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Following reports of his potential involvement in the Harry Potter series, John Lithgow has now confirmed that he will be playing Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s new television series based on J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. However, despite the buzz surrounding his casting, there has been considerable discourse for various reasons.

John Lithgow in a still from Conclave | Credits: Focus Features

While some Potterheads want the showrunners to continue following the ‘British actors only’ rule from the film series, others have shared their discomfort with Lithgow’s collaboration with Rowling, especially due to his role in the 1982 romantic comedy and its conflicting nature with the author’s controversial stance.

John Lithgow to play Albus Dumbledore in the new Harry Potter TV series

Following the huge success of the film series, HBO announced a new Harry Potter adaptation for television. Based on each book in J.K. Rowling’s series, the...

The Harry Potter television series has officially found its headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

John Lithgow, 79, recently confirmed to ScreenRant that he said “yes” to playing Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s upcoming small screen adaptation of J. K. Rowling’s hit books. The Hollywood Reporter reported earlier this month that Lithgow was in talks for the role.

“Well, it came as a total surprise to me,” the veteran actor said. “I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid. But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That’s why it’s been such a hard decision. I’ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party,...

After reports that HBO was circling John Lithgow to portray Professor Dumbledore in its upcoming “Harry Potter” series, the actor has confirmed in a new interview that he is indeed taking the role. He expressed his excitement and nervousness at committing to such a role for so many years.

“It came as a total surprise to me. I got the phone call at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision, because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid,” Lithgow told the fan site Screen Rant. “But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to ‘Harry Potter.'”

Lithgow was asked if he’s prepared to portray Dumbledore for seven seasons worth of television. Lithgow previously starred in six seasons of the sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun,” which...

Exclusive: Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman is set to star in and executive produce a drama created, executive produced and showrun by The Affair co-creator Sarah Treem, sources tell Deadline. The project, which is in development at FX, is inspired by the Danish format Ulven Kommer (Cry Wolf), I hear.

The untitled one-hour is described as a sweeping family drama that is both a mystery and thriller. Further details are being kept under wraps. The 2020 Danish series Cry Wolf follows a social worker who tries to find out who is telling the truth in a family with a teen daughter which may be plagued by domestic violence.

A rep for FX declined comment.

The project reunites Colman with FX where she starred in Great Expectations and most recently guest starred on The Bear, earning an Emmy nomination last year. It was her fifth Emmy nomination; Colman won for The Crown...

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. Today we’re talking to Protagonist Pictures execs Dave Bishop, George Hamilton and James Pugh about how the company has grown from a sales agent to an agile and innovative greenlighting operation. With a proven track record of repping worldwide and international sales on titles such as The Brutalist, The Outrun, Jimpa and Berlinale title Islands, the three discuss production ambitions and next steps.

Protagonist Pictures has been a regular fixture on the international sales circuit for nearly two decades bringing to market titles such as Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist, BAFTA-nominated pic The Outrun and, more recently, Olivia Colman and John Lithgow starrer Jimpa, which premiered in Sundance last month.

This week at the European Film Market in Berlin, the company is...

The Harry Potter films were once upon a time a depository for every British and Irish thespian in the business — Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Richard Harris, and Michael Gambon — the list goes on. Now though, an American actor could potentially take the wand of one of the franchise’s most beloved characters.

John Lithgow, who is American, is nearing a deal to portray Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s upcoming “Harry Potter” series reboot, according to a report in Deadline.

When reached, HBO reps declined comment on the report. HBO told Deadline, “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals.”

No cast has been announced for the Harry Potter series as of yet, which is showrun by writer Francesca Gardiner and also comes from director and executive producer Mark Mylod.

Exclusive: A beloved actor is poised to play a beloved Harry Potter character. Six-time Emmy winner John Lithgow is in final negotiations to portray Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s high-profile series adaptation of the hugely popular fantasy books, sources tell Deadline.

HBO declined to comment. “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation,” the network said in a statement. “As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals.”

The Harry Potter series, designed to run over a decade, comes from writer/showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director/executive producer Mark Mylod. Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, at the time of the original announcement called the show a “faithful adaptation” of J.K. Rowling’s novels which will “dive deep into each of the iconic books.”

