2025 Sundance Film Festival opens as a festival of global discovery amid a moment of healing

PARK CITY, Utah — The 2025 Sundance Film Festival started on a different note, with a gathering of the press and the leadership of the Sundance Institute and Film Festival in a social atmosphere. Journalists and photographers from all over the world gathered at the Filmmakers Lodge Wednesday evening, Jan. 22. Eugene Hernandez, the Director of the Sundance Film Festival, announced that we even had a journalist from Cairo attending for the first time.

Short film festivals presented by Sundance Institute around the world are a success

TownLift spoke with Hernandez about the film festivals they put on around the world over the past year like the one in Mexico.

“They were very successful. We like taking the movies we discover here into the world. Kim Yutani, the Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, has even been checking out Taipei and Jakarta. Local Lens here locally was also very popular,” he said.

No news on the future of the Sundance Film Festival’s location

The leadership held a short panel presentation, started off by Amanda Kelso, the acting CEO of the Sundance Institute. She talked about the difficult times we are facing with the fires in California, and thanked the leaders, staff and volunteers of the Sundance Film Festival for their work. She called the gathering for the Sundance Film Festival a “moment of healing”. Eugene Hernandez called it a Festival of Global Discovery.

To the question on everyone’s mind, he answered, “No, not yet. Our work is ongoing.” They are not ready to announce where the Sundance Film Festival will be held in a few years.

Don’t miss these “Overachievers”

Kim Yutani, the Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, told us about the incredible collection of films being presented this year. She called some of the artists “Overachievers” and suggested we should remember their names and not miss these films James Sweeney and ‘Twinless’, Katarina Zhu and her film ‘Bunnylovr’, Eva Victor and ‘Sorry, Baby’, Pasqual Gutierrez in ‘Serious People’, Grace Glowicki in ‘Dead Lover’ and Cherien Dabis in ‘All That’s Left of You’.

International films highlight different ways of storytelling

Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer John Nein spoke last. He announced that a third of the festival’s movies are international movies. He recommended taking in the different ways of storytelling such as the Norwegian ‘Ugly Stepsister’ and the short film “DJ Ahmed”, as well as the British “Brides”, and the international films “How To Build A Library”, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”, “Cutting Through Rocks” and “Jimpa” and “2000 Meters to Andriivka.