Paul Reubens appears in “Pee-wee as Himself,” an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
By Lucy Spicer
May is here! And with warmer weather and summer planning come some exciting events for Sundance Institute: Lab season is officially underway, the dates for Sundance Film Festival: CDMX 2025 have been announced, and submissions for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival are now open! And if you want even more to look forward to, we’ve got a fresh crop of Sundance Institute–supported releases coming to big and small screens alike.
Sundance Film Festival connoisseurs are in for a treat this month, as the five new releases span three Festival years: 2023, 2024, and 2025. From 2023 comes a stylish Detroit-set drama that premiered in the Festival’s NEXT section, while 2024 films include an Indigenous Australian horror feature and a documentary about the 2022 presidential election in the Philippines. And from this year’s Festival we have more riveting nonfiction — a chronicle of a pivotal student protest at the world’s only Deaf university and a two-part episodic doc about comedy icon Paul Reubens.
Dig in! Whether you’re enjoying films from past Festivals, learning about the fellows who will shape the future of independent film, or preparing to submit your own original work, there are lots of ways to make Sundance Institute a part of your spring and summer.
The Moogai — An Aboriginal couple welcomes home their second baby, but the family’s new joy is interrupted when the mother (Shari Sebbens) notices strange behavior in her first child. Memories of her own forced displacement and adoption into a white family resurface as she becomes convinced that a sinister spirit has come to steal her new baby. Based on his short film of the same name, writer-director Jon Bell’s feature directorial debut premiered in the Midnight section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Coming to select theaters May 9.
And So It Begins — Sundance Film Festival regular Ramona S. Diaz returned to the Festival in 2024 with a companion piece to her 2020 documentary A Thousand Cuts, which followed journalist Maria Ressa as she fought the suppression of independent news media under President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. And So It Begins continues to document the ongoing threat to democracy in the subsequent 2022 presidential election, in which former vice president and Liberal Party candidate Leni Robredo went up against the corrupt BongBong Marcos. Airing on PBS “Independent Lens” May 12.
Deaf President Now! — In 1988, the board of trustees at Gallaudet University — the only university in the U.S. designed for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing — was tasked with choosing a new president for the institution from three candidates, two of whom were Deaf. When the board chose the one hearing candidate, the student body staged a monumental protest to demand that their school’s president finally reflect the Deaf community. Directed by Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, Deaf President Now! recounts this pivotal movement through the use of American Sign Language and a wealth of archival footage. The documentary premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Streaming on Apple TV+ May 16.
To Live and Die and Live — Writer-director Qasim Basir composes a love letter to his native Detroit in To Live and Die and Live, which premiered in the NEXT section at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Amin Joseph stars as Muhammad, a charismatic Hollywood director who returns to Detroit for his stepfather’s funeral. But even as Muhammad strives to stay strong for his friends and family, he struggles to hide his addiction in the face of the city’s dangerously tempting nightlife. Coming to select theaters May 16.
Pee-wee as Himself — Before his death in 2023, actor and comedian Paul Reubens agreed to collaborate with filmmaker Matt Wolf on a documentary. Premiering in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s Episodic section, the two-part Pee-wee as Himself chronicles Reubens’ life and career, including his childhood, massive success with his character Pee-wee Herman, and the fallout and resurgence following his arrests in the 1990s and early 2000s. A consummate collector, Reubens contributed countless archival materials to the project, which features home videos, broadcast footage, and interviews with Reubens as well as friends and family. Airing on HBO and streaming on Max May 23.
