artist and sheds light on the messy (and the most collapse of online fame.
