News

Documentary filmmakers are used to pivoting, to letting the story take shape as they record it, to rolling with the punches. When documentary filmmaker Ryan White took on his recent feature, “Come See Me in the Good Light,” the director behind such films as “Pamela: A Love Story,” “The Keepers,” and “Serena” had a different sort of ending in mind. But, during the course of both filming the doc about the beloved genderqueer poet laureate Andrea Gibson and its robust festival rollout (following its Sundance debut in January), the filmmaker was delighted by the weird ways life itself unfolded.

In short, a spoiler, and a good one: While White and nearly everyone else who worked on the film (including Gibson) expected that it would end with Gibson’s death from aggressive ovarian cancer, it didn’t. Gibson was even able to attend the film’s premiere in Park City, Utah,...

Andrea Gibson, the poet and performance artist whose four-year fight with ovarian cancer was chronicled in director Ryan White’s 2025 Sundance Film Festival documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, died Monday, July 14, at their home in Boulder, Colorado. They were 49.

Gibson’s death was announced by their wife, Megan Falley, who also is featured in the documentary that won the Sundance Festival Favorite Award and airs this fall on Apple TV+, and their friend, Stef Willen. “Andrea Gibson died in their home surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs,” the Instagram post states.

Gibson’s poetry and spoken word performances often dealt with LGBTQ+ topics, gender norms and social justice. The poet self-identified as genderqueer and used they/them pronouns.

Born August 13, 1975, in Maine, Gibson moved to Colorado in the late 1990s and...

Andrea Gibson, a celebrated poet and performance artist who through their verse explored gender identity, politics and their 4-year battle with terminal ovarian cancer, died Monday at age 49.

Gibson’s death was announced on social media by their wife, Megan Falley. Gibson and Falley are the main subjects of the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, winner of the Festival Favorite Award this year at the Sundance Film Festival and scheduled to air this fall on Apple TV+.

“Andrea Gibson died in their home (in Boulder, Colorado) surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs,” Monday’s announcement reads in part.

The film — exploring the couple’s enduring love as Gibson battles cancer — is directed by Ryan White and includes an original song written by Gibson, Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. During a screening at Sundance in...

DC/Dox in the nation’s capital and the Bentonville Film Festival in northwest Arkansas are relative newcomers to the festival scene, but both have become important destinations for filmmakers and lovers of film.

DC/Dox hosted some of the top names in documentary at its third edition, including Ryan White (Come See Me in the Good Light), Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, Rachel Grady (co-director of Folktales), Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman (The Alabama Solution), Brittany Shine (Seeds) and many others.

On the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we speak with filmmaker Rob Petit, who brought his directorial debut Underland to DC/Dox after world premiering at the Tribeca Festival. It’s a stunning film that explores what’s beneath our feet, in a manner of speaking. This isn’t a nature film, but a human nature film – probing what has prompted our ancient ancestors,...

Over the weekend, just blocks away from President Trump’s June 14 military parade in Washington, D.C., the third annual DC/Dox got underway. The four-day documentary film festival kicked off on June 12 and highlighted films that explore some of America’s most pressing issues, including school shootings, book banning that target race and Lgbtqia+ issues, attacks on free speech and the country’s growing income and wealth divide.

Director Anayansi Prado was at DC/Dox with “Uvalde Mom,” a feature doc about the 2022 mass school shooting that rocked the small town of Uvalde, Texas, and left 19 children and two teachers dead. Prado said that screening her film in D.C. during the military parade felt meaningful.

“There are so many films here that are addressing really important social justice and global issues, so I think it’s really significant and interesting that this festival is taking place on the day of the military parade,...

In one of her poems from the collection Love Letter from the Afterlife, Andrea Gibson writes, “Why did no one tell us that to die is to be reincarnated in those we love while they are still alive?”

These are not the idle musings of someone for whom death is a distant and vaguely unreal prospect. For the past several years, the poet laureate of Colorado has confronted a life-threatening illness after their diagnosis with stage 4 ovarian cancer. The story of how Gibson and her partner, spoken word poet Meg Falley, have faced this existential challenge together — choosing to live joyously, to laugh, and most of all to remain full of love – is told in the award-winning documentary Come See Me in the Good Light.

