The Alabama Solution and The Stringer Join 2025 Sundance Film Festival Program
The Sundance Film Festival, a cornerstone of independent cinema, has expanded its 2025 lineup with the addition of two new documentaries: The Alabama Solution and The Stringer. With these latest inclusions, the Festival will now present a total of 88 feature films, representing 33 countries. The event is scheduled to run from January 23 to February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with online screenings from January 30 to February 2.
Single Film Tickets for both in-person and online screenings will be available starting January 16 at 10 a.m. Mountain Time, through the official Sundance website.
The two newly announced documentaries, both part of the Premieres category, are directed by seasoned filmmakers familiar to Sundance audiences. Andrew Jarecki returns with The Alabama Solution, which delves into a harrowing story of incarcerated individuals exposing corruption within America’s prison system. Jarecki, known for Capturing the Friedmans (2003) and The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015), is joined by Bao Nguyen, whose The Stringer uncovers a decades-old scandal tied to an iconic 20th-century photograph. Nguyen previously premiered Be Water (2020) and The Greatest Night in Pop (2024) at Sundance.
Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming, emphasized the thematic resonance of these additions: “Adding these two nonfiction features to our robust slate of documentary offerings at the Festival, both told by filmmakers who have been a part of our Sundance community for many years, completes our programming with compelling explorations around justice and truth-telling.”
The Sundance Film Festival is an artist program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, dedicated to supporting and developing artists year-round through labs, grants, residencies, and educational programs like Sundance Collab. Notably, 96% of this year’s 88 features are world premieres, and 42% of the directors are presenting their debut feature films.
Latest Additions to the 2025 Sundance Premieres Category
- The Alabama Solution / U.S.A. (Directors, Producers: Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman) — A documentary about incarcerated men defying the odds to uncover corruption in one of the United States’ deadliest prison systems. World Premiere.
- The Stringer / U.S.A. (Director: Bao Nguyen, Producers: Fiona Turner, Terri Lichstein) — An investigative documentary unraveling five decades of secrets surrounding an iconic photograph and the pursuit of justice for an anonymous figure known as “the stringer.” World Premiere.
This year’s Festival will offer a hybrid experience, with more than half of the feature program—including all competition categories—available online for viewers nationwide. Additional films will be screened daily in Park City and Salt Lake City during the 11-day event, with programs spotlighting fresh voices and diverse perspectives.