The 2025 Sundance Film Festival lineup has been announced and we're highlighting some of the films we're particularly excited for. 

Yes, these films are GreenSlate client projects. So we've obviously been tracking them for quite some time now and are excited to see them get their time to start shining. 

This year and 2026 are the last years the festival is sure to be in Park City Utah as the three finalist cities to host Sundance in 2027 and beyond are still up for consideration. Those potential host cities include Boulder, Cincinnati, and Park City. 

Back to the theme at hand, here's the films showing at Sundance we're (really) excited for, and you can find the full lineup here.

Lurker

~ Premiere ~

"A retail employee infiltrates the inner circle of an artist on the verge of stardom. As he gets closer to the budding music star, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.

A gripping slow-burn tale about the thin line between devoted fandom and dangerous obsession, Lurker fittingly worms its way under the viewer’s skin and echoes how the calculating Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) insinuates himself within Oliver’s (Archie Madekwe) inner circle. Forced to assume Matthew’s perspective, the audience is made complicit in the power plays and desperate measures he takes to retain his status when he finds his position in the entourage under threat.

Writer and director Alex Russell, who has produced and written for critically acclaimed series The Bear and Beef, makes a confident feature directorial debut with this sharp critique of modern fame and social media celebrity, which was previously featured on the influential Black List. Pellerin and Madekwe leave a lasting impression, embodying the shifting power dynamics of Matthew and Oliver’s relationship in committed performances that mark them as stars on the rise." — Basil Tsiokos, Sundance.org

East of Wall (Obscured Pictures)

"After the death of her husband, Tabatha — a young, tattooed, rebellious horse trainer — wrestles with financial insecurity and unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of wayward teenagers on her broken-down ranch in the Badlands.

A chance encounter brought together writer-director Kate Beecroft and her latest subject and lead, Tabatha Zimiga. A wrong turn down an unnamed road led to years of cohabitation on Zimiga’s unusual ranch, where she and her band of teenage girls reinvent the American West, the nuclear family, and the place of women within both. In this creative work of hybridity, first-time feature director Beecroft collaborates beautifully with the actual individuals who inspired this project and a cast that includes Scoot McNairy and Jennifer Ehle. Together they weave fact and fiction into this sweepingly cinematic and deeply rooted human story. Shot in gorgeous harmony with its stunning natural setting, East of Wall is a testament to the value of people, skill, and generosity." — Ash Hoyle, Sundance.org

Hal & Harper

~ Episodic ~

"Hal and Harper and Dad chart the evolution of their family.

Director Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth, 2022 Sundance Film Festival), also appearing as the eponymous Hal, presents two siblings who consider their codependence a feature, not a bug. As Harper, Lili Reinhart superbly mirrors Raiff’s sardonic yet wounded nature, while demonstrating an engaging solemnity all her own. Their intimacy is built on a lifetime of inside jokes and shared pains, portrayed via flashbacks where Raiff and Reinhart play the elementary school-aged versions of themselves. Raiff’s familial tone weaves the balance between children on the precipice of damage and adults mired in self-made messes. As their father, Mark Ruffalo brings a wry charm that belies a chasm of guilt, firmly at the root of all that Hal & Harper is trying to uncover." — Drea Clark, Sundance.org

If I had Legs I'd Kick You

~ Premiere ~

"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.

In the second feature film from writer-director Mary Bronstein, life’s responsibilities pile up — parenting alone, house is a construction zone, countless doctors visits, no available parking — all of which grows into an anxiety that overwhelms every aspect of our protagonist’s life. The audience is pushed into a downward spiral of motherhood where there is never any solution or support in sight. But as its title suggests, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is also very funny — very darkly… bizarrely… uncomfortably funny. Rose Byrne’s lead performance brilliantly rides the edge of exhaustion and delirium, bouncing between the pressures of her life that includes two character irritants played by Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky, who have memorable supporting roles." — Charlie Sextro, Sundance.org

Plainclothes

~ U.S. Dramatic Competition ~

"A promising undercover officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies orders when he falls in love with a target.