Director Ryan White brought his film to the prestigious DC/Dox festival in the nation’s capital Saturday night, participating in a Q&a afterwards.

“This film more so than anything,...

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 27, 2025.

Jennifer Lopez sets Las Vegas residency

Jenny from the Block is heading to the Strip for a series of concerts at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The residency, called "Jennifer Lopez: Up All Night Live in Las Vegas," will be the week of New Year's with shows on Dec. 30 and 31, as well as Jan. 2 and 3. Concerts will continue in March for eight additional performances. Tickets go on sale for Citi card members on June 2 at 10 a.m. Pt. Fan club tickets go on sale the following day, with the general public getting access on Friday, June 6 at 10 a.m. Pt.

Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague heads to Netflix

After receiving strong reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival, the French New Wave-inspired film has sold to Netflix. Chronicling the making of Jean-Luc Godard's seminal Breathless, Nouvelle Vague stars Guillaume Marbeck as the...

The Tribeca Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 2025 jury, which is responsible for selecting this year’s top projects from across film, games and audio storytelling categories. The panel will award honors across 15 competitive categories at the festival, which takes place June 4 through 15 in New York City.

This year’s jurors include Jennifer Beals, Matthew Broderick, Ilana Glazer, Art Linson, Kyle MacLachlan and Mira Sorvino. In addition, Tribeca’s Nora Ephron Award will honor an exceptional female filmmaker who represents the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer.

“We’re proud to welcome an eclectic group of jurors to this year’s Tribeca Festival,” said Nancy Lefkowitz, EVP at Tribeca Enterprises. “Their breadth of expertise across genres will be instrumental in recognizing standout storytellers and honoring bold new voices from around the world.”

‘Seeds,’ ‘Tinā’ and ‘Twinless’ Among Winners at 51st Seattle International Film Festival

“Seeds,” “Tinā...

Canadian film “Yintah” won the main competition jury prize, which comes with 8,000 euros, at the 22nd edition of the Millennium Docs Against Gravity film festival. The documentary event, which played in Warsaw and six other Polish cities, ended on May 18.

“Yintah” tells the story of a Canadian-based Indigenous nation’s fight for sovereignty as it resists the construction of multiple oil and fracked-gas pipelines across its territory. Co-directed by Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, and Jennifer Wickham, the docu captures the Wet’suwet’en nation’s right to stewardship and sovereignty over their territories.

The jury called it “a painfully beautiful viewing experience that challenges us to imagine and enact resistance — before it’s too late.”

“Bedrock,” by first-time filmmaker Kinga Michalska, about contemporary Poles living on Holocaust sites, won the best Polish film award.

The themes of these films — history, genocide, resistance and resilence — were on the minds of many...

The 2025 Tribeca Festival has announced more programming for this year’s event, including premieres of two more visual albums, joining the debut of Miley Cyrus’ Something Beautiful visual album, and the New York premieres of Sundance award winners Twinless and Come See Me in the Good Light.

The festival will host the international premiere of Slick Rick’s Victory visual album, directed by Meji Alabi, with appearances by Idris Elba, Nas and Giggs. Slick Rick will participate in a live conversation after the premiere. And Tribeca will world premiere a visual album from Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile, followed by a conversation with the band. The 50-minute Turnstile: Never Enough was directed by frontman Brendan Yates and guitarist Pat McCrory.

Additionally the festival will host the world premiere of Dead Language, a full-length feature adaptation of the Oscar-nominated short film Aya from Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun, starring Sarah Adler and Ulrich Thomsen.

Some of the biggest names in nonfiction film are heading to Poland for the 22nd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity, one of the largest documentary festivals in the world.

The event running from this Friday until May 18 (and online from May 20-June 2) will welcome Oscar winners Asif Kapadia and Alex Gibney, Oscar nominees David France, Rémi Grellety, and Guy Davidi, and fellow award-winning filmmakers Lauren Greenfield, Mark Cousins, Andres Veiel, Alexis Bloom, Chester Algernal Gordon, Mads Brügger, Zackary Drucker, Brandon Kramer, Rachel Elizabeth Seed, among many others.

