With our first program reveal for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival out the door, we wanted to start celebrating all of the inspiring artists and works that we can’t wait to see in January. What better way to kick the party off than by highlighting the 10 projects, premiering at the 2025 Fest, that have direct Sundance Institute artist program support.
Beyond being the theme of this year’s Festival gala, our year-round artist programs, labs, grants, and fellowships are at the very core of the Sundance Institute’s mission and work. This year you can be part of a filmmaker’s Sundance support system by checking out one of these films.
Whimsical sagas featuring adorable creatures, morbid tales of love and reanimation, a slew of gripping and timely documentaries, and more fill this list of innovative and collaborative works.
Learn about all the projects below and click here to learn more about the Institute’s year-round work that helped bring these stories to life. Single Film Tickets for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival go on sale next month, so make sure to favorite these films in advance.
Pro tip: Become a Sundance Institute member to support the journey of these filmmakers and more. You’ll also get early access to ticket selection for the 2025 Festival, discounts on merch, and more!
Director: Amber Fares
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
2019 Sundance Humanities Fellowship and Momentum Fellowship
Available to watch in person and online
Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi creates a personal and political one-woman show about the struggle for equality in Israel/Palestine. When the elusive coexistence she’s spent her life working toward starts sounding like a bad joke, she challenges her audiences with hard truths that are no laughing matter.
Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار)
Directors: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
2020 Sundance Documentary Fund
Available to watch in person and online
As the first elected councilwoman of her Iranian village, Sara Shahverdi aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles and stopping child marriages. When accusations arise questioning Sara’s intentions to empower the girls, her identity is put in turmoil.
Director: Violet Du Feng
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
2018 Sundance Creative Producing Fellowship, 2021 Sundance Documentary Fund Grantee, 2023 Sundance Momentum Fellowship
Available to watch in person and online
In a country where eligible men greatly outnumber women, three perpetual bachelors join an intensive seven-day dating camp led by one of China’s most sought-after dating coaches in what may be their last-ditch effort to find love.
Directors: Maia Lekow, Christopher King
Section: World Cinema Documentary Competition
2020 Sundance Documentary Program Development Grant
Available to watch in person and online
Two intrepid Nairobi women decide to transform what used to be a whites-only library until 1958 into a vibrant cultural hub. Along the way, they must navigate local politics, raise millions for the rebuild, and confront the lingering ghosts of Kenya’s colonial past.
Director: Isiah Saxon
Section: Family Matinee
2018 June Screenwriters Lab
Available to watch in person
In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an animal species known as Ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby Ochi has been left behind, she escapes on an adventure to bring him home.
Director: Reid Davenport
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
2023 Sundance Documentary Program Production Grant, Sundance Nonfiction Producer Fellowship
Available to watch in person and online
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.
Director: Rashad Frett
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
2023 Directors, Screenwriters, and Producers Labs, 2023 Project Advancement and Completion Fund, 2023 Sundance Film Festival (short film)
Available to watch in person and online
Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.
Director: Brittany Shyne
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
2019 Sundance Documentary Development Fund
Available to watch in person and online
An exploration of Black generational farmers in the American South reveals the fragility of legacy and the significance of owning land.
Director: Tadashi Nakamura
Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
2021 Sundance Documentary Program Production Grant, Sundance Asian American Fellowship, 2024 Producers lab
Available to watch in person and online
Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “the godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. Robert’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease leads to an exploration of art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.
