News

A24 is closing on acquiring worldwide rights to “Sorry, Baby,” one of the buzzier movies to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The movie sparked a days-long bidding war with Neon and Mubi among the independent studios in the mix. Sources say the price tag is near the $8 million mark.

As the logline for “Sorry, Baby” teases: “Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least.” Comedian Eva Victor wrote, directed and stars in the film, about a college professor who is recovering from sexual assault. Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges co-star in “Sorry, Baby,” which was produced by “Moonlight” filmmaker Barry Jenkins. The movie premiered on Monday night at the Eccles Theatre, where the audience in Park City embraced the poignant drama with a standing ovation.

In Variety’s review, chief film critic Peter Debruge described the movie as a “disarmingly funny,...

At the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, there were movies that provoked their share of buzz and chatter and official breathless enthusiasm. But it’s fair to say that no movie this year generated half the conversation that Sundance did about itself. The buzz was all about the festival — which city it would move to in 2027 (Cincinnati or Boulder? The smart money is now on Cincinnati), as well as the question that’s been the backdrop of that move: Can Sundance, a festival that in the ’90s altered the very landscape of cinema, find a way to sustain its relevance into the 21st century?

The jury is very much out on that. Sundance still generates excitement and headlines, as well as a small handful of films that will have a chance to make an impact. But as much as I remain a Sundance believer, the festival’s mojo is increasingly shrouded in...

Dylan O’Brien’s latest starrer is all about grief. Specifically, what happens when an identical twin loses his other half? Six years after his first feature, Straight Up, James Sweeney is back as the writer/director/star of a new Sundance breakout. Twinless is an uncommonly funny, romantic, and tragic film about twinhood, parasitic relationships, and insecurity.

Twinless Sundance Review

Twinless features Dylan O’Brien in a dual role of sorts. He plays Rocky and Roman, two identical twins who couldn’t be more different. Roman, the macho man’s man, is our lead, a role O’Brien perfectly plays alongside Rocky, his softhearted homosexual mustachioed brother. After the sudden, tragic death of Rocky, Roman finds solace at a twin bereavement center. He meets Dennis (Sweeney), who has a secret connection to Roman’s late twin. After the two hit it off, they go on a journey of self-discovery as they navigate grief,...

Sundance suddenly has a piracy problem.

James Sweeney’s Twinless, a Sundance Film Festival selection that emerged as a double winner after Friday’s awards ceremony, has been pulled from the fest’s online screening portal after clips surfaced on social media platforms. The move came just hours after Isabel Castro’s documentary about late superstar Selena Quintanilla, Selena y Los Dinos, was pulled over similar piracy concerns. That film also became a fest favorite after picking up a trophy for U.S. documentary special jury award for archival storytelling.

“The film Twinless was a victim of some copyright infringement on various social media platforms, therefore the festival in partnership with the filmmakers have made the decision to remove the film from the Sundance Film Festival online platform. We regret that online ticket holders will no longer be able to access the film,” per the festival in an official statement,...

Writer-director James Sweeney is no stranger to novel concepts that walk a tonal and thematic tightrope. In his 2019 feature-length directorial debut, Straight Up, he starred as a young gay man so turned off by sex that he seeks a relationship with a woman, turning a silly and potentially retrograde setup into an anti-rom-com exploration of contemporary sexual identity, Ocd, and the modern complexities of finding love. Sweeney brings the same keenly observational millennial eye to his sophomore feature, Twinless, a bizarrely moving and darkly comic story about feeling like you’ve lost something you never had.

Twinless opens at a funeral, with the straight Roman (Dylan O’Brien) and his mother (Lauran Graham) receiving mourners after the death of Roman’s twin brother, Rocky (also O’Brien). Struggling with the loss of his other half, the shy Roman joins a bereavement support group for siblings processing the death of a twin,...

For years, Buzzfeed has kept the audience entertained with a section of their online portfolio titled Thirst Tweets. Celebrities enter a journey defined by the aggressive erotic awkwardness of their fans’ tweets while reading them out loud on air. 2 years ago, Dylan O’Brien happened to be one of the celebrities chosen for an episode that would go down in history.

Dylan O’Brien in The Outfit [Credit: Focus Pictures]

The star of the Maze Runner trilogy, Dylan O’Brien, rose in fame and popularity through Teen Wolf, where he stole the show as the hyperactive, loyal best friend of the lead character. As his fame grew, so did his fandom, which famously had a collective meltdown after the actor debuted a platinum blond buzz cut for the film Not Okay.

