Sundance 2025: Better of the Fest – 10 Favourite Movies Price Watching
by Alex Billington
February 10, 2025
The 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant has wrapped up after one other thriving 10-day in-person occasion held up within the Utah mountains, together with a web-based counterpart for the second half (which had its personal points). Now it is time to current our annual Better of the Fest record from the 2025 choice. I used to be in a position to catch a complete of 54 movies this 12 months (my full record on Letterboxd), half of them at screenings in Park Metropolis & Salt Lake Metropolis, the opposite half digital previews at house (cuddling with doggies on the sofa). This was my nineteenth 12 months attending & overlaying Sundance, and this fest nonetheless has a particular place in my coronary heart. I am all the time glad to be again up there, watching movies all day, daily, within the snow. I’m presenting my last record of my 10 favourite movies – a mixture of documentaries and narrative options. All 10 are prime notch, and I extremely suggest catching them on the large display screen ASAP. Watching all of those with an entranced viewers actually makes a distinction. I additionally recorded a podcast speaking about lots of the Sundance movies (good and unhealthy). Beneath are the most effective of the most effective, the movies that related with me probably the most and have remained on my thoughts all the way in which past the tip of the competition.
It is all the time my precedence whereas at Sundance to go see as many movies as I can. Even when I do not love each movie I watch, I am simply curious to see what makes every of them so distinctive. Another movies that I missed and nonetheless have to meet up with: The Ugly Stepsister, Seeds, Hal & Harper, Final Days, Bunnylovr, East of Wall, The Stringer. This fest all the time applications a number of the most revolutionary and attention-grabbing movies prepared to look at annually. I recognize how a lot they attempt to concentrate on probably the most artistic work by new filmmakers. I additionally encourage all film lovers to find time for documentaries – do not ignore them, they’re too typically misplaced within the combine (and this was a banner 12 months for docs). They need to be seen, too! There’s a couple of I’ve already included within the 10 beneath, however I additionally suggest: Deaf President Now!, Life After, Mr. No one In opposition to Putin, Sally, Zodiac Killer Undertaking, Transfer Ya Physique: The Delivery of Home, It is By no means Over Jeff Buckley, Andre is an Fool, GEN_. I am all the time grateful to Sundance for letting me attend the competition with a press badge and seize tickets to all the huge premieres, it is an invigorating expertise that makes me very pleased yearly. Let’s dive proper in…
Whereas I noticed many movies that I loved (my full record of 54 right here), there are all the time some I missed though I heard good issues about them. However these are my favourite movies from this 12 months’s fest from those who I did see.
Alex’s Prime 10 Favourite ~Sundance 2025~ Movies:
Folktales
Directed by Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
My #1 movie of Sundance 2025 is a documentary! Huzzah! And it’s crammed with canines and snow. After all I beloved it! The right sort of movie to look at up within the mountains throughout a snowstorm in the midst of a winter movie competition. Folktales blew me away – the most effective documentary at Sundance and one among my favourite movies of the 12 months (to this point, in fact). The filmmakers Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady are Sundance regulars (we even interviewed them again in 2010 for twelfth & Delaware). Folktales is about excessive up within the arctic north in Norway at a people faculty the place they educate college students unbiased residing and survival abilities like tenting & constructing fires & canine sledding. It is as a lot of a movie about people as it’s about canines, spending a lot time targeted on the sled canines that stay at this faculty. The canine’s reference to the scholars is a vital a part of their schooling; we comply with three children as they be taught and battle and develop up over the course of a really chilly, snowy semester. The cinematography is spectacular, the rating is super, the entire expertise of this movie is deeply transferring. It’d even encourage some of us to alter who they’re & rethink their route in life.
Collectively
Directed by Michael Shanks
That is the following nice physique horror comedy has premiered! A should watch with an viewers! Among the best viewers experiences on the competition and one among my favourite movies. A hilarious horror function starring real-life couple Alison Brie & Dave Franco as a pair coping with relationship issues. That is the function directorial debut of Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, after making his mark together with his acclaimed stop-motion quick movie Rebooted. Right here he proves he is simply as proficient in live-action with a knock out physique horror movie. The sensible FX are seamless and thrilling, simply the most effective elements about this movie, making the unsettling chance of it really feel actual. It is a story about co-dependency but it surely additionally entails a horror mythology created only for the movie. I laughed extra on this movie than some other movie at Sundance. Then there have been a couple of bounce scare screams that made the viewers chortle even louder. I will not reveal something about what occurs on this horror movie – simply know that it is going to be an enormous hit as soon as it hits theaters (Neon already picked it up).