Powerful wizard Dumbledore is the headmaster of...

Exclusive: Aud Mason-Hyde, one of the breakouts of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, has signed with Artists First for management.

A queer trans nonbinary actor from Australia, Mason-Hyde stars opposite Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in Jimpa, a semi-autobiographical family drama from returning Sundance filmmaker Sophie Hyde. The film follows filmmaker and mother Hannah (Colman) as she takes her nonbinary teenager Frances (Mason-Hyde) on a trip to Amsterdam to visit their beloved gay grandpa Jim, aka “Jim-pa” (Lithgow).

In his review of the film out of Sundance, Deadline’s Pete Hammond called Mason-Hyde “perfectly cast.”

Mason-Hyde’s additional credits include the award-winning indie 52 Tuesdays, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, the Aussie ABC six-part series F*&#ing Adelaide, and the 2022 short film Right Here that played the festival circuit in Australia and was nominated for a number of awards. Also a poet,...

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...

Veteran agent Hildy Gottlieb is set to retire this month, Creative Artists Agency announced on Monday.

Gottlieb, who joined CAA in 2022 following its acquisition of ICM Partners, has represented a diverse range of Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning artists throughout her 48-year career.

She moved to ICM’s Los Angeles office in 1980 following three years at J. Michael Bloom Ltd. in New York.

“Throughout her career, Hildy has been instrumental in cultivating the careers of remarkable artists,” Franklin Latt and Rachel Rusch, co-heads of CAA’s Motion Picture Talent department, said in a joint statement on Monday. “Her superb taste, relationships and passion served her clients and colleagues well. We wish her all the best as she begins this next chapter.”

Some of Gottlieb’s clients include new Superman David Corenswet; Lewis Pullman, who will next be seen in Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*”; and Olivia Colman, who most recently starred in...

“Probably the best co-producers in the world?” is the provocative title of one of the International Film Festival Rotterdam panels during “Pulling Focus,” IFFR Pro’s day dedicated to the global influence of Dutch cinema held on February 4.

The Dutch don’t normally boast; their lack of egotism is what can make them such excellent collaborators. Nonetheless, leading producers in the Netherlands agree they are indeed now adept at co-production - and that is partly because it has become a market necessity.

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the Dutch have really oriented themselves toward the international market. In the past,...

Recent years have seen many filmmakers take a less linear approach to the biopic, inviting audiences to learn more about the subject than a superficial understanding of their life events. Ira Sachs’s latest film, Peter Hujar’s Day, takes the slice-of-life genre to its extreme, delivering an experimental work that many may dismiss as uneventful but has many fascinating layers to unpack. In taking this unorthodox approach, Sachs helps audiences know more about Hujar and the world in which he worked than any simple biopic could.

Peter Hujar’s Day Review

Peter Hujar’s Day is, as the title implies, a narration of a day in the life of Peter Hujar, a gay portrait photographer who has recently become acclaimed for being the seminal figure he was despite the lack of recognition he received at the time. And because of this, the film — like its subject — is incredibly humble and minimalistic in nature,...

A hallmark of every Sundance Film Festival is the freezing temperatures, trudging through the snow and ice of Park City. But at the 2025 iteration of the festival, that bone-chilling weather has extended to the market, resulting in an unprecedented cold streak.

Six days in, only one film has been sold: Neon picked up the Alison Brie/Dave Franco body horror “Together” on Tuesday, following its rowdy debut Monday night at the Eccles.

“Together” generated the festival’s first real bidding war, as Neon ultimately won out over A24 and Mubi with a low eight-figure offer said to be north of $10 million. The buzz around the film, which stars and is produced by real-life married couple Franco and Brie, offered a brief reminder of the kind of heated market activity that used to be commonplace at Sundance.

But beyond that? Zilch. And it’s got the industry nervous.

Are the movies not good?...

Neon has picked up “Together,” the new horror film starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, following its premiere in the Sundance Film Festival, TheWrap has learned.

