News

Not for nothing does Eddington arrive with the tagline “Hindsight is 2020.” Ari Aster’s film looks back at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic not with the clear vision afforded by retrospection, but from the bottom of the rift that America is still stuck in. It’s a fissure that, as Aster sees it, cracked wide open the moment that polarized politics, social and educational failings, and social media brain rot came up against a make-or-break crisis.

In early 2020, the fictional New Mexico town of Eddington is mandating social distance and masking rules, and much to the chagrin of its asthmatic sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), who thinks the concerns plaguing major metropolitan areas have no business intruding into the affairs of his one-horse burg. But Eddington isn’t as isolated from the problems of modernity as Joe believes. For one, a tech giant named solidgoldmagikarp, with the support...

Fresh from presenting his first Dior collection as its newly installed creative director, Jonathan Anderson’s namesake label is also turning the page on a new era.

J.W. Anderson rolled out a new campaign Monday for its resort spring 2026 collection, and there are a handful of familiar faces sporting the wares, including filmmaker Luca Guadagnino and actors Joe Alwyn, Ben Whishaw and Hailey Gates.

“Curating is Jonathan Anderson’s most favored creative tool,” reads a press release distributed Monday that details how it all came together to represent “a re-articulated” J.W. Anderson that features fashion alongside homewares, artisanal goods and objects or, as the brand states, “a modern-day cabinet of curiosities.” The logo got a refresh as did a new concept store developed by architects Sanchez Benton.

As far as the boldfaced names are concerned, the look book features the creatives alongside models and influencers, a roster that represents...

Chanel celebrated the return of the hottest, most star-studded event of the Tribeca Festival Monday, June 9: Its 18th annual Tribeca Artists Dinner at The Odeon in New York City. The evening celebrates visual artists who have contributed original artwork to films at the festival, highlighting the intersection of creative fields — the fine arts and filmmaking — and the city’s innovation in cultural practices and happenings.

“We’re all working together and these are our collaborators, so it’s always great to support other filmmakers,” Sofia Coppola said on the red carpet. “These are all people that you get to know over the years. I have friends that are artists and, of course, as a visual medium, I think we respect each other. I’m always inspired by the work of visual artists and other mediums, and I always love meeting other creative people.”

“The consistency and the continuity of...

2025 marks the 25th anniversary of director Mary Harron’s Bret Easton Ellis adaptation American Psycho (watch it Here), which has come to be known as a cult classic – and while fans celebrate the anniversary, director Luca Guadagnino, whose credits include Challengers, Call Me By Your Name, Bones and All, Queer, and the Suspiria remake, is gearing up to take the helm of an American Psycho remake. Guadagnino reportedly signed on to direct the film from a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) back in October, and in December we heard that Austin Butler (Elvis) and Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) were being considered for the lead role of Patrick Bateman, the character who was played by Christian Bale in Harron’s film. Guadagnino confirmed the project at the CinemaCon event last month – and now, original American Psycho cast member Chloë Sevigny, who played Patrick Bateman’s secretary Jean, has told IndieWire that...

Before Hailey Gates made her Sundance-winning feature film “Atropia,” the young filmmaker was attempting to make a short film, “Shako Mako,” based on the real-life military training village she ended up depicting in the feature. The fashion brand Miu Miu, as part of its Women’s Tales filmmakers series, helped make it happen. The brand provided clothing, some financing, and other resources, but — above all — was hands-off with the creative.

An Afghanistan War satire might not seem like a particularly relevant brand association for an upscale fashion line, but for Miu Miu, just being in Gates’ orbit makes an impact. Jett Steiger and Lana Kim, who produced “Atropia” via banner Ways & Means, said it’s all about brands trying to find authentic ways to engage with consumers: making content their customers would want to watch, dispatching cool female filmmakers to parties, and using those connections to fuel good PR.

Sundance prizewinning director Lemohang Mosese’s documentary feature “Ancestral Visions of the Future” has been boarded by Memento International ahead of its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

“Ancestral Visions of the Future” marks Mosese’s follow up to “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” which won premiered at Venice in 2019 and went on to win the special jury award for visionary filmmaking at Sundance in 2020. The documentary reteams Mosese with Memento which had sold “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” to more than 20 countries and presented it at more than 80 festivals despite the pandemic. It won more than 30 awards around the world and is part of the Criterion Collection.