Prepare Goals
Directed by Clint Bentley
A wonderfully shot movie about trains? I am offered! You bought me already! I am fortunate I may catch Prepare Goals, it is actual cinema that’s particularly transferring in the event you watch it on display screen in a theater with an enraptured viewers. That is additionally one of many solely movies from Sundance this 12 months that made me marvel how they filmed it and the way they pulled off these photographs – plenty of photographs involving slicing down timber, constructing railroads, and an enormous forest hearth are immaculate. It is not straightforward to make all of this look so practical but all the things inside this movie feels prefer it’s a lived-in expertise taking us again in time to the tip of the nineteenth / begin of twentieth centuries in America. Joel Edgerton is phenomenal starring on this as Robert Grainier, a moderately humble, quiet man who works in laborious labor as a logger and railroader up within the Northwest. It is not only a story about constructing America – it is a story about how a lot adjustments as time goes on, how a lot occurs in a single lifetime. Netflix already purchased this, although I hope they let it play in theaters – it deserves to be appreciated on an enormous display screen.
The Wedding ceremony Banquet
Directed by Andrew Ahn
An enormous shock, didn’t count on to fall for this one stepping into to look at the premiere. However I did! The Wedding ceremony Banquet is queer filmmaker Andrew Ahn’s excellent 2025 modern replace on the Ang Lee movie additionally titled The Wedding ceremony Banquet (1993). The brand new solid has a fascinating dynamic – their interconnected relationships and the way they’re dealt with on this story are sensational. You will fall in love with every one among them, it is laborious to not after watching. The comedy is contemporary and enjoyable and funky, exploring LGBTQ themes in addition to household drama and Pacific Northwest quirks aplenty. That is solely magnificent ensemble storytelling. The movie is one other highly effective crowd-pleaser comedy, an emotional masterpiece. Bowen Yang & Han Gi-chan star are one couple, Chris & Min; Lily Gladstone & Kelly Marie Tran additionally co-star as Lee & Angela, the opposite couple. The beautiful Joan Chen additionally seems as Angela’s overbearing mom Could Chen, and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung, additionally has a beautiful function as Min’s grandmother Ja-Younger, who’s the catalyst for many of what occurs within the movie. I can not wait to point out everybody this one when it opens in only a few months.
Omaha
Directed by Cole Webley
Everybody on the competition was speaking about this after it premiered on the very first day – and it stored incomes good buzz after each screening. A spotlight of the competition for the filmmaking and the performances that make it so emotional and unforgettable. Omaha can be one of many saddest movies from Sundance, it have to be admitted, as soon as the movie will get going you may begin to determine it out. However that does not imply it is not nonetheless be good movie. The movie marks the function directorial debut of Utah native filmmaker Cole Webley, and it is shot superbly as a dad takes his children on a roadtrip throughout America. One morning they get up and he is immediately pushing them into the automotive and on the highway. The place are they going? He’ll solely inform them: Omaha. Why? Who’s there? The remainder is revealed because the story goes on. John Magaro (after Previous Lives and September 5) provides one other glorious efficiency as the daddy on this, and the 2 children taking part in Ella and Charlie are fantastic as nicely. After all, nice filmmaking is concerning the total expertise watching a movie, not simply how the story performs out.
Love, Brooklyn
Directed by Rachael Abigail Holder
This vigorous, charming, humble little movie is about within the depths of Brooklyn throughout its lush summer season and tells the story of 1 man juggling the 2 ladies he is caught between. Love, Brooklyn is one other excellent first-time function within the Sundance 2025 line-up, made by Rachael Holder and introduced / produced by Steven Soderbergh (he has a watch for expertise for positive). That is such an attractive discovery, and I had such a heat & fantastic expertise watching this at its world premiere at Sundance. I may really feel the thrill and vitality within the air, it actually appeared just like the viewers was wrapped up on this story and moved by it as a lot as I used to be. That communal expertise of falling in love with a movie whereas sitting collectively is all the time touching. I am as soon as once more impressed by actor André Holland, who performs the principle character Roger; and I am additionally in awe of the 2 pretty performances from Nicole Beharie as Casey and DeWanda Clever as Nicole, the ladies he is concerned with. This movie has vibes of Earlier than Dawn/Sundown, appears superb, and is really easy to look at & get pleasure from.
The Good Neighbor
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir
Such an intense expertise. What a robust movie. You will be sweating, on the sting of your seat the entire time, overwhelmed with anxiousness – however that is a part of the exhilarating expertise of sitting by a transferring found-footage documentary like this. Whereas one may label The Good Neighbor as a “true crime doc”, I do not assume this classification does it justice. Actually, it is extra of a social-political thriller about America and what’s mistaken with the nation. Made by filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir, the movie is created solely from physique cam & sprint cam footage taken from police information, in addition to a smattering of discovered footage from cell telephones and information reviews. All of that is used to inform the story of a neighborhood in Florida menaced by a loopy White Woman neighbor who actually would not like letting the native children play. She begins calling the cops on them for no legitimate cause, and we get to view each side of the story as issues worsen & worse. Everybody who watches this will’t cease raving about it & cannot cease speaking about the way it made them really feel – the facility of nice cinema.