The festival, which runs simultaneously in seven cities including Warsaw, Łódź, and Gdynia, will showcase almost 180 films from around the world, a number of which are very likely to wind up in the next Oscar race.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” says artistic director Karol Piekarczyk. “These films are absolutely incredible, and I can’t wait for people to see them.

Exclusive: DC/Dox, the prestigious documentary film festival in the nation’s capital, today announced the full slate for its third edition.

The cinematic event will include a dozen world premieres including The Last Class, a documentary about former Secretary of Labor – and ardent Trump opponent – Robert Reich; the sex trafficking documentary The Right Track, directed by Shareen Anderson; A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons Of Pat Oliphant, a film about the famed political cartoonist directed by Bill Banowsky, and Immutable, a feature on the Washington Urban Debate League directed by Charlie Sadoff and Gabriel London.

As previously announced (and reported by Deadline), DC/Dox will kick off with the world premiere of Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary about Democracy Now! host and author Amy Goodman, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin.

DC/Dox, running June 12-15, boasts a slate of 59 features and 35 shorts from more than two dozen countries.

The San Francisco International Film Festival (Sffilm) has revealed the Golden Gate and Audience Award winners for its 2025 edition, the festival’s 68th. Short film winners now qualify for Academy Awards consideration in the categories of live-action narrative, documentary, and animated short.

Golden Gate Awards were given in the feature film categories of New Directors, Global Visions, Cine Latino, and the newly named Kirby Walker Documentary Award.

In the Mid-Lengths and Short films categories, Golden Gate Awards were given to Mid-Length Film, Narrative Short Film, Documentary Short Film, Animated Short Film, and Bay Area Short Film.

Golden Gate Awards were also presented to Family Short Film and Youth Works Short Film.

Audience Awards were given to Documentary Feature (Ryan White’s “Come See Me in the Good Light”), and, in a tie, two titles were honored in the Narrative category: “All That’s Left of You” and “Souleymane’s Story” (directed by...

Apple TV+ announced today that it has landed the global rights to the acclaimed 2025 Sundance Film Festival selection and Festival Favorite Award-winning documentary Come See Me in the Good Light from director Ryan White.

Following its world premiere at the festival, the film has been widely praised as a “beautifully crafted” and “exceptional documentary” that offers a “touching look at the fragility of human life.”

The film also won the Audience Award at the Boulder International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Come See Me in the Good Light will make its global debut on Apple TV+ this fall.

Come See Me in the Good Light is a poignant and unexpectedly funny love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley facing an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit, and an unshakable partnership. Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose and...

In a relatively rare foray into Sundance acquisitions, Apple Original Films has picked up Ryan White’s Festival Favorite audience award-winning documentaryCome See Me In The Good Light.

The film centres on poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, who face an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit, and an unshakable partnership.

Producers are White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, who appears in the film and starred in Apple’s The Morning Show, and Stef Willen. Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile perform an original song and the latter is among the executive producers.

Come See Me In The Good Light will make...

Apple TV+ has acquired the global rights to the documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” which won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance this past January.

Directed by Ryan White, the film follows the relationship of poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley as Gibson is diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer.

“Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose and mortality into a moving celebration of resilience,” the film’s synopsis reads.

White produced the film with Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro and Stef Willen. The doc also has an original song by Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile that they wrote with Gibson.

Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Lauren Haber, Joe Lewis, Rachel Eggebeen, Colin King Miller, Catherine Carlile, Brandi Carlile, Susan Yeagley, Kevin Nealon, Galia Gichon, Sara Bareilles, Amanda Doyle, Christi Offutt, Soraida Bedoya, Melony Lewis and Adam Lewis serve as executive producers.

“Come See Me in the Good Light...

Apple TV+ has taken global rights to “Come See Me in the Good Light,” the documentary that won Sundance’s 2025 Festival Favorite award. The doc will premiere on Apple TV+ this fall.

Director Ryan White’s film also won the audience award at the Boulder Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

“’Come See Me in the Good Light’ is a poignant and unexpectedly funny love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, who face an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit, and an unshakable partnership,” the synopsis reads. “Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose, and mortality into a moving celebration of resilience.”