In “Ancestral Visions of the Future,” Mosese, a Berlin-based filmmaker and visual artist, blurs the lines between reality and reconstruction and explores his own childhood in Lesotho, a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Mosese confronts...

While the Sundance Film Festival mulls a big move for 2027, the 2025 program, its 41st edition, kicked off January 23 in Utah, and you can look below for all of Deadline’s reviews from the fest.

Sundance founder Robert Redford promised that audiences “can expect a 2025 program that showcases varied and vibrant filmmaking globally.” Running through February 2, the lineup includes more than 85 features and six episodic projects set to screen in Park City, Salt Lake City and online.

Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest. Click on the movie’s title to read our full take.

Atropia ‘Atropia’

Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition

Director-screenwriter: Hailey Gates

Cast: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny, Tim Heidecker, Jane Levy

Deadline’s takeaway: Ripe with aughts nostalgia around the Og iPod, frosted lip gloss and Guy Fieri’s favorite flame-printed shirts, Atropia is ultimately a clever meditation on the atmosphere of war...

Sundance is a place for discovery, where new stars are minted because of the fresh, invigorating images they bring to the screen. It was where Steven Soderbergh helped kick off the indie film revolution in 1989 with “sex, lies, and videotape” and Quentin Tarantino launched “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992. They showed that, at Sundance, if you have something to say, you can have a seat at the table.

This year, that daring new voice belongs to Eva Victor, whose comedic character study “Sorry, Baby,” about a young professor reeling from a trauma, sold to A24 for $8 million. “Sorry, Baby” also has the distinction of placing first in many of the categories in IndieWire’s 2025 Sundance Critics Survey, including Best Performance (for Victor herself), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and Best Film itself.

Though “Sorry, Baby” was the undeniable favorite across the board at Sundance 2025, our critics survey shared the love...

The politics of the American military invasion of Iraq have shifted in the last two decades. The current president, for example, has decided it would be preferable to lie about always being opposed to it than own up to supporting it at the outset like so many others. Making an effective satire of a topic that boasts a broad, bipartisan consensus condemning it can be a challenge, but Hailey Gates is up to the task in her debut feature “Atropia.”

Read More: 25 Most Anticipated Movies At The 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Those looking for a simplistic condemnation of Bush-era jingoism may find the film evasive, but Gates never wastes her time preaching to the converted.

Continue reading ‘Atropia’ Review: A Searing Send-Up Of America Taking Care of (Show) Business In Iraq [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Inspired by such plummy wartime satires as Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H* and Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be, writer-director Hailey Gates’s Atropia looks at the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the War on Terror with a cockeyed air of farcical anti-drama. And despite its lack of apparent insight, the film trips and stumbles its way into a stirring anti-war message through a mountain of inspired inanities and heartfelt romance.

Fayruz (Alia Shawkat) is the best actor in Atropia, a.k.a. “The Box,” a fake country set up in the California desert as an immersive live-play scenario to train American combat troops before they deploy for Iraq. Giving her all to roles such as “Atropian DVD seller” or “mustard gas chemist,” Fayruz treats Atropia as a stepping stone to a career in Hollywood, always insisting that the next rotation will be her...

February 2 Update: Ryan White’sCome See Me in the Good Light won theFestival Favorite Award on Sunday, marking the final piece of business for the festival, which endedon February 2.

The US film charts two poets’ “journey through love, life and mortality”.

Original January 31 Report:Sundance Film Festival announced its awards winners on Friday, with grand jury prizes going to Atropia, Seeds, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), and Cutting Through Rocks.

In the audience awards, Twinless, André Is An Idiot, DJ Ahmet, and Prime Minister prevailed.The Next Innovator Award went to Zodiac Killer Project and Next Audience Award was presented to East Of Wall.

The short-to-feature pipeline has led to some absolutely incredible films in the history of Sundance: Napoleon Dynamite, Obvious Child, and even this year’s The Ballad of Wallis Island. Actress and journalist Hailey Gates makes her feature debut as a writer-director with the satirical Atropia, an unfunny comedy that squanders its intriguing concept and talented cast.

