The Cosmic Circus is thrilled to launch its first official year of covering the Sundance Film Festival. Our first piece highlights films that attendees and readers should possibly consider while exploring the festival. Last year continued the festival’s long history of bringing films that ignite conversation and acclaim. For instance, Sundance 2024 sparked mixed reactions to the ambitious AI romance Love Me while featuring award-winning front-runners like A Real Pain and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. Even crazier, sometimes movies are never released at all or for even years, such as Magazine Dreams. Sundance 2025 boasts an impressive lineup, making it almost impossible to catch everything. Even with the twelve titles listed below, the selection could easily reach nearly thirty due to the numerous films with promising potential. Here are twelve films worth considering at the Sundance Film Festival 2025, starting next week.
Atropia
Director(s): Hailey Gates
Screenwriter: Hailey Gates
Starring: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloe Sevigny
Atropia has a wildly bizarre romantic premise. The film centers on a romance between two actors in an Iraqi-inspired role-playing environment where an actress falls in love with a man role-playing an insurgent. On its own, this premise may not sound as riveting as one of the Midnight offerings. However, Bones and All and Challengers director Luca Guadagnino is the picture’s producer. For a filmmaker of his talent, throwing his weight behind the movie is enough reason to keep this on your radar during the festival.
Atropia will premiere at the Eccles Theater on January 25, followed by six more in-person screenings. It will also be available online from January 29 through February 2.
Serious People
Director(s): Pasqual Gutierrez & Ben Mullinkosson
Screenwriters: Pasqual Gutierrez & Ben Mullinkosson
Starring: Pasqual Gutierrez, Christine Yuan, and Raul Sanchez
The NEXT programs consistently provide innovative experimental programming, and Serious People may hold promise. The concept resembles Michael Keaton’s role in Multiplicity without the cloning aspect. The movie revolves around a music video director facing challenges balancing his professional and personal life while preparing for the impending arrival of a child. This scenario drives him to employ a doppelgänger, hoping to leverage the identical stranger to help him reclaim his time. Similar to Multiplicity, one can assume this will not end well.
Serious People will premiere at the Library Center Theatre on January 27, followed by four more in-person screenings. It will also be available online at the Sundance Film Festival website from January 29 through February 2.
Bubble and Squeak
Director(s): Evan Twohy
Screenwriter: Evan Twohy
Starring: Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, Matt Berry
Bubble & Squeak has a stacked cast of talent. Himesh Patel of Station Eleven (fantastic show) and Sarah Goldberg of Barry are at the forefront. The film also includes familiar names like Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, and Matt Berry. Casting aside, the story is adapted from a play with an absurd premise involving a newlywed couple being investigated for smuggling cabbage in a territory where cabbage is banned. Not drugs, not guns… cabbage. Bubble & Squeak could be a standout during Sundance between the silly cabbage smuggling plot and the comedic cast.
Bubble & Squeak will premiere at the Eccles Theater on January 24, followed by four more in-person screenings. It will also be available online from January 29 through February 2.
Train Dreams
Director(s): Clint Bentley
Screenwriters: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy
Described as a historical drama, Train Dreams stars Joel Edgerton as a labor-working logger in the period of the booming locomotive industry. The Sundance website makes the film sound existential and meditative as Edgerton’s character grapples with his place in the evolving country. The description makes it sound relatable to the modern-day boom in automation and AI and the fallout of blue-collar factory workers. The film also stars Kerry Condon, Felicity Jones, and William H. Macy.
Train Dreams premieres at The Library Center Theatre on January 26. Four more in-person screenings will follow. The film will also be available online from January 20 through February 2.
By Design
Director(s): Amanda Kramer
Screenwriter: Amanda Kramer
Starring: Juliette Lewis, Rubin Tunney, and Melanie Griffith
Of all the titles we will mention in this article, By Design might have the most insane premise. The film stars Juliette Lewis as a woman who has a Freaky Friday body swap incident with a table chair. The plot adds insult to injury by saying that characters around prefer her as a chair after the swap. Juliette Lewis has a long history of picking wildly bizarre roles, such as Natural Born Killers and Yellowjackets, which seems right in her wheelhouse.
By Design will premiere at the Library Center Theater on January 23. Four more in-person screenings will follow, but act fast because they are rapidly selling out. By Design will also be available during the online festival from January 29 through February 2.
Endless Cookie – Canada
Director(s): Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver
Screenwriters: Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver
Endless Cookie is the pristine definition of what makes a NEXT Program. The Canadian title is described as a documentary told in the form of animation. Yet, at the same time, Endless Cookie sounds like a sci-fi time travel backdrop. Sundance describes the film as “traveling from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto.” Given this context, Endless Cookie appears highly suitable for a festival featuring such an innovative category.
