As ever, anticipation for the 2025 elite festival season begins in December, with the Sundance Film Festival announcing its full line-up yesterday (and the Berlinale and IFFR drip-feeding us titles from theirs). Unspooling from 23 January-2 February next year, it will be the legendary US independent film event’s penultimate year in its customary location of Park City, Utah, with Boulder, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Salt Lake City, Utah bartering to host the gathering from 2027. A short window taking place from 30 January-2 February will see the competition titles, and a handful from other sections, available for online viewing to the public and industry.

Further confirmations will abound as we learn more about the line-up, but for now, the festival has listed 25 European-backed world premieres across its various sections, with European helmers and co-productions from international directors equally well represented. Being an event centred around discovery and fresh voices, few have immediate name recognition, yet the festival has proved time and again to be an ideal launchpad for European work that travels well, competes for awards, and finds audiences across and beyond the festival circuit.

Perhaps the most pedigreed European co-pro in the line-up is Peter Hujar’s Day [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] from Ira Sachs, who brought more sex appeal and pizzaz into his work with 2023’s Passages [+lee también:
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tráiler
ficha de la película]. The 75-minute biographical drama takes place in December 1974 in New York City, and tracks a meeting between legendary photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), with Sachs calling it “a film about what it is to be an artist among artists in a city where no one was making any money”.

Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov follows up his Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mstyslav Chernov
ficha de la película] with the relatedly titled 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], once again playing in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. The new film takes place during a failing counteroffensive in the Russia-Ukraine War and focuses on a Ukrainian platoon’s mission to liberate a strategic village from occupation. They need to traverse “one mile of heavily fortified forest, but the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realise that this war may never end”.

Close and sensitive looks at trans issues are an emerging theme in the selection, highlighted by Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa, which sees a mother played by Olivia Colman take her non-binary teenager to visit her gay grandfather (John Lithgow) in Amsterdam; assurances Colman’s character has about the family and parenting are challenged. Danish director Mathias Broe’s competition title Sauna [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mathias Broe
ficha de la película] sees a comfortably out gay man begin a relationship with a transgender man, defying further societal norms around queer relationships. 

Festival director Eugene Hernandez described the programme as “ready to meet our audiences, the industry and the wider culture in a moment of many global questions. The works our artists debut at our upcoming festival will spark conversation and invite connection.” This was echoed by Kim Yutani, director of programming, who said: “It presents stories that confront many critical issues of our time, encouraging us to look both inward and outward.”

Here are the European productions included in the festival’s announcement:

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Sauna [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mathias Broe
ficha de la película] - Mathias Broe (Denmark)
The Virgin of Quarry Lake [+lee también:
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entrevista: Laura Casabé
ficha de la película] - Laura Casabé (Argentina/Spain/Mexico)
Sukkwan Island [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Vladimir de Fontenay (France)
Brides [+lee también:
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entrevista: Nadia Fall
ficha de la película] - Nadia Fall (UK)
Where the Wind Comes From [+lee también:
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entrevista: Amel Guellaty
ficha de la película] - Amel Guellaty (Tunisia/France/Qatar)
The Things You Kill [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alireza Khatami
ficha de la película] - Alireza Khatami (Turkey/France/Poland/Canada)
Cactus Pears [+lee también:
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entrevista: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
ficha de la película] - Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India/UK/Canada)
DJ Ahmet [+lee también:
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entrevista: Georgi M. Unkovski
ficha de la película] - Georgi M Unkovski (North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia)

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Mr. Nobody Against Putin [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - David Borenstein (Denmark/Czech Republic)
2000 Meters to Adriivka [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine)
The Dating Game [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Violet Du Feng (USA/UK/Norway)
Coexistence, My Ass! [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Amber Fares (USA/France)
Cutting Through Rocks - Sara Khaki (Iran/Germany/USA/Netherlands/Qatar/Chile/Canada)
GEN_ [+lee también:
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entrevista: Gianluca Matarrese
ficha de la película] - Gianluca Matarrese (France/Italy/Switzerland)
Khartoum [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmad, Ti…
ficha de la película] - Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox (Sudan/UK/Germany/Qatar)

NEXT

Rains Over Babel [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Gala del Sol (Colombia/USA/Spain)
Zodiac Killer Project [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Charlie Shackleton (USA/UK)

Premieres

All That’s Left of You [+lee también:
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entrevista: Cherien Dabis
ficha de la película] - Cherien Dabis (Germany/Cyprus/Palestine)
FOLKTALES - Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady (USA/Norway)
The Ballad of Wallis Island - James Griffiths (UK)
Jimpa - Sophie Hyde (Australia/Netherlands/Finland)
Lurker - Alex Russell (USA/Italy)
Peter Hujar’s Day [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Ira Sachs (USA/Germany/UK/Spain)
The Thing with Feathers [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Dylan Southern (UK)

Midnight

The Ugly Stepsister [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Emilie Blichfeldt (Norway)
Rabbit Trap [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Bryn Chainey (UK)