Kota Johan as Dakota in Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s film Tendaberry, premiering in the NEXT category at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Of the 91 features announced as part of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival lineup, 43 include one or more directors who identify as women. That’s roughly 47%.
On the surface, it would seem that 2023 was a landmark year for women filmmakers — Greta Gerwig directed the highest-grossing film of the year, and Barbie broke records left and right. But according to a study by San Diego State University, only 16% of the year’s 250 highest-grossing films had women directors. That’s down 2% from 2022.
Sundance Institute recognizes that this inequality won’t go away on its own. The nonprofit Institute’s artist programs provide support for artists from underrepresented communities year-round, and we’re so excited to showcase the new works and unique voices of women filmmakers every January at the Sundance Film Festival.
Below, you’ll find a list of all the 2024 Sundance Film Festival features that include at least one director who identifies as a woman. The 2024 Festival, which will take place in person in Utah as well as online, has an array of projects by women filmmakers as diverse and fascinating as the artists themselves. From eye-opening documentaries to nuanced fictional stories to genre-bending features that will have you glued to the screen until the credits roll, the following list may just contain your new favorites.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
Available to watch in person and online
In a forest in Norway, a family lives an isolated lifestyle in an attempt to be wild and free, but a tragic event changes everything, and they are forced to adjust to modern society.
Director: Dorottya Zurbó (and Arun Bhattarai)
Available to watch in person and online
Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Director: Shiori Ito
Available to watch in person and online
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
Director: Daphne Matziaraki (and Peter Murimi)
Available to watch in person and online
Unresolved historical injustices and climate change raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven.
Director: Lucy Lawless
Available to watch in person and online
New Zealand–born groundbreaking CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth risks it all to show the reality of war from inside the conflict, staring down danger and confronting those who perpetuate it.
Director: Anupama Srinivasan (and Anirban Dutta)
Available to watch in person and online
In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Director: Shuchi Talati
Available to watch in person and online
In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira discovers desire and romance. But her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself.
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Available to watch in person and online
On a hot summer day in Oslo, the newly dead awaken. Three families faced with loss try to figure out what this resurrection means and if their loved ones really are back. Based on the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
Director: Raha Amirfazli (and Alireza Ghasemi)
Available to watch in person and online
Three members of an extended Afghan family start their lives over in Iran as refugees, unaware they face a decades-long struggle ahead to be “at home.”
Director: Klaudia Reynicke
Available to watch in person and online
Surrounded by social and political chaos in Lima during the summer of 1992, Lucia, Aurora, and their mother, Elena, plan to leave and seek opportunities in the United States. Their farewell involves reconnecting with their estranged father, Carlos, adding turbulence to the regrets, hopes, and fears of their emotional departure.
Directors: Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez
Available to watch in person and online
When a cartel gunman is killed, he leaves behind Sujo, his beloved 4-year-old son. The shadow of violence surrounds Sujo during each stage of his life in the isolated Mexican countryside. As he grows into a man, Sujo finds that fulfilling his father’s destiny may be inescapable.
Director: Julia Niemann (and Daniel Hoesl)
Available to watch in person and online
The Maynards and their children lead an almost perfect billionaire family life. Amon is a passionate hunter, but doesn’t shoot animals, as the family’s wealth allows them to live totally free from consequences.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Directors: Angela Patton, Natalie Rae
Available to watch in person and online
Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.
Director: Sally Aitken
Available to watch in person and online
Amid the glamour of Hollywood, Los Angeles, a woman finds herself on a transformative journey as she nurtures wounded hummingbirds, unraveling a visually captivating and magical tale of love, fragility, healing, and the delicate beauty in tiny acts of greatness.
Director: Carla Gutiérrez
Available to watch in person and online
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
Director: Emily Kassie (and Julian Brave NoiseCat)
Available to watch in person and online
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
Director: Brett Story (and Stephen Maing)
Available to watch in person and online
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Director: India Donaldson
Available to watch in person and online
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
Director: Sam Zuchero (and Andy Zuchero)
Available to watch in person and online
Long after humanity’s extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love.
Director: Theda Hammel
Available to watch in person and online
Terry Goon is keeping strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn brownstone while caring for his nephew — a 19-year-old model from Morocco named Bahlul — bedridden in a full leg cast after an electric scooter accident. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone in his life wants to meet the model.
Director: Laura Chinn
Available to watch in person and online
A teenager who, while caring for her brother along with her audacious mother, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an eccentric activist who is protesting one of the most landmark medical cases of all time. Inspired by a semi-autobiographical story.
NEXT
Director: Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Available to watch in person and online
When her boyfriend goes back to Ukraine to be with his ailing father, 23-year-old Dakota anxiously navigates her precarious new reality, surviving on her own in New York City.
FAMILY MATINEE
Director: Amber Sealey
Available to watch in person
Melody Brooks is navigating sixth grade as a nonverbal wheelchair user who has cerebral palsy. With the help of some assistive technology and her devoted, exuberant allies, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.
