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The 2025 Sundance Question: What Was Your Film’s Most Memorable Day?
Photo: Kelsey Doyle, courtesy Sundance Institute. Each year, Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see last year’s question and responses, click here.) We also send out cinematographer, editor and first-time producer questionnaires.
This year’s question:
Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?
Below, find links to each director’s individual response to the prompt. Keep checking back here during the festival, as more responses will be posted daily!
“A Symbol of Hope and Inspiration for Future Generations”| Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister
“I Always Love Rehearsals” | Sophie Hyde, Jimpa
“It Became My Therapy, My Hope in the World” | Jennifer Tiexiera, Speak.
“All of Us Cracked Up Hysterically” | Violet Du Feng, The Dating Game
“I Realized We Were Going to Make this Film No Matter What” | Georgi Unkovski, DJ Ahmet
“Set is a Pretty Box That Holds Me” | Amanda Kramer, By Design
“We Filmed a Baby Being Born” | Dea Kulumbegashvili, April
“Listening to Them Blew My Mind” | Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Sly Lives
“Sisyphean, but Ultimately Fortuitous” | James Sweeney, Twinless
“We All Brought Something Unique to the Table” | Rashad Frett, Ricky
“The Profound Exchange Between Doctor and Patient” | Gianluca Matarrese, GEN_
“Dance With Me, Ben” | Grace Glowicki, Dead Lover
“Turn Her Trauma into Art” | Kate Beecroft, East of Wall
“A Journey of Nearly Two Decades Had Reached a Natural Conclusion” | Evan Twohy, Bubble & Squeak
“Finally Allowing Myself to Grieve” | Tony Benna, André is an Idiot
“A Delusional Burst of Confidence” | Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
“The Snow Was Deep and the Polar Night Was Underway” | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, FOLKTALES
“We Were Forced to Evacuate Palestine” | Cherien Dabis, All That’s Left of You
“Respect and Appreciate the Mundane Moments” | Brittany Shyne, Seeds
“What I Perceived as the Truth Fundamentally Changed” | Bao Nguyen, The Stringer
“From Day One, Andrea Was All-in” | Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light
“A Film Is Like a Puzzle” | Vladimir de Fontenay, Sukkwan Island
“Our Communication Had Been Restricted” | David Borenstein, Mr. Nobody Against Putin
“The Beginning of A Very Powerful Artistic Exchange” | Chloé Robichaud, Two Women
“A Joyous Return to the Wonder and Thrill of Youthful Invention” | Albert Birney, OBEX
“Everything That Can Go Wrong Did” | Katarina Zhu, Bunnylovr
“A Spark That Turned into a Wild Creative Ride” | Amber Fares, Coexistence, My Ass!
“A Tradition My Dad and I Shared for Nearly Three Decades” | Tadashi Nakamura, Third Act
“Moviemaking Goes Hand-in-Hand with Collaboration” | Sophie Brooks, Oh, Hi!
“It Might Yield Something Truly Beautiful” | Clint Bentley, Train Dreams
“The Day We Became a Family” | Elegance Bratton, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
“There was Time to Know, Already, I’ll Remember This.” | Max Walker-Silverman, Rebuilding
“We Just Kept Bursting Out Laughing” | Cooper Raiff, Hal & Harper
“For the First Time, I Could See the Film in Front of Me” | Joel Alfonso Vargas, Mad Bills to Pay
“We All Danced Together” | Laura Casabé, The Virgin of the Quarry Lake
“The Day Another Film Fell Apart” | Charlie Shackleton, Zodiac Killer Project
“I Looked Over and She Was Weeping” | Rachael Abigail Holder, Love, Brooklyn
“I Got to Have a Korean Wedding” | Andrew Ahn, The Wedding Banquet
“I Couldn’t Shake the Crew’s Faces” | Mark Anthony Green, Opus
“It Was All There, in One Afternoon” | Rachel Fleit, Sugar Babies
“The Enormity of This Historical Moment wasn’t Lost on Me” | Sam Feder, Heightened Scrutiny
“This Shoot Collapsed That Separation Completely” | Reid Davenport, Life After
“We Broke a Cardinal Rule of Documentary Filmmaking” | Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, Middletown
“The Night We Filmed the Flash Mob” | Erin Brown Thomas, Chasers
“Isaac Mizrahi in the Tub” | Douglas Keeve, Unzipped
“More Than a Production, It Was a Communion” | Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
“People Are Willing to Show Up if You Create Something Important” | Mathias Broe, Sauna
“A Grueling 12-hour Interview Day” | Cristina Costantini, SALLY
“We Did Not Lose Our Love for Our City” | Timeea Mohamed Ahmed & Rawia Alhag, Khartoum
“We Did These Sensual Slow-Motion Close-Up Shots with Our Actors” | Addison Heimann, Touch Me
“A Deeply Important Gap in Kenya’s History” | Maia Lekow & Christopher King, How to Build a Library
“The Turning Point for the Entire Project” | David Ngo, Never Get Busted!
“The Students Provide a Heartfelt Example We Can All Follow” | Robert May, Bucks County, USA
