Beginning Thursday, January 23, and running through Sunday, February 2, the 2025 Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah–and your living room. (Note: not all films will be available virtually, but all the competition and short films will be made available starting Thursday, January 30 through the end of the festival, including jury prize-winning films.)
This year’s Sundance lineup has 14 different categories: U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, Premieres, Spotlight (films that premiered at other 2024 film festivals, including a new doc on John Lennon and Yoko Ono titled, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival ), NEXT (low-budget and innovative storytelling), Indie Series Program (Episodic), Short Film Programs (multiple short programs), New Frontier Films, Special Screenings, From the Collection, Family Matinee and Midnight.
This year, the music-related films include fiction films, documentaries, short films, and Episodic Programs. The feature films will cover musicians from Sly Stone, Selena Quintanilla, Jeff Buckley, a remake or new interpretation of the 1985 musical Oscar Winner, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and a documentary on origins of House Music outside of Chicago.
Descriptions are provided by the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute.
DJ AHMET – World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love — a girl already promised to someone else. World Premiere. (“DJ Ahmet” is available online.)
IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY – Premieres
Rising musician Jeff Buckley had only released one album when he died suddenly in 1997. Now, never-before-seen footage, exclusive voice messages, and accounts from those closest to him offer a portrait of the captivating singer. World Premiere. (“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” is not available as an online screening.)
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN – Premieres
Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna. Jennifer Lopez is an astonishing scene-stealer in a career-highlight performance as Luna/Aurora, with show stopping musical numbers that underscore the exuberant prowess of her dancing and voice. Diego Luna delivers unrelenting revolutionary conviction as Valentín, and Tonatiuh gives his Molina a tenderhearted power and theatrical flair. World Premiere. (“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is not available as an online screening.)
LURKER – Premieres
A retail employee infiltrates the inner circle of an artist on the verge of stardom. As he gets closer to the budding music star, access and proximity become a matter of life and death. A gripping slow-burn tale about the thin line between devoted fandom and dangerous obsession, Lurker fittingly worms its way under the viewer’s skin and echoes how the calculating Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) insinuates himself within Oliver’s (Archie Madekwe) inner circle. Forced to assume Matthew’s perspective, the audience is made complicit in the power plays and desperate measures he takes to retain his status when he finds his position in the entourage under threat. World Premiere. (“Lurker” is not available as an online screening.)
MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE – Premieres
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.
Vince Lawrence was an eccentric, nerdy Black child growing up in Mayor Daley’s segregated Chicago. One summer when his dad couldn’t afford to send him to summer camp, Lawrence embarked on a personal journey that would lead him to become the first person to record a house song. He catalyzed a force of radical togetherness that would break down his city’s invisible walls of segregation, and fundamentally transform the music world. World Premiere. (“Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” is not available as an online screening.)
ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO – Spotlight
An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s. World Premiere. Available online. (“One to One: John & Yoko” is not available as an online screening, but will be released in Spring 2025.)
RAINS OVER BABEL – NEXT
A group of misfits converges at Babel, a legendary dive bar that doubles as purgatory, where La Flaca — the city’s Grim Reaper — presides. Here, souls gamble years of their lives with her, daring to outwit Death herself World Premiere. (“Rains Over Babel” is available online.)
SELENA Y LOS DINOS – World Cinema Documentary Competition
Selena Quintanilla — the “Queen of Tejano Music” — and her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, rose from performing at quinceañeras to selling out stadium tours. The celebration of her life and legacy is chronicled through never-before-seen footage from the family’s personal archive. World Premiere. (“Selena y Los Dinos” is available online.)
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) – Premieres
Academy Award-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (“Summer of Soul”) returns to Sundance with an examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone — the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone — captures the band’s rise, reign, and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America. World Premiere. (“SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” is not available as an online screening, but will be released on Hulu, Thursday, February 13.)
THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND – Premieres
Eccentric lottery winner, Charles, dreams of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer, back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig. World Premiere. (“The Ballad of Wallis Island” is not available as an online screening, but will be released by Focus Features, Friday, March 28.)
Jim Brunzell is the Festival Director for the music film festival Sound Unseen based in Minneapolis, MN & Austin, TX. You can follow him on IG at djguam.
