Sundance 2025

Gianluca Matarrese’s new feature doc (a world premiere in Sundance) profiles the remarkable and highly cherished Dr Maurizio Bini as he tends to would-be parents undergoing in vitro fertilization, and folk seeking to reconcile their bodies with their gender identities. In the film we see Bini as he approached the end of his career, mentoring a successor while continuing to fight for his patients.

In How to Build a Library two Nairobi women set out to transform what used to be a whites-only library into a vibrant cultural hub. When filming began almost a decade ago, the place was like a bombsite. “Visually it was such a fascinating space,” Lekow tells BDE. “It felt so symbolic of this paralysis you feel in the Kenyan state and the way that things move; this post-colonial identity crisis where there is a painful history, but it’s also something you can’t ignore, erase, and pretend that it didn’t happen.”

In her latest doc, New York-based Amber Fares once again follows fearless Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she tries to use comedy to solve the Middle East crisis, and as she develops her stand-up routine at Harvard University. “Noam has a niche where she does her stand-up. Those are in mixed areas, in Haifa, in Jaffa, in those theatres where she draws a lot of left-wing Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel,” the director tells BDE.

Organisers of Sundance FF (Jan 23 – Feb 2) announced December 11 the 93 feature and episodic programme titles that will make up its 2025 programme. These include 10 films in World Cinema Doc Comp, ten films in US Documentary Comp, and a further 11 documentary titles in Premieres. “The Sundance Film Festival remains steadfast in its commitment to elevating unique and urgent voices in independent storytelling,” commented Robert Redford, Sundance Institute Founder and President.