Atropia Review

Atropia follows an aspiring actress who takes an unusual job: playing a role in war simulations in a training camp designed to replicate the streets of Iraq for U.S. soldiers. Things become even more complicated when she falls in love with another performer — a former soldier who has been cast as an insurgent.

Related Together Sundance Review — Dave Franco and Alison Brie are Unforgettable in Hilarious and Scary Body Horror

While this premise sounds like it would offer a biting satire of the war in the Middle East, Atropia feels frustratingly out of touch.

We’ve all seem films about life during wartime, but here’s one about life during simulated war. Hailey Gates’s Atropia takes place during the Iraq War in a fake town in the California desert, where the US military runs simulations to prepare outgoing soldiers for the chaos of the conflict. Insurrectionists plot, IEDs boom, and villagers shout in broken Arabic – most of them are native Spanish-speakers.

While Gates has found an intriguing setting for her war satire, it’s less clear what she wants to say with it. The film flops between themes of ambition, romance, military leadership and environmental issues without pulling much insight from any of them. Maybe the goal was to place the audience in the fog of (not quite) war, but the result is an unsatisfying narrative arc that fails to deliver the bite of good satire or the poignancy of...

In Hailey Gates’ “Atropia,” a stark landscape of a military training ground called “The Box” reveals a complex interplay between performance and military preparation. Actors embodying insurgents and civilians create a visceral environment where the boundaries between simulation and reality blur dramatically. The film captures a raw exploration of human experience within an artificial war scenario.

Gates’ work probes the depths of human behavior during the Iraq War of 2006, exposing layers of complexity beneath military training protocols. The film interrogates identity and purpose, presenting a landscape where individuals navigate roles that challenge their fundamental understanding of self and conflict. Through meticulous observation, the narrative uncovers the tensions between scripted interactions and genuine human experience.

The constructed environment becomes a microcosm of larger societal dynamics, challenging viewers to confront uncomfortable questions about perception, manipulation, and the thin lines separating performance from lived reality. Each moment in “Atropia” strips away pretense, revealing...

It's Jan. 31, and the 2025 Sundance Film Festival awards have been presented at a ceremony for the winning films at The Ray Theatre in Park City, where independent storytelling thrived yet again in Utah. The 2025 Festival, taking place now through February 2, has featured premieres, screenings, talks, events, and more in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. All feature award-winning films are available online nationwide now through February 2. Select award-winning films will screen in person for ticketholders and passholders. Tickets can be purchased here. The awards were compiled in a press release:

Grand Jury Prizes went to Atropia (U.S. Dramatic Competition), Seeds (U.S. Documentary Competition), Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), and Cutting Through Rocks (World Cinema Documentary Competition). The Next Innovator Award presented by Adobe was given to Zodiac Killer Project.

Audience awards for films in competition were presented by Acura to Twinless (U.S. Dramatic...

Ahead of the final weekend of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the annual event in Park City, Utah, announced its big winners on Friday, with Atropia, Seeds, and Twinless among those taking the biggest prizes.

“Arriving at our awards ceremony after seven days of connection and discovery is especially rewarding this year,” said Eugene Hernandez, director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming. “We are thrilled to honor these filmmakers fore their inventiveness, generosity, and for their valuable conversations, moments of levity, and deep insights their work has offered.”

See: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ ‘Sorry, Baby’ and other 2025 Sundance titles that could shape the awards conversation this year

Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia earned the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film, Sundance’s top award. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, and...

A still from Atropia by Hailey Gates, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Atropia starring Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner earned the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic Competition award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Seeds was named the U.S. Documentary Competition winner. The 2025 winners were announced today during a ceremony held at The Ray Theatre in Park City.

Additional Grand Jury Prize winners include Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) and Cutting Through Rocks. Audience Awards went to Twinless (U.S. Dramatic Competition), André is an Idiot (U.S. Documentary Competition), DJ Ahmet (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), Prime Minister (World Cinema Documentary Competition), and East of Wall (Next).

“We congratulate all of our filmmakers and award winners on a successful 2025 Sundance Film Festival and thank them for the stories they shared with our audiences,” stated Amanda Kelso, Acting CEO, Sundance Institute.