Variety‘s review noted, “’Come See Me in the Good Light’ is very good on the existential. But Gibson and Falley are even more generous in sharing their journey through the medical morass,” wrote Lisa Kennedy in the review.

Apple has landed global rights to Come See Me in the Good Light, the latest documentary from three-time Emmy nominee Ryan White that won the Festival Favorite Award in its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Produced by White along with Jessica Hargrave, comedian and actor Tig Notaro, and Stef Willen, the film is set to premiere on Apple TV+ this fall.

The doc is a love story centered on poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, who face an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit and an unshakable partnership. Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose, and mortality into a moving celebration of resilience.

Over the course of its festival run, the documentary also picked up major accolades at the Boulder Film Festival,...

The Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival will open with the world premiere of Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance from Canadian director Noam Gonick and the National Film Board of Canada on April 24.

The feature doc explores the trajectory and milestones in Canada’s 2Slgbtq+ movement, including pride and protest footage and first person accounts. “This is such a wonderful and meaningful acknowledgement,” Parade producer Justine Pimlott told a Hot Docs press conference on Tuesday. “There is still much work to be done. My hope is that our film serves as an inspiration and a call to action, not only for the queer community, but also for our allies,” she added.

News of the festival opener came as Hot Docs, North America’s biggest documentary showcase, released its full film lineup for its 32nd edition set for April 24 to May 4 in Toronto.

The Special Presentations program is programmed with mostly...

Hot Docs, North America’s leading documentary festival, will open with the world premiere of “Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance,” directed by Canadian filmmaker Noam Gonick. The documentary explores the pivotal moments that sparked Canada’s 2Slgbtq+ movement.

The festival’s 32nd edition, which runs from April 24 to May 4 in Toronto, has revealed a lineup that includes 35 world premieres, 14 international premieres, and 26 North American premieres. The lineup has 113 films from 47 countries, drawn from 2,662 submissions.

The International Spectrum Competition, all world premieres, includes “Heritage,” a family snapshot in which two siblings alternate shifts caring for their elderly parents; “I Dreamed His Name,” which follows the filmmaker and her sister on a journey of discovery across Colombia’s painful history, 30 years after their Afro-Colombian father’s forced disappearance; “I, Poppy,” which follows a son’s fight against corrupt officials while his mother tends their poppy farm in India; “King Matt the First,...

In a sign of just how difficult the documentary film business has become, Alex Gibney – one of the most prolific and well-known documentarians – has sold a majority stake in his company Jigsaw Productions to make sure it’s “around for the long haul.”

Wendy Schmidt, a longtime philanthropist and wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has acquired a majority stake in Jigsaw, which has produced a number of documentary films and TV series like the Scientology doc “Going Clear,” the Elizabeth Holmes doc “The Inventor” and 2005’s “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”

Gibney will continue to run the company, but told the New York Times — which broke the news — that the challenging market for documentaries spurred the partnership.

“We’ve been managing to make films on important social issues for a long time, but finding and getting those stories to audiences has been a challenge, in part...

At Y.M. Cinema, we recently questioned Canon’s absence from Sundance 2025 and the festival’s apparent preference for Arri Alexa cameras. We also explored the evolving nature of Sundance itself, asking whether it still serves true independent filmmakers or has become an exclusive industry machine. However, Come See Me in the Good Light—winner of the prestigious Festival Favorite Award—serves as a powerful counterpoint to both discussions. Shot on a Canon C500 Mark II instead of the expected Arri Alexa, the film defied the dominant trends of Sundance cinematography while resonating deeply with audiences. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with the film’s cinematographer, Brandon Somerhalder, to discuss his choice of gear, his creative process, and what it means to craft a visually striking indie feature outside the Alexa ecosystem. Let’s dive in.

BTS of Come See Me in the Good Light A short bio...

Sundance is a place for discovery, where new stars are minted because of the fresh, invigorating images they bring to the screen. It was where Steven Soderbergh helped kick off the indie film revolution in 1989 with “sex, lies, and videotape” and Quentin Tarantino launched “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992. They showed that, at Sundance, if you have something to say, you can have a seat at the table.

