The Sundance Film Festival
is one of the best film festivals for a reason. It shines a spotlight on smaller films, both from the United States and the international film communities, while offering up a preview of some of 2025’s most anticipated releases. Some of these films breakout and remain a part of the conversation for the entire year.

Last year, A Real Pain starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin premiered at the 2024 edition and Culkin is sweeping awards season and is considered the favorite to nab the Best Supporting Actor Oscar come March. Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow also made its debut last year, becoming a critical darling while delivering one of the most unsettling horror-dramas of 2024.

Some other debuts at Sundance 2024 include Love Lies Bleeding, A Different Man, My Old ᴀss, and Presence, all of which have remained buzzy since their initial premieres. The festival offers up a truly diverse range of films that are worth checking out. Below, we’ve highlighted some that have the potential to remain in the conversation throughout 2025 as they continue their festival runs or debut in theaters.

7

Opus

Like last year’s edition, A24 is bringing a few of its new films to Park City and one of them has the potential to be an early horror hit. Opus, from director Mark Anthony Green, making his feature debut, stars Ayo Edebiri as Ariel Acton, a young writer who is invited to the home of mysterious pop star Alfred Moretti, played by John Malkovich. Moretti disappeared thirty years prior and the events of the film chronicle his long-awaited comeback.

The synopsis of the film teases that Moretti has a “twisted” plan up his sleeve and Ariel soon finds herself surrounded by a cult-like group of devotees who may not have the best intentions. Edebiri is one of the funniest actors working today and seeing her star opposite Malkovich in what sounds like an absolutely absurd premise is more than enough to make this one of Sundance’s most exciting debuts. Opus hits theaters this March.

6

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Another A24 offering, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a comedy-drama that stars Rose Byrne as Linda, a woman who is facing attacks on multiple fronts: her child has a strange illness, there’s something going on with an unspecified missing person, her relationship with her husband is rocky, and her therapist is turning into more of an adversary than an ally.

The film, from writer/director Mary Bronstein, boasts an impressive cast, with Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Ivy Wolk, and ASAP Rocky supporting. Byrne has an acerbic sense of humor with roles in Spy (for my money, one of the 21st century’s great comedies) and Physical proving that she can be as biting as she is hilarious. With If I Had Legs I’d Kick You‘s out-there premise, this film could very well be another breakout hit for A24.

5

Plainclothes

Featuring Hunger Games prequel breakout Tom Blyth and Looking star Russell Tovey, Plainclothes is set in 1990s New York and inspired by true events surrounding anti-LGBTQ laws of the era. Blyth stars as a police officer tasked with entrapping and arresting gay men, but he eventually falls for one of his targets, played by Tovey.

Plainclothes will give Blyth the chance to flex his dramatic range while highlighting a very recent, dark chapter of queer history in the United States. With all the strides that have been made in LGBT equality in recent years, it’s very easy to forget that it wasn’t too long ago when the state was openly targeting queer people in this way, and it will serve as a reminder of the ways in which it does so to this day.

4

Together

Dave Franco and Alison Brie served up a nightmare with The Rental, an Airbnb-set horror movie, and now they return with another collaboration that sounds even more chilling. The real-life couple stars in this thriller that follows a pair who move to the countryside, where a supernatural incident triggers something that will alter their lives in emotional and physical ways.

The first image from the film already promises terror, but with the synopsis teasing body horror and relationship drama, it’s clear that Together could serve up another nightmare for the actors. Though Franco directed The Rental, Michael Shanks is in the director’s chair for this one, making his major feature debut.

3

Jimpa

Any Olivia Colman performance is a cause for celebration, and she’s set to star in a new film from Sundance regular Sophie Hyde. Colman stars opposite John Lithgow in Jimpa, a film that follows Colman’s character as she takes her nonbinary child to visit their grandfather in Amsterdam. Lithgow’s character, who goes by Jimpa, is gay, and the film is set to explore idenтιтy and family through a queer lens, and it has the potential to be a big film thanks to the star power at its center.

2

Kiss Of The Spider Woman

A reimagining of a Tony award-winning musical, itself an adaptation of a novel by Argentine writer Manuel Puig, Jennifer Lopez stars as the тιтular Spider Woman in this story about two prisoners in Argentina who find solace in remembering a legendary diva. Diego Luna and Tonatiuh also star in the film directed by Bill Condon, which is set to feature several musical numbers with Lopez at the center. This film could give Lopez the chance for redemption after her egregious snub by the Academy for her stellar turn in Hustlers.

1

The Wedding Banquet

This remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy has all the potential to be a big hit. The Wedding Banquet stars Saturday Night Live‘s Bowen Yang, who previously proved he can carry a rom-com in 2022’s charming Fire Island. He’s joined by Lily Gladstone, fresh off her nomination for Best Actress last year for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Joan Chen, who delivered a stunning turn in last year’s Didi, which also premiered at Sundance. Kelly Marie Tran and Youn Yuh-jung also star in the film directed by Andrew Ahn, who also helmed Fire Island.