Now, as he branches out in his field, the fanbase brings back some memories from the recent past as O’Brien...

Movies streaming on the Sundance Film Festival’s online viewing platform are dropping like flies thanks to piracy: “Twinless” is now the second film to get yanked from the platform amid copyright infringements. Sundance pulled the bromance comedy, written and directed by star James Sweeney and co-starring Dylan O’Brien, on Friday evening, sparking online outrage from festivalgoers hoping to see the Audience Award winner at home.

Earlier on Friday, the Selena Quintanilla documentary “Selena y Los Dinos” was also taken down due to piracy. IndieWire understands that fans were sharing pirated clips on social media. Similarly, “Twinless” clips featuring a sex scene with Dylan O’Brien, as well as major spoilers for the movie’s twisty plot, were leaked online.

“I woke up this morning with an email thread about people posting spoilers with photos. If anyone’s seen the film, you know what I’m talking about. So I...

“Twinless” is the latest Sundance movie pulled from the festival’s online viewing platform after pirated videos of the film, including sex scenes involving star Dylan O’Brien, flooded social media on Friday night. The documentary “Selena y Los Dinos” was removed from the online platform Friday after clips from that film started circulating on social media.

Videos from the film, including sex scenes involving O’Brien, started circulating on X, TikTok and other social media platforms on Friday night, boosted by fans of the actor. By Saturday early afternoon, most of the videos had been removed, but the film itself is now no longer available on the Sundance Film Festival’s online viewing platform.

“We regret that online ticket holders will no longer be able to access the film,” the festival said in a statement to TheWrap. “We acknowledge and regret the disappointment this may cause. However, part of our...

Updated With Statement From Sundance: Twinless, a very hot title at Sundance, has been pulled from the festival’s streaming site due to piracy.

This is the second movie on the fest’s portal to be pulled after online leaking. Yesterday we told you first that the fest award winning documentary Selena y Los Dinos was dropped from the Sundance site after making its way on TikTok, etc.

The Mazerunner and High Road actor Dylan O’Brien plays twin brothers Rocky and Roman. Rocky dies tragically, and his lover Dennis feels responsible. He befriends Roman in a twin grieving therapy circle, pining for his late lover. There’s some spicy sex scenes in Twinless, however, there were also spoiler scenes leaked.

Twinless was part of Sundance’s opening day films and out of the gate counts 100% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics.

Sundance requires...

“Twinless,” a comedic drama starring Dylan O’Brien, has been pulled from Sundance’s streaming site after sex scenes and other content from the film leaked online. The leaks came as “Twinless” won the festival’s coveted Audience Award on Friday.

It’s the second movie to be pulled from Sundance’s site this year. “Selena y Los Dinos,” a documentary about Tejano singer Selena, was also scrubbed from the service after the film “suffered a series of copyright infringements,” meaning it also leaked online. There were reports that fans were putting various musical numbers from “Selena y Los Dinos” on TikTok and Instagram.

“The film ‘Twinless’ was a victim of some copyright infringement on various social media platforms, therefore the festival in partnership with the filmmakers have made the decision to remove the film from the Sundance Film Festival online platform. We regret that online ticket holders will no longer...

Today, in "This may actually be why we can't have nice things" news: Dylan O'Brien's buzzy dark comedy Twinless has been pulled from the online streaming portal for the Sundance Film Festival, due to claims of piracy from festival organizers. The movie is the second film this year to...

At its heart, Sundance is about discovery. Some of our brightest, biggest filmmaking stars — we’re talking Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Ava DuVernay, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lulu Wang, Ryan Coogler, Aubrey Plaza, Catherine Hardwicke, Todd Haynes, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Eggers, the Duplass brothers, Michael B. Jordan, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Olsen, Brie Larson, Lakeith Stanfield, Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and many, many more — first rose to acclaim by bringing their work to Sundance.

In 2025, a year that was long-heralded as one all about new discoveries, that tradition only continued. While this year’s lineup included a number of returning names, like Ira Sachs, Amy Berg, Andrew Ahn, Justin Lin, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Cooper Raiff, Kahlil Joseph, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, David France, Jesse Short Bull, Ryan White, Sophie Hyde, Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Meera Menon, and Clint Bentley, there were also a hefty number of newbies joining those filmmaking ranks.