The film follows a co-dependent couple who move to the countryside away from their community, leading to unexpected horrors. Franco has described it as both a relationship drama and “full-on horror movie” that features “set pieces like nothing you’ve seen in a horror movie.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the sale marks the end of an unprecedented sales drought at this year’s Sundance, with zero major sales in the first six days of the festival. Films like “Twinless” and “Jimpa” have received positive responses, but there’s been no breakout like in year’s past. But the “Together” screening on Monday night had its Eccles crowd going wild, and buyers swooped in to nab the genre film.

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...

Sophie Hyde’s last film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, made a big splash when it premiered at Sundance in 2022. The Australian filmmaker returns to the festival with Jimpa, a semi-autobiographical dramedy that could not be coming at a better time. Despite its flaws, there’s an undeniably lovable quality to Jimpa that is only accentuated by its timeliness.

Jimpa Review

Jimpa follows a filmmaker who is forced to confront her past after her nonbinary teenager expresses a desire to live with their gay grandfather in Amsterdam. It’s part family drama, part coming-of-age film, and part gay rights historical drama, and the result is a film that feels like an amalgamation of the tropes of a few different genres.

Related Hal & Harper Sundance Review — Cooper Raiff’s Miniseries Is His Most Ambitious Work Yet

Considering that it is based on its writer-director’s own experiences with her father,...

Park City – Sometimes, despite the best efforts of those involved, a movie isn’t really a movie. Maybe it’s really a short subject extended beyond its means. Maybe it’s more of an experiment or a well-intentioned exercise. In that context, it gives us no pleasure to inform you that Ira Sachs‘ latest dramatic endeavor, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” falls into a number of those unflattering categories.

Read More: “Jimpa” Review: Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in a queer family drama with the best intentions [Sundance]

A world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Sachs’ follow-up to 2023’s “Passages,” his ambitious exploration of a gay marriage unexpectedly torn asunder, reunites him with one of the stars of that film, Ben Whishaw.

Continue reading ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’ Review: Ben Whishaw & Rebecca Hall Get Lost In Ira Sachs’ Cinematic Exercise [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Align, the Los Angeles-based financier and production company launched by Adrian Politowski and Nadia Khamlichi in 2019, has closed its second fund, Take Two, to pump $120m worth of financing into international feature film and TV drama over the next four years.

The company, which provides bridge loans, and cash flows presales and tax credits as well as offering gap financing, is involved in three features premiering in Sundance this week: Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa, starring Olivia Colman and John Lithgow; Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap starring Dev Patel; and Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which...

“I had recently done a job and not enjoyed the process that much,” Olivia Colman said at the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox, in talking about the circumstances that led to her new film “Jimpa,” directed by Sophie Hyde.

“And then my agents said ‘I think you’re gonna love this one. I think you’re gonna love working with Sophie.’ And I thought, ‘I really want to work with Sophie,’” Colman added. “You do a piece like this with a filmmaker like this which sustains you over the next few, which won’t be quite as enjoyable potentially. Although I do often like the work I do. Oh God, I’m now offending everyone. Ask someone else a question!”

That bit of fun right there shows the relaxed, family-like atmosphere among Colman, Hyde, and Colman’s costar Aud Mason-Hyde (who’s also the child of Sophie Hyde) when visiting the IndieWire Studio.

Sophie Hyde’s new film “Jimpa,” which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, began as a deeply personal story about her experience as the child of a gay father and parent of a transgender teen. But as anti-trans sentiment grew during production, the family drama took on new urgency.

“I had no idea that it would become so antagonistic towards trans people in particular,” Hyde told executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “Now we’re in a place where suddenly parents are at risk for loving and supporting their children. And that is just crazy to me, because if you’re a parent, you look at your child and they tell you who they are, you should believe them and feel very grateful that they express that to you.”

Hyde, winner of the World Cinema Directing Award Dramatic for...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival hit Park City, Utah, once again this year, bringing out Hollywood A-listers to toast independent cinema, find a home for their latest passion projects and find a warm place to land in the otherwise chilly, mountainous city.