This year, that daring new voice belongs to Eva Victor, whose comedic character study “Sorry, Baby,” about a young professor reeling from a trauma, sold to A24 for $8 million. “Sorry, Baby” also has the distinction of placing first in many of the categories in IndieWire’s 2025 Sundance Critics Survey, including Best Performance (for Victor herself), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and Best Film itself.

Though “Sorry, Baby” was the undeniable favorite across the board at Sundance 2025, our critics survey shared the love...

Gibson’s documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” explores the delicate spaces between existence and finality, as Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley confront an incurable cancer diagnosis. The film offers a profound examination of love’s resilience amid mortality’s shadow. Its unblinking lens reveals the harsh progression of illness while uncovering something deeper: the human spirit’s capacity to flourish even when challenged by devastating circumstances.

The narrative centers on an extraordinary contrast — the stark reality of impending death juxtaposed against an unwavering commitment to living fully. Andrea’s medical condition transforms from a clinical diagnosis into an exploration of human endurance.

Using an observational approach, the documentary removes traditional barriers between viewers and subjects. We are drawn into an intensely personal experience, feeling the gravity of each passing moment, understanding time’s precarious nature. The emotional landscape becomes a testament to love’s complexity — not as a simple solution,...

The penultimate Sundance Film festival to run in Park City ended over the weekend ina flurry ofawards.

There was scarcely any on-site activity by way of completedacquisitions, although deals will follow in the weeks and months ahead. And there were genuine discoveries, reflecting the accepted wisdom that Sundance is a complicated beast and is many things to many people.

The big talking point is where will the revered soul of independent cinema house itself starting in 2027. The festival hierarchy will reveal all before long. Screen looks at some of the key talking points to emerge from the festival, which ran...

The penultimate Sundance Film festival to run in Park City ended over the weekend ina flurry ofawards.

There was scarcely any on-site activity by way of completedacquisitions, although deals will follow in the weeks and months ahead. And there were genuine discoveries, reflecting the accepted wisdom that Sundance is a complicated beast and is many things to many people.

The big talking point is where will the revered soul of independent cinema house itself starting in 2027. The festival hierarchy will reveal all before long. Screen looks at some of the key talking points to emerge from the festival, which ran...

If there’s one word to describe this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s “uncertainty.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as this year’s festival was far more interesting than any festival has been since the Covid-19 pandemic. And, amazingly, despite all the challenges that came their way, Sundance’s organizers were able to make the event feel genuinely fun and memorable. So they deserve massive kudos for that.

The question that was in everyone’s minds at this year’s festival: where will the festival be come 2027? Next year, at least, will still be in Sundance’s long-time home of Park City, Ut, but after that, we could see the festival move to Boulder, Co, or Cincinnati, Oh — with the possibility of still staying in Park City and nearby Salt Lake City.

Then, there’s the issue of the festival’s online component, which saw two...

“Come See Me in the Good Light” director Ryan White has made a documentary that mirrors the way he felt when he first arrived at the home of spoken word artist Andrea Gibson, who has been diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer, and their spouse, poet Megan Falley. Like their greeting, the documentary comes as an unexpected and welcoming invitation to stay awhile, even play awhile.

If that seems at odds with the deep pain, the arduous treatments and the medical assurances of an early death they face, the film — which won the Sundance Film Festival’s Festival Favorite Award on Sunday evening — disabuses viewers of that notion. There’s a closeness here that allows viewers to spend a year at the poets’ home in Longmont, Co.; to accompany the couple on oncologist visits and chemo treatments; and to hover around their bed as the pair ponder the silly and the utterly serious.

Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley in ‘Come See Me in the Good Light, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Brandon Somerhalder)

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up with the announcement of the Festival Favorite Award. The documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, directed by Ryan White, was voted by audiences as the best of the feature films screened at the 2025 festival.

“Throughout the Festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor and heartbreak of this intimate documentary directed by Ryan White, as it speaks to art and love and reminds us what it means to be alive as we face mortality,” stated Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming.

As the 2025 festival comes to a close, the Sundance Institute announced...