The acerbic war film comedy that doesn’t really take place in a war zone (Iraq) but instead, a manufactured training base landed the top honors at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Hailey Gates’ feature debut Atropia claimed the coveted US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and while some previous winners would go onto win the Audience Award, it is Twinless by James Sweeney that nabbed that honor (the film also won US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting for Dylan O’Brien). Our favorite film from the ten selections in Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: US Dramatic.…...

Ahead of the final weekend of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the annual event in Park City, Utah, announced its big winners on Friday, with Atropia, Seeds, and Twinless among those taking the biggest prizes.

“Arriving at our awards ceremony after seven days of connection and discovery is especially rewarding this year,” said Eugene Hernandez, director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming. “We are thrilled to honor these filmmakers fore their inventiveness, generosity, and for their valuable conversations, moments of levity, and deep insights their work has offered.”

See: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ ‘Sorry, Baby’ and other 2025 Sundance titles that could shape the awards conversation this year

Written and directed by Hailey Gates, Atropia earned the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film, Sundance’s top award. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent, and...

A still from Atropia by Hailey Gates, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Atropia starring Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner earned the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic Competition award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Seeds was named the U.S. Documentary Competition winner. The 2025 winners were announced today during a ceremony held at The Ray Theatre in Park City.

Additional Grand Jury Prize winners include Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) and Cutting Through Rocks. Audience Awards went to Twinless (U.S. Dramatic Competition), André is an Idiot (U.S. Documentary Competition), DJ Ahmet (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), Prime Minister (World Cinema Documentary Competition), and East of Wall (Next).

“We congratulate all of our filmmakers and award winners on a successful 2025 Sundance Film Festival and thank them for the stories they shared with our audiences,” stated Amanda Kelso, Acting CEO, Sundance Institute.

Sundance Film Festival announced its awards winners on Friday, with grand jury prizes going to Atropia, Seeds, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), and Cutting Through Rocks.

In the audience awards, Twinless, André Is An Idiot, DJ Ahmet, and Prime Minister prevailed.The Next Innovator Award went to Zodiac Killer Project and Next Audience Award was presented to East Of Wall.

All feature winners are available online nationwide through February 2, when the festival concludes, while select award-winning films will screen in person for ticketholders and passholders.

In total, 94 features and episodic works and 57 shorts curated from a total 15,775 submissions screened to audiences in Park City,...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival awards were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.

See the list of 2025 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Atropia (USA) – Hailey Gates

Directing Award

Ricky (USA) – Rashad Frett

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Sorry, Baby (USA) – Eva Victor

Special Jury Award for Acting

Twinless (USA) – Dylan O’Brien

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney appear in Twinless by James Sweeney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greg Cotten.

Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble

Plainclothes – Carmen Emmi

Audience Award

Twinless – James Sweeney

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Seeds (USA) – Brittany Shyne

Directing Award

The Perfect Neighbor (USA) – Geeta Gandbhir

Special Jury Award

Life After (USA) – Reid Davenport

Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling

Selena y Los Dinos (USA) – Isabel Castro

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival — and perhaps its second-to-last in Park City — has wound down with the annual awards ceremony.

On January 31, jurors presented prizes in the competitive sections, including the U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, and the Next lineup. Jurors across the sections looked at nearly 90 films representing more than 30 countries and territories.

Hailey Gates’ Iraq war satire, starring Alia Shawkat and produced by (among others) Luca Guadagnino, won the festival’s top award: the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition. The politically charged comedy, which follows an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility, is still looking for U.S. distribution amid mixed reviews out of Sundance. Meanwhile in that section, Eva Victor’s staggering feature debut “Sorry, Baby,” a startlingly wise and unsentimental depiction of trauma set in American academia, won a Screenwriting prize...

Atropia, Seeds, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) and Cutting Through Rocks were among the key winners at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

During a ceremony held Friday in Park City, Atropia won the Grand Jury prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition, while Seeds picked up the U.S. Documentary Competition award. Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) prevailed for the jury prize for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section, while Cutting Through Rocks nabbed the award for World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Among the audience awards, Twinless won in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and André Is an Idiot topped the U.S. Documentary Competition. DJ Ahmet collected the audience award for World Cinema Dramatic Competition, with Prime Minister prevailing for the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Additionally, Zodiac Killer Project landed the Next innovator award, with East of Wall receiving the audience award for the Next section.