Park City, Utah, January 31, 2025 — Today the 2025 Sundance Film Festival awards were presented at a ceremony for the jury and audience award–winning films at The Ray Theatre in Park City, where independent storytelling was celebrated ahead of the Festival’s conclusion. The 2025 Festival, taking place now through February 2, has featured premieres, screenings, talks, events, and more in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. All feature award-winning films are available online nationwide now through February 2. Select award-winning films will screen in person for ticketholders and passholders. Tickets can be purchased at festival.sundance.org/tickets.

Grand Jury Prizes went to Atropia (U.S. Dramatic Competition), Seeds (U.S. Documentary Competition), Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), and Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار) (World Cinema Documentary Competition). The Next Innovator Award presented by Adobe was given to Zodiac Killer Project.

Audience awards for films in competition were presented by Acura to Twinless (U.

Top L–R: Zodiac Killer Project. Mad Bills to Pay, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Coexistence, My Ass!, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Cutting Through Rocks; Second Row L-r: DJ Ahmet, Two Women, The Things You Kill, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), Plainclothes, Twinless; Third Row L-r: Sorry, Baby, Ricky, Atropia, Selena y Los Dinos, Life After, André is an Idiot; Bottom L–R: The Perfect Neighbor, Seeds, East of Wall, Prime Minister Photo: Sundance Institute

The Sundance Film Festival has announced its winners from this year's festival, with the US Grand Jury prizes going to Atropia and Seeds.

In the World section, the Grand Jury prizes went to Cactus Pears (sabar Bonda) and Cutting Through Rocks. The Next award went to UK director Charlie Shackleton for Zodiac Killer Project.

Atropia, written and directed by Hailey Gates stars Alia Shawkat as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility, who falls in love...

Hailey Gates’s war-training satire Atropia won today the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Brittany Shyne’s Seeds, about Black farmers in Georgia and their relationship to both the land and U.S. agricultural policy, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. In the international categories, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s UK/India/Canada production about a Western India urbanite grieving the loss of his father. Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears). Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار), Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s documentary about the feminist teachings of a councilwoman in a small Iranian […]

The post Atropia, Seeds Win Top Prizes at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Hailey Gates’s war-training satire Atropia won today the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Brittany Shyne’s Seeds, about Black farmers in Georgia and their relationship to both the land and U.S. agricultural policy, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. In the international categories, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s UK/India/Canada production about a Western India urbanite grieving the loss of his father. Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears). Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار), Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s documentary about the feminist teachings of a councilwoman in a small Iranian […]

The post Atropia, Seeds Win Top Prizes at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival awards were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.

See the list of 2025 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Atropia (USA) – Hailey Gates

Directing Award

Ricky (USA) – Rashad Frett

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Sorry, Baby (USA) – Eva Victor

Special Jury Award for Acting

Twinless (USA) – Dylan O’Brien

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney appear in Twinless by James Sweeney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greg Cotten.

Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble

Plainclothes – Carmen Emmi

Audience Award

Twinless – James Sweeney

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Seeds (USA) – Brittany Shyne

Directing Award

The Perfect Neighbor (USA) – Geeta Gandbhir

Special Jury Award

Life After (USA) – Reid Davenport

Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling

Selena y Los Dinos (USA) – Isabel Castro

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival — and perhaps its second-to-last in Park City — has wound down with the annual awards ceremony.

On January 31, jurors presented prizes in the competitive sections, including the U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, and the Next lineup. Jurors across the sections looked at nearly 90 films representing more than 30 countries and territories.

Hailey Gates’ Iraq war satire, starring Alia Shawkat and produced by (among others) Luca Guadagnino, won the festival’s top award: the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition. The politically charged comedy, which follows an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility, is still looking for U.S. distribution amid mixed reviews out of Sundance. Meanwhile in that section, Eva Victor’s staggering feature debut “Sorry, Baby,” a startlingly wise and unsentimental depiction of trauma set in American academia, won a Screenwriting prize...

As the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final weekend, the Park City event handed out trophies this morning to this year’s best. See the full list below.

Hailey Gates’ war satire Atropia took the marquee U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier (Callum Turner) cast as an insurgent, but their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.

The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic went to Twinless, James Sweeney’s film about two young men (Dylan O’Brien and Sweeney) who meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.

Georgi M. Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and also nabbed the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. It follows Ahmet (Arif Jakup), a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in...

