Reporter Maya Mackinnon talked to Sundance Senior Programmer Heidi Swicker about what it's like to be a festival programmer and some of the films to pay attention to at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Swicker: So I have always been a TV and film kid, a product of my generation, a kid who ran home from school and just was babysat by the TV. And I didn't necessarily think there was any place for me in working life in this world. And I went to school originally as an English major, and then found out that the English program where I went at U Mass had a concentration in film and drama studies, which felt like fate. And then I went on to UCLA Film School, doing film studies again, not really knowing how that was going to turn into a job at all. And while I was there, Sundance was looking for people to help them read scripts for the lab. And I had never done coverage before, never done anything like it, but I went in and they liked my taste, and so I started doing that. And a year later, they recommended me to the festival to start watching films for them. And I was pretty much addicted. I didn't know that this could be a job, you know, to find films that you love and support and help those filmmakers have, like, a great entry into the world. It's kind of a dream job that I didn't really know existed until I fell into it.
Mackinnon: Looking through the films, I can kind of get an idea of a sort of general, overall theme. But I wanted to know from you if there is a general theme for this year?
Swicker: You know, I feel like our goal every year is for the theme to be like a portrait of the world in this moment. And I'm really excited, because I do think this year's program really does that. It speaks to where we are in the world in so many different ways. I think for us as programmers, we don't want many of the films to feel very similar to one another. We want as broad a range as we can but I do think there's so many films that speak to where we are, you know, environmentally, politically, so that's what really excites us and that just about half the program is US. But then there's programs from around the world as well that I really think, hopefully create a little picture of our planet right now.
Mackinnon: What films that might not be getting a ton of significant attention right now should I keep an eye out for?
Swicker: I feel like it is getting a lot of attention, but for the locals, I have to recommend Omaha, which is an amazing film by a Utah filmmaker, a total, total heartstring puller, tear jerker, which speaks to the economic state of a lot of families in our country right now. And it's so about something real and how families are struggling. So really beautiful, really sad film, but have to shout it out as a Utah film, but I think there's so many films.
I mean, depending on people's interests, I'm really excited to see how a documentary like Free Leonard Peltier reaches an audience, because obviously he is, you know, an indigenous activist who has been in prison for 50 years, and like that he still is imprisoned. Is so tough and like and this film makes such a compelling, well, well put together, you know, history of his life, argument for his freedom. And I'm, I'm really hoping that that's a film that people will discover. But really, there's all sorts of like, you know, environmental social justice causes.
One that I'm really hoping people will also find is a documentary called Middletown, which is a group of high school students many years ago, discovered that there was illegal dumping, like polluting their community, and the high school video club did an expose of it, and actually made change in their community. And I think that's like a very cool story that I hope people discover have a really wonderful like romantic drama in our US dramatic competition called Love, Brooklyn, a first feature by a woman filmmaker, starring Andre Holland. It's kind of like a more mature love triangle. I feel like evening film festivals maybe are thought of as the land of coming of age stories. And I love coming of age stories, but this is one about people who are a little older and still figuring it out, really like that one.
There's a film also in US dramatic competition called Sorry, Baby, about a young woman who has to deal with a huge trauma in her life, and it's how she moves forward, how she processes it. And it's it's so achingly real, but it's also funny, because life is like that, and it's the writer, director and star. Her name is Eva Victor, and I think she's going to be a huge star. And so I'm super excited to support that one. I will say that we have a couple local filmmakers in our short film program too, and people who are maybe watching from home and want to see things online, you can get a shorts pass and get to see all the short films for a lower rate. So it's also good bargain tip. We do have an animated film called Paradise Man by a filmmaker who lived in Utah for many years, and a documentary short which is about California, but is made by a Utah based filmmaker named Robert Machoian.
Mackinnon: Obviously, your position opens and creates a lot of opportunities for people. What kind of impact do you hope you can make through that?
Swicker: You know, it is like the very most fun part of my job to be with filmmakers when their work is first discovered by an audience like so whether it's like they laugh at a joke in the movie for the very first time, or they cry for the first time, seeing the filmmaker react to that is like an amazing feeling. And the truth is, there are so many different opportunities for the film coming out of Sundance, and then for the artists moving forward in their career out of Sundance. So sometimes filmmakers will sign with an agent or find the person who's going to give them the money to make their next movie. But it really is all sort of just centered around like that warm embrace of an audience around a film for the first time. And it's kind of overwhelmingly wonderful to be in the room when that happens.