Sundance Institute acting CEO Amanda Kelso said in a statement,...

As the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final weekend, the Park City event handed out trophies this morning to this year’s best. See the full list below.

Hailey Gates’ war satire Atropia took the marquee U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier (Callum Turner) cast as an insurgent, but their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.

The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic went to Twinless, James Sweeney’s film about two young men (Dylan O’Brien and Sweeney) who meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.

Georgi M. Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and also nabbed the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. It follows Ahmet (Arif Jakup), a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in...

Awards for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival were handed out on Friday morning, with the Dylan O’Brien-fronted dark comedy “Twinless” taking home the audience award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category. The film, which received a warm response upon its debut at the beginning of the festival, hails from writer/director/co-star James Sweeney and follows two strangers who meet in a twin bereavement support group. O’Brien also won a special jury award for acting for his work in the film.

Writer/director Hailey Gates’ “Atropia” won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category, scoring top honors for a film that started life as a documentary. Produced by Luca Guadagnino, the film stars Alia Shawkat as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier cast as an insurgent. Callum Turner, Chloë Sevigny and Tim Heidecker co-star.

The U.

The snow from this year’s Sundance Film Festival has mostly melted off of Hollywood’s Dior boots, and as the Utah event draws to a close the time has come to crown a new class of indie filmmaking stars.

Multiple pedigreed juries will hand out prizes to movies in competition on Friday at Park City’s The Ray Theater — where buzzy titles will duke it out for honors including directing, acting, screenwriting and the most coveted honors, the audience award and the grand jury prize.

“Storytelling is important, part of human continuity,” Sundance interim CEO Amanda Kelso said at the top of the ceremony, quoting its founder Robert Redford.

This year’s U.S. dramatic jury consists Reinaldo Marcus Green, Arian Moayed (“Succession”) and Celine Song. Steven Bognar, Vinnie Malhotra, and Marcia Smith are presiding over the domestic documentary section. Actor Elijah Wood is the sole juror for the Next section,...

Warner Bros horror Companion leads new releases at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend in 561 cinemas.

Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid star in the dark comedy about a weekend away that goes wrong when a human android, built for companionship, reveals itself. It marks the feature debut of Drew Hancock while further cast include Rupert Friend, Lukas Gage and Jaboukie Young-White.

Thatcher most recently starred in fellow horror title Heretic which surpassed £6m late last year and Quaid had a role in 2023’s Oppenheimer (£60m). Companionis produced by Zach Cregger who wrote and directed Barbarian which cracked £1m...

This year's awards season is wrapping up, which means it's time to look forward to the films we'll be discussing this time next year. Some of those hopefuls just premiered in Park City during the Sundance festival, which generally provides one of our first glimpses at next year's landscape. If...

A hallmark of every Sundance Film Festival is the freezing temperatures, trudging through the snow and ice of Park City. But at the 2025 iteration of the festival, that bone-chilling weather has extended to the market, resulting in an unprecedented cold streak.

Six days in, only one film has been sold: Neon picked up the Alison Brie/Dave Franco body horror “Together” on Tuesday, following its rowdy debut Monday night at the Eccles.

“Together” generated the festival’s first real bidding war, as Neon ultimately won out over A24 and Mubi with a low eight-figure offer said to be north of $10 million. The buzz around the film, which stars and is produced by real-life married couple Franco and Brie, offered a brief reminder of the kind of heated market activity that used to be commonplace at Sundance.

But beyond that? Zilch. And it’s got the industry nervous.

Are the movies not good?...

At Sunday night’s premiere of “Together,” a body-horror film starring real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the Eccles Theatre erupted with shrieks, nervous laughter and cries of “Oh, shit!” Sundance audiences couldn’t get enough of the gory madness unfolding on-screen, and word quickly spread that “Together,” with its twisty look at relationships and gross-out set-pieces, had all the elements of an indie breakout. Studios and streamers, including A24 and Neon, started circling the film, trying to one-up each other in a feverish effort to land the buzzy project. The festival was already well underway, but it finally seemed like old times.

Before Covid upended things, leaving the indie film business that Sundance showcases struggling to regain its footing, the festival routinely hosted fierce bidding wars of the kind “Together” inspired. But with ticket sales in a rut, entertainment companies have been hesitant to hand out big...