Awards for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival were handed out on Friday morning, with the Dylan O’Brien-fronted dark comedy “Twinless” taking home the audience award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category. The film, which received a warm response upon its debut at the beginning of the festival, hails from writer/director/co-star James Sweeney and follows two strangers who meet in a twin bereavement support group. O’Brien also won a special jury award for acting for his work in the film.

Writer/director Hailey Gates’ “Atropia” won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category, scoring top honors for a film that started life as a documentary. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Alia Shawkat as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent. Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker co-star.

The U.

The Sundance Film Festival is regarded as one of the most prestigious independent film festivals, where filmmakers have been premiering their movies and documentaries since 1984.

The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.

Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors, and actors to develop their original independent projects.

By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...

Sundance film festival: Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner are participants in an odd exercise in a debut feature that never figures out what it should be

There can be a cavernous distance between the discovery of a topic worthy of expansion and the understanding of how best to then go about it. Too often, a five-part series should be a 90-minute film and even more often, a narrative feature should be a documentary. For the first-time writer-director Hailey Gates, a model and former Vice journalist, a longtime interest in the odd world of military role play compounds led her to Atropia, a satirical Luca Guadagnino-produced comedy premiering in competition at this year’s Sundance.

She had initially considered a documentary and had even thought about working as an actor within a real facility, but over a four-year research period finally opted for heightened fiction over grounded truth. It’s...

The Deadline photo studio hosted talent at the Sundance Film Festival, as cast members of Sundance-premiering films stopped by including Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means for Opus; Sarah Jessica Parker for The Librarians; Dylan O’Brien, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi and director James Sweeny from Twinless; Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Dave Franco and Director Evan Twohy from Bubble & Squeak; Olivia Colman and John Lithgow for Jimpa; Bill Condon, Jennifer Lopez, Tonatiuh for Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman; Alia Shawkat, Hailey Gates for Atropia, & many more.

The Deadline Studio at Sundance Film Festival runs January 24-27, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Park City.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival takes place from January 23-February...

Based on her 2020 short “Shako Mako,” Hailey Gates writes and directs “Atropia,” a unique war satire about western views of the Middle East. While both its lampooning of U.S. militarism and its central character drama lack follow-through, the film contains bright comedic sparks in its keen observations about American media. It’s a self-reflexive work that, though eventually petering out, proves amusing enough in the way it holds a mirror to Hollywood war films.

Like Gates’ short, “Atropia” opens with a near-identical scene of an Iraqi woman played by Alia Shawkat, witnessing U.S. troops rolling through her hometown in pursuit of a suspect right as an Ied goes off. It is utter chaos; limbs are flung helter-skelter as Iraqi villagers yell “Death to America!” These familiar tropes emanate from the modern war cinema playbook, from the soldiers having their suspicions immediately confirmed, down to the Orientalist music compositions,...

Channing Tatum is going to war at this year's Sundance Film Festival — sort of. The actor has apparently taken the 2025 fest by storm thanks to a reportedly scene-stealing cameo in Hailey Gates' directorial debut, Atropia. The buzzed-about film tells the wildly true story of the fake Iraqi villages created by Hollywood craftspeople on U.S. military bases throughout the country, populated by actors and stuntpeople in order to help troops prepare for the 8-year war that began in 2003.

And according to a new report from Variety, the Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner-led "screwball comedy about the military industrial complex" has made a real name for itself as a festival standout, thanks to Tatum's turn as an A-list actor trying to gain some street cred while preparing for a role.

According to Variety's reporting, "Tatum is perfect as a douchey A-lister, looking for authenticity and street cred alongside real soldiers in a make-believe scenario.

In writer-director Hailey Gates’ directorial debut Atropia, she dives into the Bush-era culture of toxic masculinity, nationalism and Islamophobia with an amusing and profoundly absurdist sense of satire.

Set in 2006, Atropia takes place at the titular U.S. military training ground in the California desert, where actors role-play as villagers in countries where the government plans to invade. Alia Shawkat stars as Fayruz, an ambitious actress determined to make her big break in Hollywood while working in the simulation, despite her conflicting feelings about the war in Iraq.

Although her parents accuse her of betraying her culture as they disapprove of her preparing soldiers to invade their country, the training ground is the only place casting her type (not a surprise for that era of Hollywood). The fractured relationship with her family represents an all-too-real generational divide for many children of immigrants through a heartfelt, yet cheeky portrayal by Shawkat.

