At Sunday night’s premiere of “Together,” a body-horror film starring real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the Eccles Theatre erupted with shrieks, nervous laughter and cries of “Oh, shit!” Sundance audiences couldn’t get enough of the gory madness unfolding on-screen, and word quickly spread that “Together,” with its twisty look at relationships and gross-out set-pieces, had all the elements of an indie breakout. Studios and streamers, including A24 and Neon, started circling the film, trying to one-up each other in a feverish effort to land the buzzy project. The festival was already well underway, but it finally seemed like old times.
Before COVID upended things, leaving the indie film business that Sundance showcases struggling to regain its footing, the festival routinely hosted fierce bidding wars of the kind “Together” inspired. But with ticket sales in a rut, entertainment companies have been hesitant to hand out big checks for projects that might not connect with mainstream audiences. That’s deflated the market at Sundance, and made the festival seem more removed from the zeitgeist as the movies it highlights feel smaller and smaller.
“I’ve seen a lot of beautiful films, but will people buy a ticket to them?” one indie studio chief lamented. “It feels like an off year.”
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As Sundance reaches its halfway point, here are four takeaways from a festival that still hasn’t hit its stride.
Where Are the Deals?
An awful lot of movies came looking for distribution and will leave without a home. Apple, Amazon and Netflix, which had propped up the Sundance market in previous editions, handing out huge pacts for the likes of “CODA” and “Will & Harper,” sent emissaries to check out the goods. But they weren’t as aggressive as they had been in the past. That might have something to do with shifting corporate mandates. Netflix, for instance, is going through a period of belt-tightening, while Amazon has started to ramp up in house production so it can become less reliant on acquiring finished Sundance films of dubious appeal (“Landline” or “Late Night,” anyone?). And everyone in the industry is wondering how long it will be before Apple, which spent lavishly on films like “Argylle” and “Wolfs,” with little to show for it, undertakes a course correction. With streamers keeping their wallets shut, it was more difficult for agencies to drive up prices on their offerings. Over the first five days of the festival, not a single film sold. That’s an unprecedented dry spell, even though many of these movies boasted A-list talent like Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Thing With Feathers”), Olivia Colman (“Jimpa”) and Dev Patel (“Rabbit Trap”).
St. Elsewhere
Attendees can be forgiven if they assume that Sundance organizers already packed up and relocated to Cincinnati (or wherever the festival lands in 2027). Only days into the two-week-long gathering did traffic pick up around Main Street, and even then, it was surprisingly easy to snag a prime dinner reservation or hotel room. Those kinds of accommodations are usually set way in advance, lest people be forced into the fool’s errand of walk-ins. And though Jennifer Lopez and Jon Hamm made late-night appearances at Tao, while “Atropia” star Alia Shawkat was spotted at a coffee shop, there weren’t many of the fun entourage-less celeb spottings that are only possible in tiny ski towns. If Sundance is closing its Park City chapter, it’s doing so with a whimper, not a bang.
Polite Applause
Dylan O’Brien’s dark comedy “Twinless,” Jennifer Lopez’s Technicolor “Kiss of the Spider Woman” musical adaptation, Rashad Frett’s searing drama “Ricky” and the feminist horror flick “The Ugly Stepsister” were embraced at their premieres. But nothing on the 2025 lineup inspired anything close to the enthusiastic reception that greeted Sundance greats like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Before Sunrise” or “Get Out.” More recently, movies like Chloe Domont’s audacious workplace thriller “Fair Play,” the Christopher Reeve doc “Super/Man” and Jesse Eisenberg’s road-trip drama “A Real Pain” became can’t-miss, word-of-mouth sensations in Park City before scoring eye-popping price tags. This year’s slate lacked the sense of discovery that’s synonymous with Sundance. And worse, many of the titles coming in with buzz were met with collective shrugs.
The Resistance Skips Town
In 2017, Sundance was in full swing as Donald Trump took the oath of office for the first time. And the festival sprang into action. Chelsea Handler led a Women’s March that attracted 8,000 people, Kristen Stewart and Netflix founder Reed Hastings among them, and artists like Mary J. Blige denounced the incoming president at the premieres of their films.
Fast-forward eight years, and it’s a very different picture. Trump is back in power, but the resistance movement he sparked failed to show up in Park City. Publicists implored journalists to avoid asking their clients political questions, while celebrities who previously came out swinging against the MAGA movement were less eager to sound off. And there were no major demonstrations against the new administration.
But many of the films had unmistakable political undertones, highlighting communities under attack by Trump and his followers or offering alternative visions of the world. “Jimpa” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” celebrated the LGBTQ+ community, while “Rebuilding,” “The Perfect Neighbor” and “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” warned of the threats posed by climate change, unchecked gun rights and authoritarianism. It’s safe to say that none of these movies will be on rotation in the White House screening room. This time instead of sounding a note of alarm over the country’s rightward lurch, filmmakers at Sundance let their work speak for itself.