Plainclothes is brimming with an atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety. As Lucas, a young police officer contending with a secret attraction to men, Tom Blyth palpably embodies this tension in a breakout performance. Straining to fill a prescribed role in the implicitly straight culture of the police force, he carries the crushing weight of both the consequences of his increasingly fraught undercover work as well as the threat of exposure of his exhilarating, clandestine encounters with Andrew (Russell Tovey). Writer-director Carmen Emmi, making his feature directorial debut, cleverly deploys lo-fi VHS footage at key moments to ramp up the sense of unease, alternately signifying the police surveillance that haunts his conscience as well as flashes of memory. A shrewd play with chronology similarly keeps the audience on its toes, wondering if Lucas will be able to handle the stress of his secret or if he’ll finally reach a breaking point." — Basil Tsiokos, Sundance.org

Ricky

~ U.S. Dramatic Competition ~

"Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.

In this warm and beautifully textured feature, director Rashad Frett journeys the interior emotional roads of Ricky, a betrayed teenager living inside of a prison-cut adult body as he attempts to integrate himself back into his Caribbean mother’s God-fearing home in Hartford, Connecticut. Ricky missed out on so many rites of passage of puberty, of learning a way with women, of smartphones, and of social media etiquette. How will he parlay his gift as a barber into gainful employment to meet his parole officer’s work requirements? Ricky is strong, handsome, and well-meaning but also misunderstood. Will he get a chance to live a life?

Actors Stephan James and Sheryl Lee Ralph give powerful and nuanced performances as Ricky and Joanne, his hard-boiled, big-hearted, parole officer. Rashad Frett’s directorial hand overflows with humanity and marks an auspicious feature debut." — Shari Frilot, Sundance.org

Rebuilding

~ Premiere ~

"After a wildfire takes the family farm, a rancher seeks a way forward.

Max Walker-Silverman’s sophomore feature is a personal, affecting story of a community’s life and resilience. A follow-up to his captivating debut, A Love Song (2022 Sundance Film Festival), Rebuilding similarly operates as a careful, loving portrait of the American West — this time whispered in the quiet aftermath of environmental and personal disaster. Against the backdrop of charred lands and a struggling small town, scattered lives coalesce in grief, and a uniquely resonant love story emerges.

Josh O’Connor is a subdued and assiduous protagonist, embracing a call to heal his fledgling family and newfound community. Authentic, nuanced performances from Meghann Fahy, Amy Madigan, and Kali Reis quilt a narrative enveloped by the multiplicity of the American experience — legacies of land, labor, and family.

Rebuilding is a warm tip of the hat to community building through human tenacity, and the abundance of life and love contained therein." — Cameron Asharian, Sundance.org

Sally

~ Premiere ~

"Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.

Cristina Costantini’s rich portrait of astronaut Sally Ride brings a fullness to her life that goes beyond the headlines of her trailblazing voyage past Earth’s atmosphere. SALLY skillfully weaves together the dual threads of Ride’s story: the private romance she shared with her partner and the professional trajectory of her time in the space program that saw her contend with overt sexism and homophobia, prompting her secrecy. Rare archival footage brings the viewer behind the scenes to witness NASA training and missions, while press appearances reflect the media frenzy Ride was subjected to both before and after her historic first flight. O’Shaughnessy takes a fitting central role in recounting her beloved Ride’s story and the legacy she left behind that inspires countless women and girls to dream for the stars." — Basil Tsiokos, Sundance.org

Sorry Baby

~ U.S. Dramatic Competition ~

"Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least.

In an aching and tender debut feature, writer-director Eva Victor displays a tremendous specificity of voice, depicting graduate student-turned-professor Agnes with sensitivity and emotional clarity both before and after her trauma. Infusing the character’s sardonic wit into its cinematic language of isolation and confusion, Sorry, Baby uses its nonlinear formal structure and five-year duration to capture the complexities and inconsistencies, triumphs and setbacks of Agnes’ attempts to heal.

Victor also gives an endearingly vulnerable and fearlessly honest performance as her central character. Naomi Ackie radiates warmth as the sharp-witted roommate whose intimate, frank bond with Agnes allows her the safety to grapple with the enormity of what has happened to her, while Lucas Hedges brings tenderness to his role as Agnes’ befuddled but kind neighbor." — Heidi Zwicker, Sundance.org