By Jessica Herndon
The Tribeca Festival is back, bringing a whirlwind of world premieres and bold screenings shaping today’s cinematic landscape. Running from June 4–15, this year’s festival promises a dynamic slate of storytelling, with 16 films from the Sundance Institute taking center stage in New York City.
During its 24th year, Tribeca will showcase films from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival — like the award-winning Come See Me in the Good Light and Twinless — as well as works from our Documentary Film and Artist Accelerator programs, and an episodic project from a writer who benefitted from our Sundance Collab courses. But that’s not all — Tribeca will also bring back classics from the Sundance Institute vault, like American Psycho and Paris is Burning.
From fresh premieres to Fest hits and iconic throwbacks, the Sundance Institute–supported projects are not to be missed at Tribeca. If you’re attending, be sure to check out the titles below. And for more about the programs mentioned on this list, click here.
Backside — Documentary Film Program
Backside paints an intimate portrait of the unseen “groom” workers that sustain the elite horse-racing industry, showing how wealth, class, and race come together in the United States.
Come See Me in the Good Light — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Festival Favorite Award
Two poets, one incurable cancer diagnosis. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life, and mortality.
East of Wall — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
After the death of her husband, Tabatha — a young, tattooed, rebellious horse trainer — wrestles with financial insecurity and unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of wayward teenagers on her broken-down ranch in the Badlands.
For Venida, For Kalief — Documentary Film Program
For Venida, For Kalief is a poetic cinematic portrait of the complex microcosm of criminal justice reform in New York. The film debuts the poetry of Venida Brodnax Browder, mother of Kalief Browder, whose unjust arrest and tragic suicide deeply resonates with the majority of New Yorkers, and also launches a lyrical exploration of the complicated struggle to end mass incarceration.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.
Oh, Hi! — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Iris and Isaac’s first romantic weekend getaway goes awry.
Runa Simi — Documentary Film Program
Fernando, a voice actor from Cusco, Peru, is trying to save his indigenous language from extinction. His dream: to convince the Walt Disney Company to let him dub The Lion King into Quechua, the language of the Incas. His journey to achieve this will make him re-examine his role as a father and an activist, with his 8 year-old son as his essential sidekick.
The Inquisitor — Artist Accelerator
The Inquisitor chronicles the life of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, whose electrifying voice and moral clarity during President Richard Nixon’s impeachment captivated the nation. From Houston’s 5th Ward to the halls of Congress, Jordan offers a compelling blueprint for uniting a divided America through a turbulent political era.
Twinless — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting and the Audience Award: US Dramatic
Two young men meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.
We Are Pat — Artist Accelerator
We Are Pat is a feature length hybrid doc that uses camp, humor and surrealist recreations of the original Pat sketches to explore the evolution of gender identity, the bounds of comedy, questions of how art ages and our new generation of rising trans and non-binary comedians through the lens of SNL’s iconic sketch It’s Pat.
Widow Champion — Documentary Film Program
Thrown off her land by her in-laws, a resilient Kenyan widow transforms into a fierce advocate for women’s land rights in a highly patriarchal community. Rodah spearheads a courageous movement, rallying fellow widows to reclaim their rightful property. Amidst the clash of tradition and progress, her narrative unfolds, depicting the tension between an ingrained culture and a rapidly evolving world.
From the Sundance Institute Vault
American Psycho — 2000 Sundance Film Festival
A sharp satire to the dark side of yuppie culture of the ’80s as seen through the eyes of a serial-killing stockbroker.
Paris is Burning — 1991 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award
An exploration of the mid–to–late 80s drag ball culture in New York City, and the queer and transgender people of color involved in it.
Requiem for a Dream — 1999 January Screenwriters Lab
Based on the novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., the film follows four people clinging to their dreams, even as everything begins to fall apart.
When You’re Strange — 2009 Sundance Film Festival
A history of Jim Morrison and the Doors includes archival footage of concert performances, recording sessions, and backstage scenes.