Saturday Night would make for a very solid double-bill with a Muppets movie. And not just because there are Muppets in it — well, primitive Muppets, at least, in the form of early Jim Henson creations King Ploobis and Vazh. Because much like one of Kermit and co’s capers, it’s all about putting on a show, and how much stress, anxiety and arm-flapping goes into playing music and lighting lights. At the centre of Jason Reitman’s movie, essentially playing the role of the frog, is the cardigan-wearing Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle), young Canadian TV producer and wannabe revolutionary of the medium. He’s the sensible one. Around him swirls chaos, in many forms. There’s even an Animal stand-in, in the burly shape of John Belushi (Matt Wood), cocaine appreciator and walking tornado.

This is, however, far from family viewing. NBC’s sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live (known...

Disney’s “A Complete Unknown” held its spot at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second weekend, earning £1.6 million ($2 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The cumulative total of the Bob Dylan biopic, starring Timothée Chalamet, now stands at $7.3 million.

In second place, Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” added $1.7 million in its sixth weekend, raising its total to $34.7 million. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” from Paramount remained steady in third, collecting $1.09 million during its fifth weekend and pushing its total to $29 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Flight Risk,” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg, debuted in fourth place with a solid $1.01 million. Universal’s awards season favorite “The Brutalist” debuted in fifth, earning $938,452 in its opening weekend.

Universal’s “Nosferatu” dropped to sixth with $666,526 in its fourth weekend. The gothic horror reboot has reached $15.1 million overall and continues to attract genre enthusiasts.

The Deadline photo studio hosted talent at the Sundance Film Festival, as cast members of Sundance-premiering films stopped by including Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means for Opus; Sarah Jessica Parker for The Librarians; Dylan O’Brien, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi and director James Sweeny from Twinless; Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Dave Franco and Director Evan Twohy from Bubble & Squeak; Olivia Colman and John Lithgow for Jimpa; Bill Condon, Jennifer Lopez, Tonatiuh for Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman; Alia Shawkat, Hailey Gates for Atropia, & many more.

The Deadline Studio at Sundance Film Festival runs January 24-27, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Park City.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival takes place from January 23-February...

Park City – A line repeated in Max Walker-Silverman’s “Rebuilding,” a world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, will stick with you long after the credits roll. It’s simple but in the context of this tender drama packs a punch, “You got what you got.” Considering the film’s unfortunate and timely subject matter, it will resonate in ways Walker-Silverman may never have imagined.

Read More: “Twinless” Review: Dylan O’Brien has the range in this funny and twisty dramedy [Sundance]

A working rancher in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Dusty (Josh O’Connor), has lost just about everything.

Continue reading ‘Rebuilding’ Review: Josh O’Connor Stars In A Tender Tale Of Wildfire Heartbreak [Sundance] at The Playlist.

When someone thinks of a ‘Sundance movie,’ many things might come to mind: perhaps a story that tugs at your heartstrings and leaves you feeling like you have been hit by a truck, or maybe a documentary that stirs your soul and inspires you to make a life-changing decision. James Sweeney’s Twinless was one of my favorite kind of ‘Sundance movies’— one that defies expectations and delivers something truly unique and unforgettable.

Writer/Director/Actor James Sweeney does it all in his second feature, and Sundance debut Twinless. The film follows Roman as he grapples with the tragic loss of his twin brother, Rocky. Dylan O’Brien delivers a standout performance as the heartbroken Roman, channeling his grief, anger, and pain into a deeply moving performance.

Roman joins a support group for twins who have lost their siblings, where they share their stories and provide comfort to one another. It’s here he meets Dennis,...

Twinless explores twin loss as a lens to examine contemporary disconnection, treating grief like a societal diagnostic tool. Roman (Dylan O’Brien), surviving half of a complex twin relationship, wanders through Portland haunted by his brother Rocky’s memory—a presence embodying unspoken emotional landscapes. Dennis (James Sweeney), a wounded individual, enters with calculated emotional strategies.

Their encounter at a bereavement group—a space charged with raw emotional exchanges—exposes contemporary healing rituals’ superficial nature. Roman’s occupation of Rocky’s apartment transforms into a spatial metaphor questioning self-definition beyond external expectations.

The film’s delayed title card—arriving 45 minutes into the narrative—disrupts traditional storytelling, suggesting identity as a fluid construct. Flashback sequences reveal Dennis’ complicated connection with Rocky, exploring desire’s intricate emotional textures.