In a moment near the end of our interview at the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox, Callum Turner gets sheepish about dropping a certain four-letter word. The British actor asks if he’s going to be bleeped. When I say that he won’t — IndieWire is edgy and won’t tolerate censorship! — he says he actually really wants, perhaps desperately, to be bleeped.

Perhaps it’s the kind of American talk show convention the 34-year-old Londoner wants to embrace as he continues to make a mark in the U.S. The rising star has already been in “Green Room,” “Emma,” “The Boys in the Boat,” as well as “Masters of the Air,” but late night show ubiquity still lies ahead for him. And it’s gonna happen.

The frantic desire to be bleeped certainly captures the manic energy of his new, cockeyed rom-com, “Atropia,” directed by Hailey Gates and co-starring Alia Shawkat.

“Uncut Gems” actress and filmmaker Hailey Gates had her plans for a documentary about military training villages upended by government officials. So she turned the idea into an unconventional love story instead, and “Atropia” was born.

The film, which premiered on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, was originally conceived as a documentary about fake Iraqi villages built on U.S. military bases post-9/11.

“I initially wanted to make a documentary about these fake villages that were built on bases in the U.S. after 9/11 to train soldiers before they deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,” Gates told senior writer Drew Taylor at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “The military was not so keen on the version of the doc that I wanted to make, so we decided to be satire.”

“Atropia” follows an aspiring actress at a military role-playing facility who falls for a soldier cast as an insurgent,...

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are stopping by IMDb’s portrait studio at Acura House of Energy during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and we’ve got all the photos!

On Friday and Saturday (January 24 and 25), the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Dave Franco, Olivia Colman, Lili Reinhart, Jesse Williams and Callum Turner stopped by to post for celebrity photographer Mat Hayward with their castmates.

Keep reading to find out more…

Benedict was joined by Grief is a Thing With Feathers director Dylan Southern. Callum attended with Atropia costar Alia Shawkat and director Hailey Gates.

Dave was there with Bubble & Squeak costars Himesh Patel and Sarah Goldberg and director Evan Twohy.

Olivia was with Jimpa costars Eamon Farren, John Lithgow, Daniel Henshall and Aud Mason-Hyde and director Sophie Hyde.

Lili was joined by with Hal & Harper creator Cooper Raiff and costars Alyah Chanelle Scott, Addison Timlin, Havana Rose Liu and Christopher Meyer.

More a forced, one-note farce than the sharp satire it’s trying to be, “Atropia” is almost impressive in how it manages to allude to so many complicated subjects surrounding U.S. militarism without authentically skewering or even poking at any of them. Despite centering on a role-playing exercise where the government sends soldiers to prepare them to invade Iraq, the entire premise is largely secondary to the more shallow, almost sitcom-esque scenarios that writer/director Hailey Gates takes us through.

Even when it occasionally finds some goofy laughs, the expansion of Gates’ short “Shako Mako” does nothing to earn a nearly two-hour runtime that ends up feeling much longer. When it tries to then take on a more serious tone to confront the realities of wars where America sends its young people to die without actual strategy, it lacks any real bite because it hasn’t put in the legwork to get us there.

Day 3 of the Sundance Film Festival continues with premiering films today, from writer Hailey Gates’ directorial debut, Atropia, to James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island.

Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, and Hailey Gates graced the red carpet at the Eccles Theatre on Jan 25 for the premiere of director Gates’ comedy, Atropia. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, the film follows an aspiring actress who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent while training at a military role-playing facility. Their nonsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance. The film also stars Tim Heidecker and Jane Levy.

Related: Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Later, Griffiths presented the premiere of his latest film, The Ballad of Wallis Island, starring Tom Basden and Tim Key, opposite Carey Mulligan, Sian Clifford, and Akemnji Ndifornyen. Basden and Key, longtime collaborators who previously brought their 2015 film Two Films About Loneliness to Sundance,...

Channing Tatum made a surprise appearance on the big screen during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

On Saturday (January 25), it was revealed that the 44-year-old actor filmed a surprise cameo appearance in the movie Atropia, which premiered at the festival.

