Utah filmmaker’s feature film makes it into 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Photo: Omaha-Still_3

PARK CITY, Utah — Utah filmmaker’s feature movie makes it into the 2025 Sundance Film Festival program. Director Cole Webley has lived in Utah for over 20 years and currently lives here.  He has attended the festival year in and year out and is looking forward to premiering his feature Omaha in his very own hometown.

Standing out among stiff competition

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival was curated from 15,775 submissions from 156 countries or territories, including 4,138 feature-length films. Of these feature film submissions, 1,591 were from the U.S. and 2,547 were international.

Omaha will compete in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. It tells the story of siblings Ella and Charlie being unexpectedly woken up by their dad after a family tragedy, and taken on a journey across the country, experiencing a world they’ve never seen before. As their adventure unfolds, Ella begins to understand that things might not be what they seem. “It has a very neorealist-like, authentic, naturalistic sensibility, but it is really dramatic and really powerful,” says Senior Programmer and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Sundance Film Festival John Nein.

U.S. Dramatic Competition highlights groundbreaking new voices

The U.S. Dramatic Competition offers Festivalgoers a first look at the world premieres of groundbreaking new voices in American independent film. While the festival is not programmed for themes, John Nein explains “we step back and look at what do these films tell us about where we live and when we live and Omaha is a really great example of a film that is trying to portray ordinary people, ordinary lives and the resilience of people in difficult times.” Films that have premiered in this category in recent years include Dìdi (弟弟), A Real Pain, In The Summers, Nanny, CODA, Minari, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Farewell, Clemency, Eighth Grade, and Sorry to Bother You. 

Beginning Jan. 30, 2025, more than half the feature program will be available online for audiences nationwide to watch from home at festival.sundance.org. This includes Omaha. Single ticket sales begin Jan. 16, 2025. Limited online packages are still available.

Omaha’s Utah and Park City connections

• Most of the film was shot in or around Salt Lake City.
• Director Cole Webley attended BYU undergraduate film school. He directed his first short films only miles away from Park City.
• Director of Photography Paul Meyers and writer Robert Machoian (a Sundance Alumni) live in Utah. Producer Preston Lee is a part-time resident of Park City. Most of the producers and crew are based in Utah.