Kicking off Thursday and running through Feb. 2, the independent film festival has so far highlighted excellent new work from writer and director James Sweeney with “Twinless,” in which co-stars with Dylan O’Brien (pictured below); a riveting and emotionally knotty two-hander called “Jimpa,” starring John Lithgow as a late-blooming gay man and Olivia Colman as the daughter he left behind; Juliette Lewis as a chair in the body-swap satire “By Design”; and the new music documentary from Oscar winner Questlove, “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).”

And all of that on just Day 1! Also along for the ride promoting their latest works and celebrating their peers’ latest were Sarah Jessica Parker,...

John Lithgow joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance and reacted to one of the biggest Oscar snubs of the year: “Conclave” filmmaker Edward Berger failing to land a nomination for best director. Lithgow has a key supporting role in the papal drama. “Conclave” received eight nominations, including best picture, and many prognosticators had Berger as a lock for a best director nod after earning nominations from the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Directors Guild of America.

“Of course I was disappointed, but that is just the element of awards season,” Lithgow says. “The field is strong and Edward is a rare and wonderful director. We loved him so much. He was nominated for every single other award, and ‘Conclave’ got eight Oscar noms. That only happens when you have a great director. He can take it. He can take it in stride. We are all very proud of the film.

Kicking off the 2025 Sundance Film Festival with a winner already. I adore this film. I really connected with it, even if I'm not like anyone in it. Jimpa is the latest film written and directed by Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde, best known for her previous films Good Luck To You, Leo Grande (at Sundance 2022) and Animals (at Sundance 2019). She's excellent at telling intimate queer cinema stories and she remains one of the best filmmakers in this realm. Her latest wholesome cinema creation is Jimpa – her most personal film yet, a semi-autobiographical and self-referential meta tale of a family. It just premiered at Sundance and the experience was emotional for me, especially because I am watching it without any idea of what I'm about to see, or how it will feel, or who the characters are. And I nearly fell in love with every last person in this film. In a...

“Does it get more Sundance than this?” Eugene Hernandez, the festival’s director, said at the opening night premiere of “Twinless,” which was being unveiled Thursday at the Eccles, Park City’s biggest venue. But the evening didn’t go off without a hitch. Shortly after Hernandez left the stage, a sizzle reel promoting the festival’s nonprofit arm had suffered sound problems. The moment was particularly unfortunate as the audio malfunctioned as the clip was introducing festival founder Robert Redford.

The house lights came up while sound was tested for five minutes. The film was quickly restarted, but the problem persisted throughout the screening to groans of “Nooooo!” from stressed audience members. Luckily, it didn’t derail the otherwise enthusiastically received film or the dual performance from Dylan O’Brien as twin brothers. Add to that extremely chatty Sundance tech and ground staff, and it made for a disruptive kickoff.

In writer, director and actor James Sweeney’s sophomore feature Twinless, he navigates loneliness, anxiety, depression and other common millennial pastimes through an equally comedic and heartfelt arc … complete with a few “Wtf” moments.

Dylan O’Brien stars as Roman, a young man grieving the loss of his late twin brother Rocky. At a twin bereavement support group, he meets Dennis (Sweeney), who’s struggling with his own loss. Missing their respective other halves, the two form a bromance while healing from their shared trauma, but a bizarre secret threatens their newfound friendship.

O’Brien and Sweeney have a comedic chemistry that cannot be denied, with the former alternating between the emotionally insecure and naive Roman, as well as his muscled, mustachioed, hunky twin Rocky, who evokes one too many encounters with “mean gays” who are just as misunderstood as the next.

Navigating life as a “singleton,” Roman moves into Rocky...

How do you capture a life? After all, there is nothing more breathtakingly vast than an existence full of joy, pain, pleasure and agony. Doing so is an immense undertaking that requires honesty and care in equal measure as we must look deeply at someone to expose all of what made them who they are without also hiding all of what can be many rough edges.

“Jimpa,” the latest film from “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” director Sophie Hyde, does this about as fully as one could ever hope to do. In a script Hyde wrote with her “52 Tuesdays” co-writer Matthew Cormack, we are taken fully into the world of Jim (aka Jimpa), played by John Lithgow, and his daughter Hannah, played by Olivia Colman, as they try to navigate their respective lives. Jim is a gay man who left Hannah and her mother when she was a child...