Portland’s atmospheric environment echoes generational emotional fragmentation. The support group’s visual stillness captures digital-era interpersonal dynamics. Dennis manipulates Roman’s vulnerability, with linguistic...

The Sundance Film Festival has begun and journalists, actors, directors, writers, agents, producers and film buffs have taken over the once-sleepy town of Park City, Utah for Hollywood’s premiere indie showcase. Together, they hop from screening to screening in hopes of witnessing the next big breakout hit. Some of this year’s most anticipated films include “Bunnylovr” from first-time director Katarina Zhu, “The Thing with Feathers” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and the Dev Patel thriller “Rabbit Trap.”

Between all the glitzy premieres, the Variety Studio presented by Audible remains a destination for actors and filmmakers alike. Stars such as Rachel Sennott, Dylan O’Brien, John Lithgow and Carey Mulligan all stopped by to discuss their new projects and snap a picture in the portrait studio. Check out the photos from this year’s Sundance Studio and see which stars stopped by.

One of the only two films selected for the Spotlight section (films that have premiered elsewhere on the festival circuit), Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili continues to distinguish herself with international programmers and audiences – the Park City splash for April serves as a nice boost for the eventual April set release date by the Metrograph folks. Here was the Q&a at the Egyptian on Day 1…

…Later on we’d be venturing the the Eccles theatre for a cleverly convinced bromance American comedy in James Sweeney‘s Twinless which stars the filmmaker and Dylan O’Brien in double roles. This is one of the ten selections in the U.S…...

Dylan O’Brien is opening up about vulnerable moments on-screen.

The 33-year-old Not Okay actor spoke out on the red carpet during the premiere of his new movie Twinless at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival over the weekend.

During a conversation with THR, the actor was asked how he feels when seeing himself on camera during intimate scenes.

Keep reading to find out more…

“It’s okay. I’m fine. It’s uncomfortable mostly when you’re with your people because I’ve got loved ones here obviously. We’ve all got a lot of friends and family here,” he said.

“That, I think is the most…especially when it’s like vulnerable stuff. But I also don’t want to miss the night. I want it to be special, so I can suck it up. Whatever.”

Twinless is described as a “twisted comedic drama about two friends who meet in a...

Actor Dylan O’Brien revealed the careful preparation behind his dual performance in “Twinless,” where strategic production scheduling helped him create distinct identities for twin characters Rocky and Roman.

“We actually constructed our shoot schedule around separating Rocky and Rome,” director James Sweeney told senior writer Drew Taylor at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. O’Brien noted this was a priority discussed “years before we shot the movie,” as he “really want them to have some type of physical difference in some type of way.”

The dark comedy centers on two young men who meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bond.

The physical transformation included growing a real mustache for one character, though O’Brien revealed that while his facial hair in “Twinless” is real, his mustache for his role as a young Dan Aykroyd in “Saturday Night” was fake. “They said...

Films are often centered around a Big Lie. In the case of multi-hyphenate director James Sweeney’s (Straight Up) enthrallingly dark, queer-centered comedy-drama, Twinless, it's a series of Big Lies, one bigger than the rest, that threaten to irrevocably derail Dennis’s (Sweeney) friendship with Roman (Dylan O’Brien). Once one-half of twins, Roman is now a survivor struggling with overwhelming feelings of loss, guilt, and a lack of self-confidence, typical of a life-changing event like the loss of a parent or sibling. It’s made doubly worse by the sudden passing of Rocky, Roman’s far more successful, gay brother, who was their mother's favorite son by far. We only meet Rocky in flashbacks, but he’s Rocky’s opposite in practically every way, and not just because...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

In British writer-director Bryn Chaney’s feature debut, he uses Celtic folklore and the intimacy of sound to unpack a darkness that some might struggle to put in words.

Set in 1973, Rabbit Trap stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as Darcy and Daphne, an influential musical couple from London who retreats to an isolated cabin in the Welsh countryside to finish their next album. But when Darcy records a sound not meant for human ears, he accidentally conjures ancient mystical beings from the forest.

Best viewed in Dolby, the film utilizes hypnotic sounds in every scene, largely through the field recordings made by Darcy in the surrounding woods. In addition to sounds of dripping water, clanging metal and crunching grass, Darcy demonstrates how the medium is sacred as he explains that “sound is a ghost … and your body is the house it haunts.”

After recording strange sounds in the forest,...

