Features and shorts of special interest to C&I readers will be unveiled this week at the prestigious fest.
This week in the mountain ski resort town of Park City, Utah, the 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival — the annual winter wonderland for independent cinema — will host world premieres of meticulously curated shorts, documentaries and features. If you can’t make it there, don’t despair: Some tickets remain available for online screenings.
And remember: The best of the bunch likely will be available in theatrical and/or digital release in the months ahead.
Here are a few titles that have caught our interest, with details culled from the Sundance website.
FEATURES AND DOCUMENATRIES
Rebuilding
Three years after the Sundance premiere of his charming dramedy A Love Song starring Dale Dickey and Wes Studi, director Max Walker-Silverman returns to Park City with his sophomore effort, a deeply personal story of a community’s life and resilience that appears to have striking contemporary relevance. After a wildfire takes away the family farm, a rancher (Josh Connor, pictured above) seeks a way forward, embracing a call to heal his fledgling family and newfound community. Against the backdrop of charred lands and a struggling small town, scattered lives coalesce in grief, and a uniquely resonant love story emerges.

Selena y Los Dinos
Selena Quintanilla — the “Queen of Tejano Music” — and her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, rose from performing at quinceañeras to selling out stadium tours. Director Isabel Castro’s heartfelt tribute to Selena deftly captures the singer’s exuberance, humility, and the profound bond she shared with her family. Interviews with those close to her reveal the heart and sacrifice behind her rise to fame, while nostalgic home videos transport us back to the 1990s, offering never-before-seen glimpses into their lives on tour.

Free Leonard Peltier
Given President Biden’s executive action on his way out the White House door earlier this week, the makers of Free Leonard Peltier are doubtless working on some last-minute editing — and maybe even considering a title change — before its scheduled Jan. 27 in Park City. Right now, the Sundance program notes read thusly:
“Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies. Leonard Peltier remains a beacon of resilience against oppression for so many. In this in-depth, archive-rich exploration, Jesse Short Bull [co-director of Lakota Nation versus United States] and David France delve into Peltier’s imprisonment, the FBI actions that led to his controversial conviction, and the ongoing efforts to secure his release.”

Endless Cookie
Through a series of vignettes — some tragic, some funny, all a little bizarre — this animated feature documentary explores the complex bond between two half brothers, one Indigenous, one white, spanning bustling 1980s Toronto to the present day isolated First Nations community of Shamattawa. Seth and Peter Scriver’s handcrafted animated hangout film sweetly careens through issues of race and identity, making observations about city and reservation life that spring geysers of giggles everywhere it treads.

Seeds
In her striking directorial debut, Brittany Shyne crafts a poetic and poignant portrait of Black generational farmers in the American South, revealing the fragility of legacy and the significance of earning land. With an intimate lens, Shyne immerses us in the rhythms of everyday life. The rich black-and-white cinematography relishes simple moments — wind through hair, candy from grandma’s purse, conversations through car windows — turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other.
SHORTS
En Memoria
In a dystopian future, a mother struggles to finish making her daughter’s quinceañera dress.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return
Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Indigenous medicine, Inkwo, to protect their community from an unearthed swarm of terrifying creatures.
Tiger
A portrait of award-winning, internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist and elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger T-shirt company.
Field Recording
Quinne Larsen, a Chinook cartoonist and writer living in Los Angeles, offers a circuitous joke about three dreams.