Exclusive: John Lithgow, who played Winston Churchill in The Crown and scores of major roles on stage and screen, is having the time of his life. He has a hit play on the London stage transferring into the West End in April — and to Broadway in 2026 — and now he’s starring alongside Olivia Colman in the Sundance opening-day premiere of Sophie Hyde’s terrific screen drama Jimpa, in which the multi-award-winning star plays a fictionalized version of his director’s own father.

Colman plays Hannah, his filmmaker daughter who’s visiting him at his home in Amsterdam to talk about a film she’s developing about her parents marriage, and how it broke up when Jim, her father, comes out as gay.

Growing up with a queer dad has allowed Hannah to accept sexuality as a normal part of life. Her own kid, Frances, is a transgender, nonbinary teen, just...

The Sundance Film Festival 2025, beloved by independent film enthusiasts, opens the film festival circuit with thought-provoking panels, and red-carpet premieres. Despite the cancellation of other awards season events, the film festival has decided to proceed as planned in the wake of the devastating fires that have ravaged Los Angeles, causing the destruction of 15,798 structures and resulting in 28 fatalities. The extent to which the recent fires will impact the festival, renowned for its vibrant social scene and bustling calendar of events, remains to be seen.

This year’s lineup boasts diversity across various categories, featuring 57 short films and 87 feature films representing 33 countries and territories. The 2025 program is composed of 36 of 87 (41%) feature film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. Sundance Institute supported ten of the feature films and projects selected in development through direct granting or residency labs.

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

Among the buzzworthy titles premiering are Atropia,...

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival just days after Trump clarified his Make America Great Again agenda, Sophie Hyde’s “Jimpa” is a film about progress, not going back. Inspired by lessons of living with an activist gay father (John Lithgow’s richest role since “The World According to Garp”) and a nonbinary child (Aud Mason-Hyde), the semi-autobiographical drama captures — and celebrates — the ripple effects of the Sexual Revolution across three generations.

With its inclusion-minded ensemble, frank and occasionally frustrating ”woke”-abulary and tradition-bending “gender ideology,” “Jimpa” feels as “Sundance” as any film in this year’s festival. Hyde, who hails from Australia, taps Olivia Colman to play her on-screen counterpart, Hannah, an indie filmmaker whose “mostly” monogamous marriage to a straight, cisgender man (Daniel Henshall) is the closest the film gets to showing a heteronormative couple. Gay men like Hannah’s dad (Lithgow) may teasingly refer to such people as “breeders,...

Park City – In a world of seemingly endless chaos, where queer people all over the world have to fight harder than ever not to have their human rights torn away, it’s somewhat difficult to critique a movie such as Sopie Hyde‘s semi-autobiographical “Jimpa.” Especially after the horrifying executive orders signed by the new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this week. A timely selection for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, this is a film whose heart is in the right place even if it still leaves you wanting.

Continue reading ‘Jimpa’ Review: Olivia Colman & John Lithgow In A Queer Family Tale With The Best Of Intentions [Sundance] at The Playlist.

After Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a virtuoso showcase for Emma Thompson that was also a rare candid conversation about an older woman’s sexuality, Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde returns in Jimpa to territory closer to 52 Tuesdays. That 2014 debut feature, a prize-winner for direction at Sundance, felt highly personal. This new film takes that quality several steps further, drawing inspiration from the death of Hyde’s father and casting her nonbinary teenager as a 16-year-old presumably not unlike themself. Made with love and acted with great empathy by a cast led by always dependable pros Olivia Colman and John Lithgow, Jimpa is nothing if not sincere.

But to be brutally honest, it’s also kind of a cringey bore, like being stuck in a room with a bunch of oversharers from queer studies class. Even the novel sight of Lithgow cavorting in an Amsterdam sex dungeon, naked aside from...

Director and co-writer (with Matthew Cormack) Sophie Hyde takes inspiration from her own life as daughter of a gay man and mother of a trans nonbinary teenager to tell the moving story of an Australian family on a visit to Amsterdam to spend time with the father and grandfather known affectionately as Jimpa.