Endless Cookie will premiere at the Egyptian Theatre on January 25. Four more in-person screenings will follow. Endless Cookie will also be available for the online festival from January 29 through February 2.
Luz – Hong Kong/China
Director(s): Flora Lau
Screenwriter: Flora Lau
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Pinna, and Xiaodong Guo
In the World Cinematic Competition is Luz, a story spanning oceans between China and Paris. The film is said to involve three interlinking stories, one of which involves a character searching for family in virtual reality. The images teased on the Sundance website give the impression that aspects of Luz will have rich, neon-soaked cinematography. For this writer, strong use of lighting is a personal catnip while viewing a movie.
Luz will premiere at the Egyptian Theatre on January 23, followed by four additional in-person screenings. It will also be available to watch online from January 29 through February 2 at the Sundance Film Festival’s website.
The Wedding Banquet
Director(s): Andrew Ahn
Screenwriters: Andrew Ahn & James Schamus
Starring: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, and Kelly Marie Tran
Bowen Yang currently might be the best thing about SNL. His comedic instincts are so natural, and he effortlessly brings his identity as an LGTBQ performer with a strong level of charm. After his blockbuster debut in Wicked, Yang is following it up with a Sundance title that serves as a remake of a 1983 Ang Lee film. The Wedding Banquet involves two friends (one gay and one lesbian) who make a deal involving a green card in exchange for IVF treatments. A misunderstanding ensues, and the family throws them a wedding banquet.
The Wedding Banquet will premiere on January 27 at the Eccles Theatre, followed by four additional in-person screenings. It will not be available for the Sundance Film Festival’s online portion.
Opus
Director(s): Mark Anthony Green
Screenwriters: Mark Anthony Green
Starring: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, and Murray Bartlett
Ayo Edebiri needs no introduction. She’s one of the best aspects of Hulu’s The Bear, rivaling some of the greatest among the series’ cast. In the Midnight category, Edebiri will star in Opus, which is described as a horror musical. These are two genres we rarely see blended together. The Sundance website says the movie is about a journalist who is invited to a compound where a resurfaced pop star has gathered a strange group of guests of followers and fellow devoted journalists. With the addition of John Malkovich, Opus could make for wild programming.
Opus will premiere at the Eccles Theater on January 27, followed by four more in-person screenings afterward. This Midnight title will not be available for the online festival at Sundance.
Life After
Director: Reid Davenport
Starring: Teresa Castner, Rebecca Castner, and Ash Kelly
As a writer with a disability, I make it my mission each year at Sundance to seek out films illuminating the experiences of those with limitations. The Sundance Film Festival 2025 may showcase a documentary that could significantly impact this area. According to the Sundance website, Life After, narrated by Reid Davenport, a filmmaker with a disability, centers on a woman who legally contested her “right to die.” The site indicates that this film seeks to explore themes of bodily autonomy in a society steeped in ableism.
Life After will premiere at The Ray Theatre on January 27, with three more in-person screenings to follow. The documentary will be available for the online festival from January 29 through February 2.
If I had Legs I’d Kick You
Director(s): Mary Bronstein
Screenwriter: Mary Bronstein
Starring: Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien
On the surface, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You sounds like a somber film. The film stars Rose Byrne as a parent whose life is spiraling as a single mother to a child with no father, who might be missing, and her child is ill from an unknown condition. On that description alone, this sounds like a harrowing drama about motherhood. That is until one reads that the movie also stars A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien. The Sundance page indicates the film does navigate a tale about anxiety but manages a level of comedy throughout.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You will premiere at the Library Center Theatre on January 24, followed by five additional in-person screenings afterward. The drama-comedy will not be available during the online portion of Sundance.
Rabbit Trap – UK
Director(s): Bryn Chainey
Screenwriter: Bryn Chainey
Starring: Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, and Jade Croot
Dev Patel is one of the most engaging performers working today. As a dramatic actor, he has more than justified his place in Hollywood, and for many in the industry, sticking to a comfortable genre would be plenty. Even so, Patel has navigated his skillsets to action films such as The Wedding Guest and Monkey Man and fantasy with The Green Knight. Now, Patel will enter the realm of horror with the Sundance title Rabbit Trap. The movie is said to be about two musicians who go to a remote location to work on an album, and while out there, they hear otherworldly noises.
Rabbit Trap will premiere in the Midnight section on January 24, followed by four more in-person screenings. It will not be available during the online portion of the Sundance Film Festival.
The Sundance Film Festival 2025 lineup is packed!
What films showing at Sundance this year are you looking forward to seeing or hearing more about? Let us know on social media @MyCosmicCircus or find us on Bluesky @TheCosmicCircus.com! Keep an eye out for more Sundance 2025 coverage here and on our YouTube channel in the coming weeks!