Keep reading to find out more…

According to reporting by Variety, Channing played “a bona fide American movie star (Tatum) will participate in a chemical weapon attack simulation.”

Here’s a synopsis of Atropia from Sundance: “When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.”

Speaking to Variety, Alia confirmed that she is the one who helped get Channing to agree to the role.

“Chan has been an amazing friend,” she gushed. “We emailed him and asked him to come do it. He responded — but he didn’t respond right away — and said,...

Channing Tatum brought some movie star heat to a snowy Sundance this weekend, popping up in a previously unannounced role in one of the festival’s premiere titles.

Tatum has a scene-stealing cameo in “Atropia,” the feature directorial debut from Hailey Gates. The film is led by Alia Shawkat and British heatseeker Callum Turner. It follows the wild true story of completely fabricated villages on U.S. military bases, where actors and stunt crew helped troops prepare for the Iraq War.

Shawkat and Turner play performers for hire on one such elaborate set, thrilled by the news that a bona fide American movie star (Tatum) will participate in a chemical weapon attack simulation to prepare for an upcoming role.

Tatum is perfect as a douchey A-lister, looking for authenticity and street cred alongside real soldiers in a make-believe scenario. At Variety‘s Sundance Studio presented by Audible, Shawkat revealed she...

Atropia takes place at a military role-playing facility when the real emotions between an actress and a soldier role-playing an insurgent begin to complicate the establishment’s purpose. The film, premiering as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition, is the feature debut of director Hailey Gates after playing in front of the camera in Twin Peaks: The Return, Challengers and Uncut Gems, among others. Eric Yue served as Atropia‘s cinematographer. Below, Yue discusses navigating the film’s separate levels of reality through lighting and camera technique. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: What were […]

The post “We Wanted To Play with This Line Between Artifice and Reality”: Dp Eric Yue on Atropia first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Atropia takes place at a military role-playing facility when the real emotions between an actress and a soldier role-playing an insurgent begin to complicate the establishment’s purpose. The film, premiering as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition, is the feature debut of director Hailey Gates after playing in front of the camera in Twin Peaks: The Return, Challengers and Uncut Gems, among others. Eric Yue served as Atropia‘s cinematographer. Below, Yue discusses navigating the film’s separate levels of reality through lighting and camera technique. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: What were […]

The post “We Wanted To Play with This Line Between Artifice and Reality”: Dp Eric Yue on Atropia first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Quick Links The Technical Category Snubs Are Embarrassing for the Academy The 2025 Best Picture Nominations

Ever since I was a teenager, I have woken up early to see the Oscar nominations announced. Every other day, it's nearly impossible to get me out of bed before 7 am, but the day the Academy Award nominations are announced, I'm like a kid on Christmas morning. So, on Jan. 23, 2025, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter, away to my phone flew like a flash to what nominations had just come to pass.

I had already prepared myself that some movies that I personally would have nominated were not going to happen, since that would require members of the Academy to remember movies that came out before October and also see movies that maybe didn't have the budget to campaign and send screeners and would require them to sign in to...

Here are the films mentioned most often by buyers and sellers setting up shop at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The action begins Thursday.

Atropia – Director: Hailey Gates. Cast: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny, Tim Heidecker, Jane Levy. When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance. U.S. Dramatic Competition; Premiere: January 25 @ noon Mt, Eccles Theatre; P.I.: January 26 @ 10 a.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 4

Bubble & Squeak – Director: Evan Twohy. Cast: Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, Matt Berry. Accused of smuggling cabbages into a nation where cabbages are banned, Declan and Delores must confront the fragility of their new marriage while on the run for their lives. U.S. Dramatic Competition; Premiere: January 24 @ 6:15 p.m., Eccles Theatre; P.I.: January 25 @ 4 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week in Park City, Utah, launching the first major festival of the year and one of the biggest markets for film. Sundance is, of course, home to a slew of independent films seeking distribution. It’s where movies like “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Call Me by Your Name,” “Fruitvale Station” and “Palm Springs” got their start, and this year’s lineup is chock-full of true indies looking for a home.

Below, TheWrap rounded up some of the buzziest titles for sale at this year’s festival.

Tonatiuh and Diego Luna appear in Kiss of the Spider Woman by Bill Condon (Sundance) “Kiss of the Spider-Woman”

Valentín, a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina, a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva,...