Hyde most recently directed the Emma Thompson sex comedy Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. This one features an exceptional lead performance from Olivia Colman as Hannah, a filmmaker (think Hyde) navigating her experience growing up in a family where the father left after 13 years to find a new life as a gay man in Amsterdam. Now with a trans teenager, Frances (played by the filmmaker’s trans nonbinary child Aud Mason-Hyde), who is exploring their own identity and budding sexuality, they take a trip to visit Jimpa (John Lithgow...

The annual IndieWire Studio at Sundance returns for the 2025 edition of the Park City festival. It will feature interviews with the talent behind 25 of the most anticipated films of the festival with discussions taking place in-person on Main Street.

Presented by Dropbox, the IndieWire Studio at Sundance will welcome actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, and documentary subjects for exclusive video interviews with IndieWire’s senior staff starting Friday January 24.

Among the talent we’ll be welcoming to the studio are Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna (“Kiss of the Spiderwoman”), Josh O’Connor (“Rebuilding”), Sarah Jessica Parker (“The Librarians”), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (“Sly Lives!”), Marlee Matlin (“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”), Olivia Colman and John Lithgow (“Jimpa”), Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner (“Atropia”), Juliette Lewis (“By Design”), Rachel Sennott (“Bunnylovr”), Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon (“Train Dreams”), Molly Gordon and Geraldine Viswanathan, Dave Franco and Alison Brie (“Together” plus Franco for “Bubble & Squeak...

Exclusive: Sundance prize-winning filmmaker Sophie Hyde says casting “a version of yourself” is not an easy task.

“It’s very tricky to do,” says Hyde, director of Jimpa, which is premiering today at Park City’s Eccles. It’s a film that sublimely explores what constitutes the makeup of family in our era.

From the get-go, though, Hyde knew that Oscar-winning Olivia Colman would be perfect to play her, or rather a fictionalized version of herself called Hannah.

Like Hyde, Hannah’s a married film artist from Adelaide, the mother of a transgender, nonbinary teenager and the daughter of a father who came out gay when she was a child.

Along with Colman as Hannah, Jimpa also stars Hyde and partner, editor and producer Bryan Mason’s 19-year-old offspring Aud Mason-Hyde playing Hannah’s teenage child Frances and John Lithgow as their grandfather Jim,...

In director Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa, non-binary teen Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) travels to Amsterdam with her mother Hannah (Olivia Colman) to visit her grandfather (John Lithgow); Frances’ longtime nickname for him lends the film its title. Won over by her grandfather’s unabashed queerness and the community he calls home, Frances communicates her desire to stay in Holland for a year to live with Jimpa, which, naturally, complicates things for Hannah. Cinematographer Matthew Chuang delves into the difficulties of shooting between Adelaide and Amsterdam, the influence of Nan Goldin on the film and the “memorable experience” of riding a bike to set […]

The post “With Each Location We Embraced Its Essence:” Dp Matthew Chuang on Jimpa first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In director Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa, non-binary teen Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) travels to Amsterdam with her mother Hannah (Olivia Colman) to visit her grandfather (John Lithgow); Frances’ longtime nickname for him lends the film its title. Won over by her grandfather’s unabashed queerness and the community he calls home, Frances communicates her desire to stay in Holland for a year to live with Jimpa, which, naturally, complicates things for Hannah. Cinematographer Matthew Chuang delves into the difficulties of shooting between Adelaide and Amsterdam, the influence of Nan Goldin on the film and the “memorable experience” of riding a bike to set […]

The post “With Each Location We Embraced Its Essence:” Dp Matthew Chuang on Jimpa first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

While we were eager to tell you last year about Sundance premieres starring Kristen Stewart and Pedro Pascal, the unlikely “Thelma” became the true indie success story of 2024. Unexpected buyer Magnolia Pictures turned the June Squibb film into a hit, opening the doors for other buyers to take their own risks this year.

Heading into 2025, uniqueness is the name of the game, as is picking out the discovery that you won’t see coming, and not necessarily the movie with the big cast, commercial pedigree, or crowdpleaser premise. Last year, we were pretty spot on with “A Real Pain” and “My Old Ass” surviving the long haul, and we were among the few to tell you about “It’s What’s Inside” before Netflix plunked down $17 million to buy it; we were way off on a few others.

