Sundance is asking you to save the date! Sundance Institute has announced the dates for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, its 41st edition, which will run January 23 through February 2, 2025 in both Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Further details will be announced in the coming months, and filmmakers can start submitting later this spring. This edition of the festival will be the second go-round for director of the Sundance Film Festival and public programming Eugene Hernandez (also the co-founder of IndieWire) at the helm. He’s taking planning into his own hands (literally) and is so excited for next year that you can see him above atop the Egyptian Theater marquee swapping out the “4” for a “5.” In a statement he even added “that photo isn’t Photoshopped!”
“While the next Sundance Film Festival is still 10 months away, we’re already laying the foundation for the 2025 edition, looking ahead to sharing a new group of artists’ work with audiences at the start of next year,” Hernandez said in an official statement. “My first festival as director was filled with so many moving, inspiring stories of discovery with emerging and established artists from around the world connecting with festivalgoers.”
With the festival bleeding into February, the dates for Sundance 2025 are a little later in the calendar year than in 2024, though that’s not too out of the ordinary. The festival has been in February before, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2025 also falls later than usual, with Sundance always following it.
Sundance celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year, its second year back in-person after two straight fests went virtual because of the pandemic. And not only was the festival rife with breakout critical hits and a heftier lineup, the market too was especially healthy for sales titles, even as some movies still await buyers.
Sundance’s biggest challenge moving into 2025 however will be the potential closure of two of its long-standing venues. Last month, exhibitor Metropolitan Theaters Corporation declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, putting in jeopardy the fate of two theaters it operates in Park City, the Redstone 8 and the Holiday Village Cinemas 4. Both venues help service the volume for the festival, providing screenings for press and industry as well as other screenings for locals after the initial premieres. Sundance in 2024 was already operating with fewer venues. The festival is currently moderating what happens with Metropolitan next.
This year’s Grand Jury Prize for the U.S. Dramatic competition went to “In the Summers” from director Alessandra Lacorazza, who also won the directing prize. “Porcelain War” from directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev won the U.S. Documentary competition Grand Jury Prize. “Daughters” picked up the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary category, while “Didi” won the Audience Award for the U.S. Dramatic race.
