written by Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire
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 with a number of other films as well, especially “Twinless,” “Train Dreams,” and “Omaha,” as well as the astonishing Rose Byrne-starring “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” which broke through at several spots on our list despite being an in-person only film that had to be seen in Park City, Utah.
176 critics voted in this year’s survey, and though “Sorry, Baby,” “Twinless,” and “Train Dreams” were on the virtual platform that Sundance rolled out for home viewing, it’s notable to see how many movies here worked their way onto these lists via in-person only screenings. If you weren’t at the Eccles for that rousing world premiere of Michael Shanks’ body horror “Together,” you missed out on one very reactive audience.
Voting for the survey involved choosing a ranked top three for most of the categories (with three points going to the #1 vote, two points to the #2 vote, and one point for the #3 vote), much like the Academy Awards’ own preferential ballot system.
Best Documentary went to “The Perfect Neighbor,” Geeta Gandbhir’s startling nonfiction account of how “stand your ground” laws can escalate petty disputes into tragedy, and Best International Fiction Film and Best International Documentary film (both categories where voters chose only one selection) went to Turkish potboiler “The Things You Kill” and Oscar-winning Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov for “2000 Meters to Andriivka” respectively. Chernov’s previous documentary, “20 Days in Mariupol,” world premiered at Sundance 2023 and went on to win the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award.
If Sundance is the unofficial kickoff to the movie year, the list below shows you’ve got a lot of viewing ahead of you. Enjoy.
BEST FILM
1. “Sorry, Baby”
2. “Twinless” | Costume Designer: Erin Orr
3. “Train Dreams”
4. “Omaha”
5. “The Things You Kill”
6. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
7. “Plainclothes”
8. “Together”
9. “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)”
10. “The Ballad of Wallis Island”
BEST SCREENPLAY
1. “Sorry, Baby”
2. “Twinless” | Costume Designer: Erin Orr
3. “The Things You Kill”
4. “Train Dreams”
5. “Atropia”
6. “Lurker” | Editor: David Kashevaroff, ACE
7. “Plainclothes”
8. “Omaha”
9. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
10. TIE: “Rebuilding”/“Two Women”
BEST FIRST FILM
1. “Sorry, Baby”
2. “Plainclothes”
3. “Together”
4. “Omaha”
5. “Twinless” | Costume Designer: Erin Orr
6. “Lurker” | Editor: David Kashevaroff, ACE
7. “Atropia”
8. “Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake)”
9. “Brides”
10. “Seeds”
