On Wednesday, Dec. 11, the Sundance Institute unveiled the eagerly anticipated program for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the country’s premier stage for independent cinema. Running from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2, 2025, the festival will feature a hybrid format, with screenings in Park City, Utah, and select films available online. This year’s lineup highlights global filmmaking talent and includes projects with contributions from CalArtian cast and crew, showcased across a variety of categories.
CalArtians are found across categories in the Sundance 2025 program:
Premieres
April & Amanda (Documentary)
Two legends contested their identities as women in the court of public opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgender history; and Amanda Lear, who has consciously denied and obfuscated her history for decades. Their divergent paths reveal disparate but intertwined legacies.
Director: Zackary Drucker (Art MFA 07)
Producers: Madison Passarelli, Douglas Banker, Alex Garinger, Noah Levy, Donovan Lovell, Stephen B. Strout
Screening: In-person only
The Wedding Banquet (Fiction)
Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend, Chris, and out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green card marriage with his friend Angela in exchange for expensive in vitro fertilization treatments for her partner, Lee. Plans change when Min’s grandmother surprises them with an elaborate Korean wedding banquet.
Director: Andrew Ahn (Film/Video MFA 11)
Screenwriters: Andrew Ahn, James Schamus
Screening: In-person only
Midnight
With a move to the countryside already testing the limits of a couple’s relationship, a supernatural encounter begins an extreme transformation of their love, their lives, and their flesh.
Director-screenwriter: Michael Shanks
Producers: Dave Franco, Alison Brie (Theater BFA 05), Mike Cowap, Andrew Mittman, Erik Feig, Max Silva
Cast: Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Damon Herriman
Screening: In-person only
Episodic
Pee-wee as Himself (Documentary)
A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens (Theater BFA 73) and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman. Prior to his recent death, Reubens spoke in-depth about his creative influences, and the personal struggles he faced to persevere as an artist.
Director: Matt Wolf
Producer: Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Screening: In-person only
See the full festival programming at the official Sundance website.
