Breakout -Film from this year’s Sundance Festival

On By Littum

Park City, Utah (AP) – Film was not the only one in people’s minds on this year Sundance Film FestivalThere is coming to close Sunday in Park City, Utah ( and online ).

The effects of the fire of fire in southern California well -to -great, like the bittersweet knowledge that this year will be the second to last sundance with base in Park City. Some films offered an escape from reality; Others were a pointed reminder of domestic and international political landscape, from transient rights to the war in Ukraine.

Here are some of the most important takeaways from 41. Edition of the festival.

The effects of fires in southern California were deeply felt

The fire fire was still burning in parts of Los Angeles when Sundance began last week, and reminders of its destruction were everywhere, even on screen. Max Walker-Silverman’s “Reconstruction” Josh O’Connor Like a cowboy who loses its ranch in a fireplace and forms a society with co -survivor in a FEMA camp, hits close to the home for many.

Filmmakers Meena Menon and Paul Gleason lost their homes in Altadena, filming some of their zombie -apocalypse movies “Don’t die.” SUNDANCE ARTIST LABS HEAD Michelle Satter also lost her palisades home. Satter had an audience of the Sundance Institute donors in tears early in the festival while accepting an honor by a fundraising gala.

“It is a deeply devastating time for us and so many others, for a moment that calls for us all to come together to support our larger society,” Satter said. “As a friend has recently noticed, and I have to listen to this: ‘Take a deep breath … We lost our village, but at the end of the day we are the village.'”

Festival’s move to another city dominated conversations

It was a topic that was bound to come up with almost every conversation: the festival’s new home in 2027. ”Where do you think it will go? How do you feel about leaving Park City? What would Sundance in Ohio even look like? “No one had any answers but Everyone had an opinion About the fact that next year will be the last year when the activity center is in Park City. Sundance Institute -Management has narrowed the finalist towns to Salt Lake City, Utah, Boulder, Colorado and Cincinnati, Ohio, and is expected to advertise the winner before spring.

Participants in 2025 Sundance Film Festival are holding up "KEEP SUNDANCE IN UTAH" Stickers at Main Street in Park City, Utah, Friday, January 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Participants in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival keep up “Hold Sundance in Utah.” (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)

Actor Tessa Thompson, who serves on the institute’s board of directors, was hopeful about a new city.

“I think Sundance has more to do with the spirit and society, and I think it’s evergreen,” Thompson said. “No matter where Sundance is, Sundance will always be.”

Policy was also the top of the mind but less public

In the early days of US President Donald Trumps Other administration, politics was also a main topic of private discussions at least. Multiple films (mostly documentaries) had direct relevance to the latest news, such as “Increased control”, about transking lawyer Chase Strangio And the media coverage of transient questions in the middle of a pending Supreme Court case.

Even “Kiss of the Spider Woman” filmmaker Bill Condon quoted Trump’s “Two Gender” mandate before his film was screened.

“It’s a mood I think you’ll see that the movie has a different point of view,” Condon said.

Jennifer Lopez, a role crew member in "Kisses of the spider woman," Bags on the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday 26 January 2025 in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lopez at the premiere “Kiss of the Spider Woman”. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Nor was there the spirit of the public protest that was inevitable eight years ago when Trump first joined when the A-lists went on the streets to march for women’s rights. But the audience on questions and answers to movies like “The Alabama -solution,” about the violent alabama -prison systems that AP has reported extensive, were curious how they could help change things.

A muted market? Offers are not the full story.

There have been essentially two major offers out of the festival so far: Netflix trains “Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley’s lyrical denis Johnson adaptation, with Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones, and Neon acquired Dave Franco and Alison Brie Relationship Body Horror “Together.”

As always, some films came in with distribution in place: Focus features with “The Ballad of Wallis Island”; A24 Med “If I had legs I would kick you,” “Opus” and “The Legend of Ochi”; Bleecker Street with “The Wedding Banet”; Nat Geo with Sally Ride -Documentary “Sally”; Mubi with “Magic Farm”; and Apple with “Deaf President now!”; HBO -Documentary with “The Alabama Solution” and “Enigma.”

Most offers happen when the festival is completed, but there have been private grumblings that the market this year was weaker than usual and the films were not commercial enough. Several insiders designated Condon’s adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” with Jennifer Lopez as being for animals for anyone other than a streaming service. But there are also plenty of offers in the works, some of which will soon be completed, while others can be run at the Berlin Film Festival market.

As festival programmers like to say, Sundance is not the end of the story for new films – that’s just the beginning. Last year’s program had over 100 films distributed to the audience in traditional ways, and only a small fraction of them was announced during the festival.

The breakout films you hear about

The biggest discovery of the festival is perhaps “Sorry, Baby” from the Author-Instructor Star Eva Victor in her functional debut. This fun and quiet piercing movie is about Agnes who were sexually assaulted by her dissertation adviser. Instead of doing it about portraying the incident itself (Victor keeps the camera firmly planted outside the home where it occurs, showing time through time through light), Victor who could be the next Greta Gerwig and/or Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Stay focused on how it affects remorse.

Filmmaker James Sweeney also scored a big win with “Twinless”, which picked up the American dramatic audience award and a special award for his star Dylan O’Brien. The film is about a bromance between two men in a twin eligibility group.

This image released by the Sundance Institute shows Rose Byrne in a scene from "If I had legs I would kick you" By Mary Bronstein, an official selection of Film Film Festival in 2025. (Logan White/Sundance Institute via AP)

Rose Byrne in a scene from “If I had Ben I would kick you” (Logan White/Sundance Institute via AP)

This image released by the Sundance Institute shows Eva Victor in a scene from "Sorry, baby," An official selection of Sundance Film Festival 2025. (Mia Cioffi Henry/Sundance Institute via AP)

Eva Victor in a scene from “Sorry, Baby” (Mia Cioffi Henry/Sundance Institute via AP)

On the documentary, there was a lot of scrap of “André is an idiot,” a documentary about a “brilliant idiot” dying because he did not get a colonoscopy and tried to live out of his last days happily.

The personal experience at Sundance is also a good reminder that reviews are only part of the equation when it comes to judging the answer to a movie. Hailey Gates’ War Satire “Atropia” received mixed reviews from critics, but premiere audiences were very enthusiastic (like the American dramatic jury that gave it Festival’s top prize ).

From the publication, everyone is still looking for distribution.

Others who played especially well with the audience and critics include, “If I had legs I would kick you,” “Dj Ahmet,” “Cactus Pears,” “2000 meters to Andriivka,” “Plainclothes,” “Ricky,” “Prime Minister”, “Selena Y Los Dinos,” “Stringer,”“Sly live!” “The Alabama solution”, “Predators”, “East of the Wall”, “Folkytales”, “Free Leonard Peltier,” “Peter Hujar’s Day”, “The Ballad of Wallis Island” and “Train Dreams.”

And

AP Entertainment Journalist Krysta Fauria contributed from Park City, Utah.

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