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival hit Park City, Utah, once again this year, bringing out Hollywood A-listers to toast independent cinema, find a home for their latest passion projects and find a warm place to land in the otherwise chilly, mountainous city.

Kicking off Thursday and running through Feb. 2, the independent film festival has so far highlighted excellent new work from writer and director James Sweeney with “Twinless,” in which co-stars with Dylan O’Brien (pictured below); a riveting and emotionally knotty two-hander called “Jimpa,” starring John Lithgow as a late-blooming gay man and Olivia Colman as the daughter he left behind; Juliette Lewis as a chair in the body-swap satire “By Design”; and the new music documentary from Oscar winner Questlove, “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).”

And all of that on just Day 1! Also along for the ride promoting their latest works and celebrating their peers’ latest were Sarah Jessica Parker,...

[Warning: This story contains mild spoilers for “Twinless,” which premiered on Thursday at Sundance Film Festival.]

Dylan O’Brien reveled in the process of playing dual roles in “Twinless,” a twisted comedic drama about two friends who meet in a support group for people who lost a twin. The “Maze Runner” and “Teen Wolf” star portrays identical brothers Rocky, who unexpectedly dies, and Roman, who is left to navigate the unbearable grief without his other half.

“The twins were so distinct on the page. I felt such a different connectivity to each of them. That came really naturally,” O’Brien says at the Variety Studio presented by Audible. “For me, it’s very physical. Once the process kicks into full gear with costumes, hair and makeup and the things that [director] James [Sweeney] and I discussed in terms of walk, talk and posture, that helps me.”

“Twinless,” which premiered Thursday at Sundance Film Festival, is the sophomore feature of Sweeney,...

It’s hard to write — and direct, produce, and star in — something with a great premise. I’d imagine it’s even harder to junk that premise after 20 pages in favor of committing to a different one altogether. But James Sweeney’s “Twinless” is a film that hinges on the suppleness of the stories we tell about ourselves (among several other things), and this confident, clever, and cuttingly dark comedy almost never misses a chance to indulge in the courage of its convictions, especially when those convictions feel oh so wrong.

“Twinless” introduces itself as a light but mordant bromance about the friendship that develops between two boys who’ve both lost their identical brothers. On the one hand we have Roman, whose twin Rocky was just flattened to death by a car in the middle of a Portland crosswalk. Rocky was a flamboyantly gay charmer who carried himself with...

This week's episode of the acclaimed Empire Film Podcast is even more acclaimed than usual as we welcome not one but two Oscar winners to the show. First up, Chris Hewitt sits down with Michelle Yeoh to talk about her new Star Trek movie, Section 31, and how the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once changed her life [20:56 — 36:39 approx]; then, John Nugent has a fascinating chat with The Brutalist star, current Oscar nominee, and former Best Actor winner, Adrien Brody, about the LA Fires and his role in Brady Corbet's epic drama [1:02:49 — 1:18:11 approx].

Elsewhere, Chris is joined in the podbooth by Helen O'Hara, James Dyer, and Kelechi Ehenulo for a big ol' ep in which this week's listener question sees the team discussing VFX touch-ups in light of Alien: Romulus' home release tinkering. Then, over on the news front, the gang dig deep into the Oscar nominations and discuss...

Plot: At a group therapy session for people who have lost their twin siblings, Dennis (James Sweeney) and Roman (Dylan O’Brien) bond and start an unlikely friendship despite having little in common besides the loss of a twin. However, Dennis may not be exactly who he says he is…

Review: Twinless is a bit of a throwback to an older kind of Sundance movie that I always dug – the comedy/drama related to family trauma. For years, these movies were a dime-a-dozen at the festival because they tended to be star-driven and often sold quickly to distributors. In recent years, the genre has started to dry up a bit, but it makes a welcome return to the fest with Twinless, which puts an interesting spin on the formula and goes places you won’t anticipate.

In it, Dylan O’Brien plays Roman, who’s recently lost his identical twin, Rocky.

After his twin brother dies, Roman (Dylan O’Brien), an irascible young man living in Portland, becomes emotionally unmoored. What is life without his other half? So far not great. The funeral for Rocky is an awkward affair. Mourners line up to offer Roman and his mother (Lauren Graham) condolences only to start crying the moment they come face to face with the living twin. He looks so much like his brother, they say, it’s weird and a little uncanny.

