Thursday marks the beginning of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It is a popular, independent film festival that always starts the cinematic calendar year off with a bang. Movies that have premiered at this festival in the past include Reservoir Dogs, The Blair Witch Project and Whiplash. There are tons of new movies that will get their premier at this 10-day festival in Park City, Utah. Let's take a deeper look at a few of the movies already generating buzz.
With theatrical distribution rights already acquired by A24, Opus is sure to be a conversation-starter at this year's festival. It will premiere in the “Midnight” section of the festival. The movie stars Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) and Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear). Very little is known about this movie but the trailer is set to drop tomorrow. The movie is written and directed by Mark Anthony Green, who has written extensively for GQ. Opus is his directorial debut. The movie's premise is marketed as: “A young writer is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.” A24 is promoting this movie as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Continuing with the trend of movies that A24 owns the distribution rights for, there is The Legend of Ochi, premiering in the “Family Matinee” section of Sundance. The movie is scheduled for a February 28 release, but it will premiere this month at Sundance. It is a fantasy adventure movie with a cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Finn Wolfhard and Emily Watson. The movie is written and directed by Isaiah Saxon, in his feature-film debut. The movie was shot in Transylvania, Romania, in 2021. The movie also involves puppetry and animatronics. The movie's premise is as follows: “In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an animal species known as Ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby Ochi has been left behind, she escapes on an adventure to bring him home.” The trailer is available to watch here.
Let's just keep talking A24, because they have the distribution rights for this movie too! Directed and written by Mary Bronstein (Yeast), this movie stars Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O'Brien and Daniel Zolghadri. Among the movie's producers is Josh Safdie, one half of the infamous Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems). The films premise is as follows: “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.”
The debut feature from Hailey Gates is based on her short, Shako Mako, which was included in Women's Tales, a short-film anthology presented by fashion brand Miu Miu. Atropia is produced by Luca Guadagnino. It stars Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Callum Turner (Masters of the Air), Chloë Sevigny (Kids) and Tim Heidecker (Tim & Eric). The movie's premise: “When an aspiring actress in a military roleplaying facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.” To get a better sense of where this movie will take you, you can watch Shako Mako here.
This is the latest documentary from Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov. His last feature, 20 Days in Mariupol, won Best Documentary Feature Film at 96th Academy Awards. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his work. 20 Days was a sobering and brutal look into the realities of the Ukrainian-Russian War. This new documentary's premise: “Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.” The documentary is presented by Frontline and the Associated Press.
Deaf President Now! is a documentary film from Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim. DiMarco is a Deaf activist who also won the 22nd season of America's Next Top Model. Guggenheim is an acclaimed documentarian who directed An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud and Waiting for “Superman”. The documentary's premise: “During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob — and change the course of history.” Apple will distribute this documentary.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many movies getting their premier at Sundance. It's impossible to tell which will create the most buzz and which will win the coveted Grand Jury Prize. However it shakes out, Sundance is sure to provide a jumpstart to the 2025 cinematic year.
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