The Peabody Awards don’t just recognize great storytelling, they spotlight the work that shifts the cultural conversation. Each year, the honors spotlight an enigmatic range of stories across documentary, news, public service, and audio.
It’s work that doesn’t just teach us about how we move through the world, it packs an impact that resonates. As the organization notes, its winners “are a collection of stories that powerfully reflect the pressing social issues and the vibrant emerging voices of our day.”
At a moment when culturally urgent stories are essential, this year’s nominees arrive with undeniable force. We’re thrilled to see a slate of Sundance Institute–supported projects, spanning films nurtured through our labs and titles that premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, recognized among the nominees for the 86th annual Peabody Awards.
They list of nominees features eight powerful documentaries, from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Favorite Award winner Come See Me in the Good Light, to Oscar-winning Mr. Nobody Against Putin, which premiered at the 2025 Festival, The Perfect Neighbor, which took home the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary at the 2025 Fest, and more.
Read on for all of the Sundance Institute–supported films nominated for Peabodys, and help us support these docs when the winners are announced on April 23.
Come See Me in the Good Light — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Festival Favorite Award
Logline: Two poets, one incurable cancer diagnosis. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley go on an unexpectedly funny and poignant journey through love, life, and mortality.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award
Logline: As Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, primary schools across Russia’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war. Facing the ethical dilemma of working in a system defined by propaganda and violence, a brave teacher goes undercover to film what’s really happening in his own school.
No Other Land — Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and the 2023 Documentary Edit and Story Lab
Logline: For ten years, Basel, a young Palestinian activist, has been filming homes in his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers. During the darkest period of his life, in face of mass eviction of his community, he develops an unlikely, intimate relationship with a similarly aged Israeli journalist who joins his struggle.
Pee-wee as Himself — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Pee-wee as Himself explores the complex life of Paul Reubens, known as Pee-wee Herman, highlighting his artistic influences and the backlash he faced, particularly after his 1991 arrest.
Predators — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: To Catch a Predator was a popular television show designed to hunt down child predators and lure them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and eventually arrested. An exploration of the scintillating rise and staggering fall of the show and the world it helped create.
The Alabama Solution — 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: Incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up in one of America’s deadliest prison systems.
The Perfect Neighbor — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
Logline: A seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. Police bodycam footage and investigative interviews expose the consequences of Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.
2000 Meters to Andriivka — 2025 Sundance Film Festival, winner of the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Logline: Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