MIDNIGHT
Director: Rose Glass
Available to watch in person
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
Director: Caroline Lindy
Available to watch in person
After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet.
PREMIERES
Director: Ramona S. Diaz
Available to watch in person and online
Amidst the traditional pomp and circumstance of Filipino elections, a quirky people’s movement rises to defend the nation against deepening threats to truth and democracy. In a collective act of joy as a form of resistance, hope flickers against the backdrop of increasing autocracy.
Director: Anna Boden (and Ryan Fleck)
Available to watch in person
In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town’s underdogs in four interconnected tales: Teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score. Basically another day in the Bay.
Director: Kelly O’Sullivan (and Alex Thompson)
Available to watch in person
When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.
Director: Amanda McBaine (and Jesse Moss)
Available to watch in person
Teenage girls from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri navigate a week-long immersive experiment in American democracy, build a government from the ground up, and reimagine what it means to govern.
Director: Lana Wilson
Available to watch in person
A group of New York City psychics conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients, revealing a kaleidoscope of loneliness, connection, and healing.
Director: Dawn Porter
Available to watch in person
Luther Vandross started his career supporting David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, and more. His undeniable talent earned platinum records and accolades, but he struggled to break out beyond the R&B charts. Intensely driven, he overcame personal and professional challenges to secure his place amongst the greatest vocalists in history.
Director: Megan Park
Available to watch in person
The summer before college, bright-yet-irreverent Elliott comes face-to-face with her older self during a mushroom trip. The encounter spurs a funny and heartfelt journey of self-discovery and first love as Elliott prepares to leave her childhood home.
Director: Nora Fingscheidt
Available to watch in person
After living life on the edge in London, Rona attempts to come to terms with her troubled past. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands — where she grew up — hoping to heal. Adapted from the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot.
Director: Sarah Dowland
Available to watch in person
In her 21-year professional career, WNBA basketball legend Sue Bird has won five Olympic gold medals and become the most successful point guard to ever play the game. Alongside her fiancée, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Sue confronts her next challenge: retiring from the only life she’s ever known.
Director: Susanna Fogel
Available to watch in person
Reality Winner is a brilliant young misfit from a Texas border town who finds her morals challenged while serving as an NSA contractor. A sarcastic, gun-lovin, vegan, yogi, and CrossFit fanatic, Reality is an unconventional whistleblower who ends up being prosecuted for exposing Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election.
SPOTLIGHT
Director: Marie Amachoukeli
Available to watch in person
Six-year-old Cléo loves her nanny, Gloria, more than anything. When Gloria must return to Cape Verde to care for her own children, the two must make the most of their last summer together.
Director: Molly Manning Walker
Available to watch in person
Three British teenage girls go on a rite-of-passage holiday, drinking, clubbing, and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. As they dance their way across the sun-drenched streets of Malia, they find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent, and self-discovery.
Director: Asmae El Moudir
Available to watch in person and online
On a handmade set re-creating her Casablanca neighborhood, a young Moroccan filmmaker enlists family and friends to help unearth the troubling lies built into her childhood.
40TH EDITION CELEBRATION SCREENINGS
Director: Ondi Timoner
Available to watch in person
DIG! XX tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry.
Director: Rose Troche
Available to watch in person
Max is looking for love. Her roommate, Kia, already has it in the person of Evy, who lives at home with her mom while still trying to shake off her ex-husband. Then there’s Ely, Kia’s ex-student who is seemingly available. Ely shares a place with Daria, the quintessential lesbian about town, constantly in and out of women’s beds and hearts. Kia thinks Max would like Ely; Daria thinks Ely should like Max. Everyone schemes. We’re treated to a date, a dinner party, pride, honor, friendship, laundry, nail clipping — and, of course, sex.
Director: Mira Nair
Available to watch in person
Shot on location in Kampala, Uganda, and Mississippi, Mira Nair’s second feature film tells the story of an upper-class Indian family forced to flee Idi Amin’s tyranny in 1972. After nearly two decades of travel and expatriate existence, they find themselves in Greenwood, Mississippi, where they join relatives in running a motel. Their daughter, Mina, is basically “Westernized” and also capable of achieving more than the day-to-day jobs at the motel. When she meets Demetrius, an enterprising young carpet cleaner, their relationship creates an uproar amongst their respective family and friends. The closet racism that has remained hidden behind a veneer of unity rears its ugly head, resulting in dire consequences.
Director: Dee Rees
Available to watch in person
When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Director: Jennifer Kent
Available to watch in person
“Do you want to die?!” 7-year-old Samuel asks his stressed-out single mother, Amelia. She wonders if his question is a threat or a warning. After dealing with Samuel’s frantic tantrums his entire life, Amelia suspects that her son has begun directing his violent misbehavior toward her. However, after a dark and foreboding children’s book called Mister Babadook mysteriously appears on Samuel’s bookshelf, Amelia must decide if her son is truly deranged, or if there really is a bogeyman lurking in their darkened halls at night.