The below list is not a collection of movies certain to sell or do so for eight figures,...

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,...

Carey Mulligan is tapping into her offscreen rock roots with buzzy indie, “The Ballad of Wallis Island.”

Mulligan, who is married to Mumford & Sons founder Marcus Mumford, plays a musician in the Focus feature. The official synopsis reads: “‘The Ballad of Wallis Island’ follows Charles (Tim Key), an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden and Mulligan) back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.”

Sian Clifford and Akemnji Ndifornyen round out the cast. “Here We Go” sitcom star Basden and Key co-wrote the feature and also star in the Focus Features release. James Griffiths directs the comedy, which is set on the fictional titular Welsh island.

The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is a little over a week away and it’s time for us to talk about movies that will be the talk of Sundance, movies that push the envelope of imagination and reality, movies that should not be missed and lastly underrated movies that are a must watch as well. The list below is not comprehensive and the goal is not to rank order any of the movies in this list. From films by critically acclaimed directors like Ira Sachs and Richard Linklater to actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Diego Luna, Olivia Coleman, Dev Patel, Jennifer Lopez and Rose Bryne, the list also focuses on independent films by new exciting directors and filmmakers to look out for in the future. In no particular order, we are listing 25 feature films that are a must watch if you are planning to check out the festival.

Jimpa...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its buzzy Beyond Film lineup with top filmmakers in attendance.

The Beyond Film program will take place in-person from January 24-31; the festival films will become available to audiences across the country on the online Festival Platform throughout the week. The festival will take place from January 23 to February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Highlights of the Beyond Film panels include conversations with Chloë Sevigny — who appears in two Sundance 2025 films, “Atropia” and “Magic Farm” — Olivia Colman (“Jimpa”), Marlee Matlin (“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”), and Steven Yeun, who stars in and produces “Bubble & Squeak.”

“Past Lives” writer/director Celine Song, Daniel Kaluuya, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” writer Nicole Perlman are also among the panelists. A live podcast recording of Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah’s “Visitations” will additionally take place; Wood and Noah both produce “Rabbit Trap,” which premieres at the festival.

Tennessee Williams sets Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, his 1955 play about sexual repression, at a cotton plantation on the Mississippi Delta. You can feel the heat in director Rebecca Frecknall’s production at the Almeida Theatre starring a scorching Daisy Edgar-Jones as Maggie, the cat in question, who does all in her power to jolt her inattentive husband, Brick — played superbly by Kingsley Ben-Adir — out of his self-inflicted stupor.

The play opened just a few days ago and there’s already chatter about it transferring into the West End, most appropriately, next summer, and Edgar-Jones must be persuaded to move with it, along with Ben-Adir, Lennie James’ powerful Big Daddy and Clare Burt’s cotton-headed Big Mama.

Edgar-Jones’ Maggie the cat is a study in the art of allure, and calculation; she prowls the Almeida stage like a hungry feline wanting to play with her prey before gobbling it up,...

UK filmmakers and talent have a strong showing at Sundance 2025, taking place from January 23 to February 2, 2025 in Park City.

Brides, the feature debut of theatre director and incoming Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall,premieres in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.The film, which is written by Suhayla El-Bushra,follows two troubled teenage girls who decide to run away to Syria, is produced by Neon’s Nicky Bentham and Marica Stocchi from Italian outfit Rosamont.

It was supported by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales, Welsh Government via Creative Wales, Great Point Media, the Italian Ministry of Culture Minority Co-production Fund,...

Rebuilding, stars Josh O'Connor Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute Sundance has announced it's feature film line-up for next month's festival with Jennifer Lopez, Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor some of the famous names in the line-up.

The festival - which is hosting its penultimate edition in Utah's Park City as it contemplates a move to new pastures - will screen 87 features from 33 different countries and territories. Forty-one per cent of the films are by first-time filmmakers. The festival will run from January 30 to February 2, with the competition films also available to watch online across the US.

