'The Thing With Feathers' to Debut at Sundance 2025

The American Sundance Film Festival is young compared to other "Big Five" International Film Festivals, aka the events where production studios debut their best bets for awards love. The original Big Three, the Venice Film Festival in Italy, The Cannes Film Festival in France, and The Berlin International Film Festival (usually called The Berlinale) launched between 1932 and 1951. In comparison, the 1970s-launched Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and Sundance are newcomers. However, Sundance's strategic January placement has allowed it to overtake Berlinale as the opening shot for filmmakers to introduce their contenders.

The mid-2020s will be a significant period for Sundance, as next year, 2026, will mark the last year of its contract for remaining in Park City and the Sundance Resort area of Utah. After 48 years, the festival has reached a point where it is outgrowing the area. Park City continues to be a finalist to win back the contract (something that will set the festival on a course for a 50-year celebration in 2028). Still, conventional wisdom assumes it will move, with the other two finalist spaces in Boulder, Colorado, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Like the American Film Institute's festival in Los Angeles, Sundance is primarily an American-centric program (founder Robert Redford designed it to showcase and promote American Independent Film). However, plenty of international contenders compete in the world showcases and newer programming categories like "Next" and "Spotlight." One of those debuts, The Thing with Feathers, a film first announced as a Cannes Market project two years ago in 2023 and, after some delays, was picked up by Film4. The film puts Benedict Cumberbatch back in a leading role as a father experiencing a mental health crisis*.