With 2025’s Sundance Film Festival wrapping up, the Institute responsible for the yearly indie forum is already cooking up plans for next year’s gathering. Dates have been set, with in-person events in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, stretching from January 22 to February 1, 2026.

In a statement shared with IndieWire, Acting CEO of Sundance Institute Amanda Kelso said, “The past 11 days of the Festival have been a meaningful opportunity to connect as a community in support of independent storytelling. We look forward to being reunited with audiences, artists, industry, and press next January for another edition of the Festival.”

Adding his excitement, Director of Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming Eugene Hernandez said, “As this year’s Festival comes to a close, we’re already looking ahead to 2026 and what will no doubt be an unforgettable experience! We invite you to save the date and get ready to join...

Sundance audiences have cast a bright light on Ryan White’s, Come See Me in the Good Light, by delivering a festival favorite prize on the feature film documentary.

Come See Me in the Good Light follows two poets, Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, as they “go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life and mortality,” per the official festival description, spurred by the former’s incurable cancer diagnosis. The doc’s high profile roster of producers and executive producers includes such names as Tig Notaro, Brandi Carlile, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Kevin Nealon and Sara Bareilles, among others.

“Throughout the festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor and heartbreak of this intimate documentary directed by Ryan White, as it speaks to art and love and reminds...

Come See Me in the Good Light, in the Premieres category, received the Festival Favorite award at the 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, voted for by the audiences from all the new feature films presented. Looking ahead to next year, the fest announced dates for the 2026 edition, taking place in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, from Jan. 22 to Feb. 1.

“The past 11 days of the Festival have been a meaningful opportunity to connect as a community in support of independent storytelling,” acting CEO of the Sundance Institute Amanda Kelso said. “We look forward to being reunited with audiences, artists, industry, and press next January for another edition of the Festival.”

Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival director of programming, added: “Throughout the Festival we saw audiences moved by Andrea Gibson’s and Megan Falley’s journeys in Come See Me in the Good Light. Festival goers embraced the humor...

A spoiler, and a good one, for one of Sundance’s best films of this year: Ryan White’s loving, luminous documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” doesn’t end in darkness, or death, or even in the way its own filmmaker and subjects were expecting it to. Instead, the film, which follows genderqueer poet Andrea Gibson and their wife, fellow poet Megan Falley, as they wrestle with Gibson’s aggressive ovarian cancer, is a celebration of life in all its messy glory.

When White was brought on to the film by producer Tig Notaro (who joined him at our studio) and her producing partner Stef Willen, he expected the film would end with Gibson’s death. So did Gibson and Falley, who even joke about it in the opening scene. The spoiler? Gibson was on hand to celebrate the film’s premiere at Sundance last week.

“It...

Neon has closed what is understood to be a $17m worldwide deal on Together, the body horror starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco that has been the standout commercial prospect of Sundance.

The first deal of the festival means that, for the second year in a row, Kristen Figeroid and the team at Neon International will head to Berlin with a buzzy genre hit from Park City after picking up Lucy Liu ghost story Presence last year.

Figeroid’steam will represent all international rights excluding Australia and New Zealand. Neon has scheduled an August 1 theatrical release in North America.

Michael Shanks...

Neon has closed what is understood to be a $15m worldwide deal on Together, the body horror starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco that has been the standout commercial prospect of Sundance.

The first deal of the festival means that, for the second year in a row, Kristen Figeroid and the team at Neon International will head to Berlin with a buzzy genre hit from Park City after picking up Lucy Liu ghost story Presence last year.

Figeroid’steam will represent all international rights excluding Australia and New Zealand. Neon has scheduled an August 1 theatrical release in North America.

Michael Shanks...

Neon is understood to be nearing a $15m worldwide deal on Together, the body horror starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco that has been the standout commercial prospect of Sundance.

The first deal of the festival means that, for the second year in a row, Kristen Figeroid and the team at Neon International will head to Berlin with a buzzy genre hit from Park City after picking up Lucy Liu ghost story Presence last year.

Michael Shanks made his feature writing and directing debut on Together, the Midnight selection about a couple who relocate to the country where their touch-and-go...