Middletown
Directed by Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss
One other excellent documentary within the line-up. I am not shocked this turned out nice, contemplating I have been an enormous fan of doc director Jesse Moss ever since The Overnighters (from Sundance 2014 – it additionally made my Prime 10 that 12 months). Middletown is an interesting journey into the previous, revisiting a narrative from the 90s involving waste disposal in New York State. A bunch of scholars at an area highschool learning “Digital English” – that means video journalism and TV information – resolve to analyze rising piles of poisonous waste dumped close by and find yourself over-their-heads in a narrative of corruption and toxicity. This one actually shook me up and has been caught on my thoughts ever since. So many moments and conversations hit me laborious and have remained on my thoughts, taking part in over & over as I take into consideration the state of the world proper now, and the state of journalism at this second in historical past. It is probably not about stopping one thing unhealthy, extra concerning the journey to attempt to make a distinction. That journey is so transferring and galvanizing, the tenacity of those children is so inspiring. Above all, it is exceptional {that a} story from over 30 years in the past can nonetheless have this type of actual impression on everybody immediately.
Chopping Via Rocks
Directed by Mohammad Reza Eyni & Sara Khaki
That is one among these documentaries you may not assume a lot of when it first begins. However by the tip you are leaping out of your seat cheering for the folks in it. Chopping Via Rocks (اوزاک یوللار) is a unbelievable 95-minute documentary movie made by two filmmakers Mohammad Reza Eyni & Sara Khaki. It tells the story of an Iranian lady named Sara Shahverdi, who’s the primary elected councilwoman of her Iranian village, battling patriarchy and paperwork and different issues in her village. There’s a mesmerizing bike motif used all through the movie, which additionally represents a logo of freedom for a lot of of those Iranian ladies (as a result of they are not allowed to drive). It is also irritating {that a} easy bike trip as all that it takes for her to come back underneath hearth from males within the village (and close by) who wish to take her down and put her in her place. All as a result of she took some younger ladies out on a motorbike. However she fights on & by no means provides in. An empowering, inspiring story of perseverance & progress irrespective of the circumstances or the oppression.
Lurker
Directed by Alex Russell
A late-in-the-festival shock. Lurker is that this Sundance 2025 replace of Ingrid Goes West (which performed at Sundance 2017) with its personal beguiling story set within the music world. This has even higher unique songs than Opus does. One other disquieting cautionary story about celebrities and fame and obsession. Lurker stars up-and-coming actor Théodore Pellerin as a man named Matthew – who finds his manner into the interior circle of a well-known pop star named Oliver, performed by Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe. As he tries to carry onto his place in that world, immediately hooked on the joy that fame appears to supply, he additionally will get a bit too determined and begins to screw issues up. There is a sensible stability of comedy & darkness, with partaking storytelling that retains you intrigued even in the event you do not wish to see what’s subsequent. I actually dug it. I recognize extra of those movies being made as a result of we actually want to handle how celebrity-obsessed everybody is true now. This viewers appeared to be into it too – may sense everybody squirming whereas additionally laughing. Hold a watch out for this one.
I additionally recorded a podcast chat about Sundance movies with Aaron Neuwirth on his Out Now Podcast – take heed to that episode right here. And take a look at my different favourite movies record on my Letterboxd web page. Thanks for following.
For different Sundance 2025 better of the fest lists mentioning extra movies we did not see or did not embrace right here, try these different web sites: Indiewire’s 17 Finest Motion pictures of Sundance 2025, Vulture’s Finest & Meh-st of a Dud 12 months at Sundance, Esquire’s 10 Finest Motion pictures We Noticed at Sundance, RT’s 9 Finest Movies We Noticed, The A.V. Membership’s Finest Movies of Sundance 2025, Metacritic’s Finest & Worst Movies Recap, Rolling Stone’s 10 Finest Motion pictures at Sundance, and David Chen’s Video Podcast of Our 10 Favourite Sundance 2025 Motion pictures. My faves record is not the one record of nice movies from Sundance! There are numerous different nice movies from this 12 months that deserve your time & consideration at any time when they present up in your neighborhood. Hold a watch out for any/all the movies. I all the time suggest watching any movie from the Sundance line-up if it sounds attention-grabbing to you, and lots of of those will doubtless present up at different movie fests earlier than they play in theaters. Find time for as many as you may…
You could find all our Sundance 2025 protection and critiques on this class. This wraps up our protection of the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant, our nineteenth 12 months in a row attending this fest. We’ll all the time be again once more. You may as well discover extra ideas on movies posted on my Letterboxd. One other 12 months of fantastic indie discoveries.
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