By Adam Silverstein
Love takes many forms at the Sundance Film Festival — romantic, obsessive, tender, and dangerous. This year’s Festival features stories of connection shaped by grief, war, memory, fantasy, and time itself. From quiet intimacies to high-stakes devotion, these films explore what it means to love — and to be loved — when the world keeps getting in the way.
Bedford Park (U.S. Dramatic Competition) — Love rarely arrives when you’re ready for it — and sometimes it shows up where it absolutely shouldn’t. Written and directed by Stephanie Ahn, this film follows Audrey (Moon Choi), a Korean-American woman in her 30s who is emotionally battered by grief, loss, and repeated miscarriages. When a family crisis brings her back to her parents’ home, she meets Eli (Son Sukku), a man she has every reason to resent. What unfolds is a slow, unsentimental love story between two people who have learned not to trust the world — but begin, quietly, to trust each other. Unshowy and deeply humane, Bedford Park captures love not as salvation, but as recognition: being seen, fully, without pretence. Available to watch in person and online
Birds of War (World Cinema Documentary Competition) — At the center of this documentary is a love story lived in fragments — texts sent across continents, silences filled with fear, connection constantly threatened by violence. Co-directed by Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, the film follows their relationship over 13 years, as Habak documents revolution and war in Syria while Boulos builds a life in London. Bombs explode, regimes fall, and love persists — shakily, bravely, often at great cost. Through astonishing personal archives, it lays bare the intimacy of loving someone whose survival is never guaranteed, and the guilt of choosing safety while others remain in danger. Birds of War is a portrait of love under siege — and of the small relief a single message can bring. Available to watch in person and online
Carousel (U.S. Dramatic Competition) — There’s a gentle, old-fashioned sweetness to Carousel, a film that believes in the power of second chances. Written and directed by Rachel Lambert, it stars Chris Pine as Noah, a divorced doctor whose orderly life is disrupted by the reappearance of Rebecca (Jenny Slate), a former love who still knows him better than anyone. Their chemistry is warm, awkward, and achingly believable, filled with the comfort — and risk — of familiarity. Abby Ryder Fortson shines as Noah’s anxious, debate-obsessed daughter, anchoring the film’s emotional stakes. With its soft piano score and distinctly midwestern setting, this is a reminder that some loves don’t disappear — they just wait patiently for life to catch up. Available to watch in person and online
Leviticus (Midnight) — Affection curdles into terror in this daring feature debut from Australian director Adrian Chiarella that fuses queer romance with supernatural horror. Teenage boys Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) fall for each other in a world that has taught them to fear desire — and themselves. What begins as a tender first crush spirals into something far darker, as love is weaponized and shame takes monstrous form. The film is unsettling and unexpectedly moving, capturing how queer love can be punished by forces determined to erase it. Yet at its core, Leviticus is an act of defiance: a story about choosing love over fear, and refusing to believe that desire is something to be destroyed. Available to watch in person
Living with a Visionary (Short Film Program 1) — Few films convey enduring love as delicately as this one. Written and directed by Stephen P. Neary and narrated by James Cromwell, this animated short is based on John Matthias’ memoir about caring for his wife, Laura (Katherine LaVictoire), as Parkinson’s disease reshapes their shared reality. Rendered in soft, colorful sketch drawings, the film portrays hallucinations, confusion, and the slow erosion of certainty, alongside devotion that refuses to fade. After five decades of marriage, love becomes an act of patience and imagination, even as illness intrudes. Brief but devastating, this is a portrait of loyalty in its hardest form, and of love enduring as understanding slips away. Available to watch in person and online
Wicker (Premieres) — Love can make us do strange things, and Wicker leans gleefully into that idea. Directed by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, and adapted from Ursula Wills’ short story, the film stars Olivia Colman as a lonely fisherwoman who longs so deeply for companionship that she commissions a husband to be woven from wicker. When her creation (Alexander Skarsgård) comes to life, the village erupts with gossip, jealousy, and scandal. Peter Dinklage is delightfully sly as the basketmaker who sets everything in motion. Funny, tragic, and quietly unsettling, what evolves is a surreal meditation on desire, loneliness, and the lengths we’ll go to feel loved — even if it costs us everything. Available to watch in person