JLo will star alongside Diego Luna in Bill Condon's big screen version of stage musical Kiss Of The Spider Woman. Colman, meanwhile, stars in Jimpa alongside John Lithgow, directed by Sophie Hyde, who was last at the festival with Good Luck To You Leo Grande. The film charts a trip...

With snow on the ground and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over its next-to-last edition in Park City, the 41st annual Sundance Film Festival returns to its high-altitude Utah home, where the country’s most important showcase for independent cinema will unspool in person from Jan. 23-Feb. 2, 2025.

While “discovery” remains the focus of the programming team — to the extent that 36 of the 87 features were directed by first-time filmmakers, and three of the six episodic selections — the upcoming edition marks a homecoming for a handful of big names.

Twenty-seven years after “Gods and Monsters,” director Bill Condon returns with his starry take on “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” an adaptation of the stage musical featuring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. Festival regular Ira Sachs is back, paying homage to an underground art hero with “Peter Hujar’s Day,” with Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall.

“Jockey” helmer Clint Bentley welcomes audiences aboard “Train Dreams,...

Sundance Film Festival’s 2025 line-up comprises 87 features, nearly half of which are directed by women, and is crammed with new work by returning stars and indie stalwarts including Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jennifer Lopez, Isabelle Huppert, Mark Ruffalo, and Dev Patel.

Among anticipated highlights are the feature directorial debut of UK playwright and incoming Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall with her Bankside Films sales title Brides inWorld Cinema Dramatic Competition,about teenage friends who plan to travel to Syria.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Peter Hujar’s Day, a drama in Premieres about the New York portrait photographer...

The Sundance Film Festival is considering a big move for 2027, but the 2025 feature film and episodic programs find the Robert Redford founded gathering very much in its traditional wheelhouse with a mix of big-name projects, politics, and what might just be the next big thing.

See the full list of Sundance 2025 feature films (including world premieres) and episodic projects below.

“The Sundance Film Festival remains steadfast in its commitment to elevating unique and urgent voices in independent storytelling,” the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid star said today of the 41st iteration of the festival kicking off on January 23. “Audiences can expect a 2025 program that showcases varied and vibrant filmmaking globally,” Redford added of the 87 features and six episodic projects selected for screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and online next month.

It wouldn’t be Sundance without stars in plushy hooded ski coats, and they’ll be aplenty...

Bankside Films has boarded world sales on UK writer-director Thea Gajić’s feature debut, Surviving Earth, ahead of its screening in the Cannes Great 8 showcase, and unleashed a first-look image.

Surviving Earth is based on a true story. A talented harmonica player arrives in the UK in the 1990s after fleeing the conflict in Yugoslavia. He rebuilds his life in Bristol, working as a counsellor and forming a Balkan band with friends from his work. When traumas from his past life start to resurface, his life starts to fracture, with his beloved only daughter the hardest hit.

Cast includes Slavko Sobin,...

Sydney Film Festival (June 5-16) has unveiled the 12 titles that will play in competition at its 71st edition, including six features that are set to premiere at Cannes this month.

Fresh from playing in Competition at Cannes will be Kinds of Kindness, starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who won the Sydney Film Prize in 2012 with Alps. Further Palme d’Or contenders selected for Sydney include Grand Tour from Portugal’s Miguel Gomes, whose Arabian Nights won the Sydney Film Prize in 2015; Christophe Honoré’s French-Italian comedy Marcello Mio; and Payal Kapadia’s Indian romantic drama All We Imagine As Light.

Olivia Colman and John Lithgow head the cast of “Jimpa,” a multi-generational family tale involving a nonbinary teenager and her mother who take a trip to see their gay grandfather. The Australia- and Europe-set film is directed by Sophie Hyde, whose most recent film was the breakout “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”

The film is now in its third week of production in Amsterdam and will later shoot in Adelaide, Australia and Helsinki, Finland.

Rights to the film are being handled by Protagonist Pictures in much of the world and by CAA Media Finance in North America, with sales kicking off at the Cannes Market next week. The film has already locked in Cineart as distributor in the Benelux region and Kismet and The Unquiet Collective for Australia and New Zealand.

Oscar winner Colman’s recent credits include “The Favourite,” “The Lost Daughter” and the hit Netflix series “The Crown.