Within two days Sundance Film Festival The film begins in Park City with a strong collection of nonfiction films (we leave it to others to cover the list of fictional films!). Opening Day and Night features several world premiere documentaries, including the latest from two Academy Award winners: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson Cunning life! (also known as Burden of Black Genius) And Mstislav Chernov 2000 meters to Andriivka.
In the latest edition of Deadline Doctor Nakash Podcast Documentary programmers welcome to Sundance Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma To explore some of the most anticipated live-action films and episodes on the 2025 slate. Along with Questlove and Chernov’s docs, they tell us about the mystery surrounding the festival’s late addition – Stringerdirected by Bao Nguyen. We say “mystery” because the film was already generating controversy before its debut, and Sundance’s programmers weren’t at liberty to confirm the film’s gist at this point. We can tell you it includes one of the most famous photographs ever taken, one that played a pivotal role in turning public opinion against the American war.
Tsiokos tells us about the festival’s vetting process for documentaries that allege any type of violation, whether of an ethical or legal nature.
Sharma and Tsiokos also highlight more films that could make a splash at Sundance, e.g The perfect neighbordirected by Geeta Gandbir, is an interesting examination of a case in Florida in which a white woman shot her black neighbor in Ocala, Florida in June 2023. The story is told almost entirely through police camera and dashcam videos. PredatorsMeanwhile, directed by David Ossett, it centers around Dateline NBC series To catch the predatorexploring “the scintillating rise and astonishing fall of the show and the world it helped create.”
Related to: Deadline’s top 10 documentaries of 2024
Programmers share details about Deaf president now!a cinematic collaboration between Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim and model-turned-filmmaker Nile DiMarco (the first deaf person to win the award). America’s Next Top Modeland winner of season 22 of Dancing with the stars). Their film examines the massive demonstrations that broke out at historic Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., which serves a student body of deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk, hosted by Academy Award winner John Ridley (12 years of slavery, Shirley) and Matt Curry, documentary editor at Deadline. The capsule is produced by Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and apple.