Premiering at Sundance, James Sweeney’s sly dark comedy Twinless might inspire similar sentiments. The film boasts an off-kilter tone — think the absurdity of Problemista meets the wry sensibility of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed — that shocks before it settles. Like Julio Torres and Joanna Arnow, Sweeney walks a tightrope, shifting between dry humor, gutting devastation and emotional poignancy with varying degrees of success. But even when Twinless falters,...

Park City – The first shot we witness in “Twinless,” a world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is a static image of a city street in Portland, Oregon. After a tranquil beat, we hear a car crash and hit something or someone off-screen. Director James Sweeney immediately cuts to a somber burial where a visibly uncomfortable Roman (Dylan O’Brien) greets emotional mourners who are awestruck by how much he looks like the deceased.

Continue reading ‘Twinless’ Review: Dylan O’Brien Has The Range In This Funny & Twisty Dramedy [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Lauren Graham touched down in Park City on Thursday to attend the Sundance Film Festival premiere of her new film, Twinless. The bromance dramedy stars Dylan O’Brien opposite the film’s writer-director James Sweeney in the story of two young men who meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bond.

Graham plays the mother of O’Brien’s characters — the Maze Runner star has dual roles as the twins, one who dies unexpectedly and the other as he attempts to find peace after losing his other half — and while the role is small, the veteran actress couldn’t pass it up. “I don’t often get offered something a little darker and something that felt like a cool challenge,” Graham told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet inside the Eccles Center Theatre. “It doesn’t need to be about me. I can just go do something because I like it.

In James Sweeney’s disarmingly funny second feature, “Twinless,” two men meet in an emotional support group for those who’ve lost an identical sibling. That seems as good a place as any to talk about codependency, although it’s the even more universal subject of loneliness that animates Sweeney’s insightful coping comedy, which premiered on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. Sweeney recognizes that some of his laughs could be in poor taste, but isn’t shy about casting himself as a weirdo, when such discomfort can point the way to deeper truths.

“They say there’s nothing worse than losing a child, but maybe there is,” says Lauren Graham, who plays the mother of early-30s brothers Rocky and Roman, embodied by Dylan O’Brien in an impressive pair of performances so different, it’s hard to imagine the same actor creating them both. Her extroverted gay...

The 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival unspooled in Park City on Thursday with a packed schedule of red carpet premieres and Main Street-set parties. The night’s centerpiece showing came courtesy of Sundance newbie James Sweeney, who presented the world premiere of his sophomore feature, Twinless, in which he co-stars opposite Dylan O’Brien.

Sundance Director Eugene Hernandez was first to the stage inside the Eccles Center Theatre as he kicked off the festivities with some official announcements and thank-yous before welcoming Sweeney and O’Brien to the stage to introduce their years-in-the-making collaboration. And their comments telegraphed that while the film offered a seemingly dark premise — two young men meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance — Thursday night proved to be anything but a downer.

“We are James and Dylan,” O’Brien stated from the podium. “We are not twins in real life, so...

“Does it get more Sundance than this?” Eugene Hernandez, the festival’s director, said at the opening night premiere of “Twinless,” which was being unveiled Thursday at the Eccles, Park City’s biggest venue. But the evening didn’t go off without a hitch. Shortly after Hernandez left the stage, a sizzle reel promoting the festival’s nonprofit arm had suffered sound problems. The moment was particularly unfortunate as the audio malfunctioned as the clip was introducing festival founder Robert Redford.

The house lights came up while sound was tested for five minutes. The film was quickly restarted, but the problem persisted throughout the screening to groans of “Nooooo!” from stressed audience members. Luckily, it didn’t derail the otherwise enthusiastically received film or the dual performance from Dylan O’Brien as twin brothers. Add to that extremely chatty Sundance tech and ground staff, and it made for a disruptive kickoff.

There is no way to completely discuss “Twinless,” the latest film from writer/director/actor James Sweeney, without robbing its biggest turns of their impact. The initial premise, about two guys that meet in a twin bereavement support group and then start to grow closer, is merely a small fraction of what this film has in store as it upends expectations and runs with them as far as it can. It’s a juggling act of tones that manages to be funny, chaotic, dark and even unexpectedly poignant. The film also has Dylan O’Brien giving one of his best performances to date, bringing just the right amount of heartfelt himbo energy to his role as grieving twin Rocky and giving the film unexpected emotional weight in key moments.

The film, which premiered Thursday at Sundance, begins with a car accident occurring offscreen. Putting its darkly comedic tone on immediate display,...