It's a cinephile's favorite time of year! While some of the biggest and best films are released in the waning weeks of December, the Sundance Institute gets everyone excited about what's to come in the new year. The 87 feature films and six episodic projects selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival were recently announced, and it's a great mix of bold independent storytelling. The festival will take place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Single Film Tickets for in-person and online screenings go on sale Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. Mt. Members of Sundance will have access to a Single Film Ticket pre-sale, and limited quantities of passes and packages remain on sale. Visit the Sundance Film Festival site here for more info.

And for all of those who won't be able to make it to snowy Utah, beginning Jan. 30, more than half the...

Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 87 feature films and six episodic projects selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, revealing a lineup full of bold independent storytelling. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with all of the competition films and more available online from January 30–February 2, 2025, for audiences across the country. The 2025 Festival will kick off on Thursday, January 23, with premieres in Park City every day through the end of Tuesday, January 28. Additional showings will take place in Park City and Salt Lake City throughout the Festival until Sunday, February 2. Over 11 days, world debuts of projects across program categories will highlight fresh voices, entertaining stories, and groundbreaking works. Beginning January 30, more than half the feature program will be available online for audiences nationwide to watch from home at festival.sundance.org. The curated online program will include all competition titles,...

Among the batch of ten 2025 U.S. Dramatic Competition offerings we find the likes of actress Hailey Gates’ feature debut Atropia – produced by Luca Guadagnino (she can be seen in this year’s Challengers), we find Katarina Zhu’s Bunnylovr – a project that was selected for this year’s U.S in Progress and Pastel’s Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins got behind Sorry, Baby – from Eva Victor. Here are the ten films competing for top honors.

Atropia / U.S.A. — When an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.…...

Our first glimpse at 2025 independent cinema has arrived with the unveiling of next month’s Sundance Film Festival, taking place January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with all of the competition films and more available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 across the country.

Curated from 15,775 submissions from 156 countries or territories, including 4,138 feature-length films, the 87 selected feature-length films include Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet; Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall; Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta follow-up Magic Farm starring Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolff; the Josh O’Connor-led Rebuilding, from A Love Song director Max Walker-Silverman; Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You with Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, and Conan O’Brien; the Isabelle Huppert-led Luz; Love, Brooklyn starring André Holland; Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius); Elegance Bratton...

The next “A Real Pain” might be found in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival film lineup, which was announced on Wednesday.

Next year’s festival includes several big names, including Jennifer Lopez (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Carey Mulligan (“The Ballad of Wallis Island”), and Josh O’Connor (“Rebuilding”). Notable directors with films at the festival include Oscar winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (“Sly Lives! aka The Burden of Black Genius”), Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim (“Deaf President Now!”), and Oscar winner Barry Levinson (“Bucks County”).

This year, several top indie features premiered at Sundance, including “A Real Pain,” a top awards contender, and films like “Didi,” “A Different Man,” “Daughters,” and “Sugarcane.”

“The Sundance Film Festival remains steadfast in its commitment to elevating unique and urgent voices in independent storytelling. Audiences can expect a 2025 program that showcases varied and vibrant filmmaking globally,” said Robert Redford, Sundance Institute Founder and President.

“The Festival is...

The 2025 line-up for the Sundance Film Festival has been announced.

This year’s fest features the latest projects from Oscar winners, studio filmmakers, and indie stalwarts like Justin Lin, Ira Sachs, Barry Levinson, and Questlove while the U.S. Dramatic Competition section is made of selections from directors new to the Park City fest.

“The combination of these new voices and some of these filmmakers who might be more household names, speaks to the the power of independent cinema and how, no matter where you are in your career, you are drawn to this community that Sundance has helped build over the years,” Sundance director of programming Kim Yutani told The Hollywood Reporter. Of the 87 feature films announced thus far, 36 titles (41 percent) are directed by first-time feature film directors.

Across the line-up, talents like Jennifer Lopez, Dev Patel, Bowen Yang, Chloë Sevigny, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ayo Edebiri star in fest films,...

The Sundance Film Festival is still deliberating about where to move in 2027, but in the meantime, the 2025 festival will go on in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. On Wednesday, the festival announced its Features and Episodic lineup, with a rich selection of independent projects that feature a lot of big names.