Sundance
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“We Prioritized Story Over Logistics”: Producer Grant Ellison on Sunfish
Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) follows a group of characters as their paths begin to cross on Northern Michigan’s Green Lake. Besides being the debut feature of director Sierra Falconer, Sunfish is also Grant Ellison’s first credit as a producer. Below, Ellison talks about becoming a producer as someone whose day job is in policy research and how he was able to learn on the fly. See all responses to our annual Sundance first-time producer interviews here. Filmmaker: How did you connect with this filmmaker and wind up producing the film? Ellison: Sierra and I are high school sweethearts. We […]
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“Our Job Was To Create Two Movies”: Editor Brian Kates on Kiss of the Spider Woman and It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
Screening in Sundance’s Premieres section, Kiss of the Spider Woman is a reimagining of the 1985 film set amid Argentina’s Dirty War, with one prisoner relating his favorite Hollywood musical to the other. The film is directed by Bill Condon, whose credits include Dreamgirls, Gods and Monsters, and both parts of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary about the belated singer who drowned at 27 in 1997 featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with those close to him, is also screening as part of the Premieres section. The film marks the return of Amy Berg (Phoenix Rising) to Sundance. […]
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“A Tradition My Dad and I Shared for Nearly Three Decades” | Tadashi Nakamura, Third Act
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? Looking back on the production of Third Act, one of the most significant days for me was filming a scene of my dad and me driving to the Rose Bowl for a UCLA football game. This wasn’t just any outing—it was a tradition my dad and I shared for nearly three decades, starting when […]
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“A Spark That Turned into a Wild Creative Ride” | Amber Fares, Coexistence, My Ass!
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? I met Noam in a cafe in Brooklyn in the fall of 2019. We knew each other from years prior when I was living in Ramallah, Palestine, and making my first film, Speed Sisters. She was working for the UN at the time. But when we reconnected in the US, she was at Harvard for […]
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“A One-person Crew”: DP Brittany Shyne on Seeds
In Seeds, her feature debut, Brittany Shyne explores the generational legacy of Black farmers in the American south via observational vignettes shot in stunning black and white. Acting as director, producer and cinematographer, Shyne developed authentic connections with the film’s oft-elderly subjects, and she cites the passing of several of these participants as “the most difficult days” of production. Below, Shyne elaborates on the decision to shoot solo, the visual artists she looked to for inspiration and her natural approach to lighting. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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“This Experience Really Drives Home the Idea of What a Passion Project Really Is”: Editor Sydney Cowper on Endless Cookie
Half-brothers Seth and Peter Scriver investigate their differing identities in Endless Cookie, an “animated hangout film” that chronicles their lives from 1980s Toronto to present-day remote Shamattawa. Peter’s Indigeneity and Seth’s whiteness are contrasted and contextualized, yet their fraternal bond is never scrutinized. Editor Sydney Cowper discusses cutting the project, shedding insight on the film’s lengthy production, how piano lessons helped shape her craft and the “truly validating” feeling of signing onto this project. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the […]
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“Let the Weight of the Words Carry the Scene”: DP Bao Nguyen on The Stringer
Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize–winning photo The Terror of War, sometimes referred to as “Napalm Girl,” is one of the most recognizable photographs ever taken. The Stringer, directed by Bao Nguyen (The Greatest Night in Pop) and playing the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Premires sections, investigates the history of the photograph and contests its authorship. Nguyen also served as one of three cinematographers on the film, alongside Andrew Yuyi Truong. Below, the three of them answer discuss establishing a consistent visual language and connecting the themes of secrecy and discovery with shadow and light. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer […]
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“I’ve Never Prepped a Movie So Many Times.”: DP Christopher Aoun, All That’s Left of You
Taking place in 1948, 1978, 1988 and 2022, All That’s Left of You traces the history of a fictional Palestinian family in flashback after a confrontation at a West Bank protest. All That’s Left of You is the third feature of director Cherien Dabris, whose Amreeka and May in the Summer played Sundance in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Christopher Aoun (Capernaum) served as the film’s cinematographer. Below, he talks about how he distinguished the film’s four timelines and the difficulties of prepping the film from scratch after the crew was forced out of the West Bank in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. See all responses to our […]
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“Each Set of Rushes Presents a Unique Puzzle”: Editor George Cragg on The Thing with Feathers
In The Thing with Feathers, a widower and father of two suspects he is being stalked by a crow-like figure. The adaptation of Max Porter’s book of the same name stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is the fiction feature debut of director Dylan Southern (Shut Up and Play the Hits, Meet Me in the Bathroom). The versatile George Cragg (Collective, I Am Not a Witch, Earth Mama) served as the film’s editor in his first collaboration with Southern. He talks about how he made his way up in the industry and how he and Southern restructured the film below. See all responses to our […]
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“All the Delicate Layers Gently Rose to the Surface”: DP Daisy Zhou on Bunnylovr
In Bunnylovr, a Chinese American cam girl tries to reconnect with her father while managing a deteriorating relationship with one of her clients. The film, part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is director Katarina Zhu directorial feature debut. Handling cinematographer duties is Daisy Zhou (The African Desperate, Suicide by Sunlight). Below, she rattles off a number of influences and goes into detail about her camera selection and approach to lighting. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the […]