When Ryan White initially asked producer Tig Notaro why documentaries aren’t funnier, he did not expect her to pitch a queer poet’s terminal cancer journey as the antidote.

“Tig called us a couple years ago with this idea,” the director said at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “We said truly what could be a less funny combination of words than poetry and cancer?”

After meeting the soon-to-be subjects of “Come See Me in the Good Light,” White — previously best known for directing docs like “Good Night Oppy” and “Pamlea: A Love Story” — quickly changed his mind. White and Notaro’s unlikely documentary charts poet laureate Andrea Gibson’s journey with ovarian cancer. Following the now 49-year-old writer, who uses they/them pronouns, the film shows them navigating life after the diagnosis and enjoying the time left with partner and fellow poet Megan Falley. It...

ByMonday evening in Park Citystudios and streamers were understood to be in hot pursuit of the Alison Brie-Dave Franco body horror Together, by far the most broadly appealing acquisitions target in what Sundance buyers agree has otherwise been a desert of commercial prospects.

‘Together’: Sundance Review

Michael Shanks’ feature directorial debut and Midnight entry turned heads (and stomachs) as soon as it debuted on Sunday at Eccles Theatre. Buyers including Apple, A24, Focus Features, Amazon, and Searchlight Pictures are among those who were either in attendance at the premiere or who have since seen it.

Real-life item Alison Brie...

ByMonday evening in Park Citystudios and streamers were understood to be in hot pursuit of the Alison Brie-Dave Franco body horror Together, by far the most broadly appealing acquisitions target in what Sundance buyers agree has otherwise been a desert of commercial prospects.

‘Together’: Sundance Review

Michael Shanks’ feature directorial debut and Midnight entry turned heads (and stomachs) as soon as it debuted on Sunday at Eccles Theatre. Buyers including Apple, A24, Focus Features, Amazon, and Searchlight Pictures are among those who were either in attendance at the premiere or who have since seen it.

Real-life item Alison Brie...

ByMonday evening in Park Citystudios and streamers were understood to be in hot pursuit of the Alison Brie-Dave Franco body horror Together, by far the most broadly appealing acquisitions target in what Sundance buyers agree has otherwise been a desert of commercial prospects.

Other fiction features without distribution have impressed over the first five days, despite the preponderance for bleak stories that some observers say has set a rather sullen table for the US acquisitions space in the next few months ahead.

However many agree the quality of filmmaking has been high, and nowhere has this been more evident that with the documentary selection,...

Every year, IndieWire reaches out to the cinematographers behind the documentary films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and asks them which cameras, lenses, and formats they used — and what creative decisions informed those choices. A documentary may need to have a low footprint or be nimble in a dozen different ways, with myriad budgetary and logistical constraints. The choices made by these directors and directors of photography are as fascinating for what the challenges trying to solve as the worlds they create.

The 2025 documentarians who responded to our survey have gone everywhere and done everything under the sun, from dog-sledding in the far north — in “Folktales” — to letting the camera behave like an extra puppy in an intimate portrait of a household, as in “Come See Me in the Good Light.” They surmount technical challenges, with the camera team behind “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” creating multi-camera set-ups and deploying remote monitors,...

Aside from the starry, flashy documentaries usually floating around the festival scene, the 2025 Sundance Film Festival also offers a large selection of nonfiction films from around the world. These range from movies smuggled out of Russia to cinema centered on a musical movement born right here in Chicago, but the...

To many of those who have gone through end-of-life decisions after a cancer diagnosis, the disease itself tends to be no laughing matter. It has the ability to destroy families, knock down the strongest of humans and alter one’s trajectory permanently. But for the lucky few, like poet laureate Andrea Gibson, cancer can be a struggle but it can also shed light on the true meaning of what it takes to keep a life well-lived going.

Gibson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer several years ago, but that’s not the end of the story. Identifying with they/them pronouns, the now 49-year-old has made their mark on society as a poet who tours the country, spouting frustrations with confident tones. Very fitting, their life after the diagnosis and their relationship with wife and fellow poet Megan Falley is detailed with great humor and humility in director Ryan White’s...

