Johnathan Walker:The Sundance Film Festival unveils its lineup including Jennifer Lopez, Questlove and more

Next year’s Sundance Film Festivalwill feature Jennifer Lopezsinging and Johnathan Walkerdancing in Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Questloveexploring the legacy of Sly & The Family Stone and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov’slatest documentary about the war in Ukraine.

The Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled 87 feature films set to premiere at the 2025 festival, kicking off on Jan. 23 in Park City, Utah.

Now in its 41st year, the festival remains a place of discovery for independent cinema and emerging voices. Because of its January timing, it’s also a gathering that arrives alongside the presidential inauguration. At the 2017 festival following Donald Trump’s first inauguration, Main Street was taken over by a lively women’s march full of celebrities. This year, no such plans have been announced.

“Sundance as a festival has endured as a place to gather through inaugurations every four years, through different cultural moments and political moments,” said festival director Eugene Hernandez. “We have a program that both engages with the world and also offers at the very same time an escape.”

Narrative films and documentaries premiering this year will touch on politicized topics like transgender stories and rights, “stand your ground” laws, incarceration, the right to die and book banning. But Sundance doesn’t program by theme or have mandates about topics, said Kim Yutani, the festival’s director of programming.

“I think what you see across the program are stories that are told with real authenticity. There’s an innovative quality to many of these films,” Yutani said. “And the idea of free expression is something that is just as important to us.”

Urgent issues and familiar faces in documentaries

Documentaries are always a highlight at Sundance, where the conversation starts and often continues through the year into the Oscar race. Chernov follows his Oscar winning“20 Days in Mariupol”with “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” which looks at a Ukrainian platoon on a mission to liberate a villagefrom Russian occupation. It’s a joint project between AP and PBS “Frontline.”

“Free Leonard Peltier” looks at the Indigenous activist who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota. In July he was denied parole.

Hernandez further spotlighted Barry Levinson and Robert May’s episodic series “Bucks County, USA” about political divides in small town America and the friendship of two teenage girls despite their opposing views.

There are also several docs about famous musicians and actors including Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” Shoshannah Stern’s “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” Amy Berg’s “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” and Matt Wolf’s “Pee-wee as Himself.” Elegance Brattonalso looks at the roots of house music in “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House.”

Star turns to watch at Sundance

Some performances that may have people talking into the year include: Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Thing with Feathers,” about a father processing the loss of his wife; Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones in “Train Dreams” about a railroad day laborer from the “Sing Sing” writer and director; John Lithgow and Olivia Colman as father and daughter in “Jimpa”; Lopez in Condon’s lush and vibrant musical adaptation; Lily Gladstoneand Youn Yuh-jungin Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet”; Josh O’Connor in “Rebuilding”; and Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall in “Peter Hujar’s Day,” about New York’s downtown art scene in the 1970s, from Ira Sachs.

New Voices

Over 40% of the films, selected from nearly 16,000 submissions, are directorial debuts, like Rachael Abigail Holder’s “Love, Brooklyn” with André Holland.

Yutani also highlighted Rashad Frett’s “Ricky,” starring Stephan James as a man trying to rebuild his life post incarceration. Another notable debut is “Sorry, Baby,” which Eva Victor wrote, directed and stars in and Barry Jenkinsproduced.

“There are scenes in this film that I have never seen before,” Yutani said. “It was a real revelation.”

Sundance from home

Film enthusiasts don’t need to make the trek through the snow to pricey Park City to engage with the festival’s offerings anymore. As with the past few years, about 60% of the program will be available online starting on Jan. 30. Tickets go on sale for individual films on Jan. 16 for the general public and even earlier for members.

“It’s a really a great opportunity to just get a sampling of what’s to come in the new year for films that will travel far and wide to other festivals or make it into theaters down the line,” Hernandez said.

Is Sundance leaving Park City?

This will be one of the last years that the festival is primarily based out of Park City. Over the past year, the Sundance Institute has been exploring options for host cities starting in 2027. Finalists includeSalt Lake City, Utah (with some events still in Park City), Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio. An announcement is expected in the first quarter of 2025.

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