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, political commentators on both sides of the aisle compared the fraught voting process to a kind of national biopsy. Now, “Come See Me in the Good Light” — a striking and airy documentary about genderqueer poet Andrea Gibson and their harrowing battle with ovarian cancer — is premiering at Sundance 2025 against a flurry of new anti-lgbtq steps recently taken by President Trump.

Director Ryan White delivers this touching look at the fragility of human life at an essential time for queer and trans people in media. White’s atypical portrait of Gibson — reminiscent of something like the tragicomic “50/50” from 2011 — relies on intimate beauty and sharp humor to champion the poet’s art, identity, and partner Megan Falley (also a poet) with optimism and vigor.

The well-spoken and likable subjects foster a generous tone that could earnestly inspire compassion from some less tolerant Americans. The...

Day 3 of the Sundance Film Festival continues with premiering films today, from writer Hailey Gates’ directorial debut, Atropia, to James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island.

Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, and Hailey Gates graced the red carpet at the Eccles Theatre on Jan 25 for the premiere of director Gates’ comedy, Atropia. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, the film follows an aspiring actress who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent while training at a military role-playing facility. Their nonsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance. The film also stars Tim Heidecker and Jane Levy.

Related: Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Later, Griffiths presented the premiere of his latest film, The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, opposite Carey Mulligan, Sian Clifford, and Akemnji Ndifornyen. Basden and Key, longtime collaborators who previously brought their 2015 film Two Films About Loneliness to Sundance,...

It’s hard to imagine an occasion that would make Sara Bareilles nervous, considering that the Grammy Award winner is a veteran of stages far and wide. But Friday night’s Celebrating Sundance Institute fundraiser at Park City’s Grand Hyatt Deer Valley proved to be such an event.

Upon taking her place in the ballroom lights to close out the starry event, Bareilles admitted that it was the “fancy room” that sent her nerves into overdrive. The fundraiser saw a long list of honorees and presenters take the stage including A Complete Unknown filmmaker James Mangold, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter, Glenn Close, Joel Edgerton, Marielle Heller, R.J. Cutler and Tessa Thompson. Guests making the rounds included Jon Hamm, Boots Riley, Kimberly Peirce, Roger Ross Williams and more.

Or maybe it was because the film that brought her to Sundance this year means so much to her.

James Mangold misses the era when movies weren’t embarrassed to make audiences feel something. The director of the Bob Dylan musical biopic “A Complete Unknown” and comic book adaptation “Logan” believes there’s a growing hostility to films that wear “their hearts on their sleeve.”

“Most of my generation, my peers, have been generally fascinated by irony or detachment. I never felt completely at home in that idiom because I felt those [films] were cool and clever, but not necessarily moving,” the newly minted Oscar nominee said at Sundance’s annual gala on Friday night, where he was feted with the second-ever Trailblazer Award (the first was bestowed to Christoper Nolan in 2024). “Movies that put their feelings on the line, the way we talk about them and use words like melodramatic or chewing the scenery or too much, we kill some of the fearlessness [of directors].”

Mangold expressed his excitement in returning to Sundance,...

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Day one. I had never met Andrea before—they came out to the driveway and gave me a hug and said, “So you’re gonna be with me when I die,” and then they invited us inside. Usually Day one (and often Month one) of a documentary is just a warm-up in building trust and getting […]

The post “From Day One, Andrea Was All-in” | Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? Day one. I had never met Andrea before—they came out to the driveway and gave me a hug and said, “So you’re gonna be with me when I die,” and then they invited us inside. Usually Day one (and often Month one) of a documentary is just a warm-up in building trust and getting […]

The post “From Day One, Andrea Was All-in” | Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Come See Me in the Good Light follows Andrea, a poet in Colorado, as they face a cancer diagnosis. The film is an intimate verité documentary and marks director Ryan White’s return to Sundance after Assassins and Ask Dr. Ruth. Brandon Somerhalder served as the film’s Dp. Below, he explains why a verité approach was right for the project and the difficulties of maintaining that at a live poetry reading without jeopardizing the comfort of his ailing subject. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]

The post “We All Have a Desire to Make Our Lives Make Sense”: Dp Brandon Somerhalder on Come See Me in the Good Light first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.