The 2025 Sundance Film Festival is shifting toward “the middle” of the political spectrum, marking a noticeable change from the festival’s past.
This year’s festival is screening the first two episodes of a documentary series Bucks County, USA, which aims to explore the political divide within the nation amid people coming together despite their political differences. Paul Martino, the founder of both Bullpen Capital and the political action committee Back to School PA, called the selection to show the documentary “fascinating” due to how “it really looks like” the film festival is pivoting toward “the middle.”
“All of a sudden, the discussions are about ‘Wow, I need to listen to the other side,’” Martino said. “And so, it is satisfying to be here at Sundance, which is known to be so left-leaning, knowing that there is a new openness to dialogue.”
As a known guy on the right—I can’t begin to explain how unlikely it feels to be featured in a film here at Sundance.
The fact is, this is happening because of the election of Donald Trump….it demonstrates that Sundance is moving to the middle.
People are realizing that this… pic.twitter.com/knEo4jPYWV
— Paul Martino (@ahpah) January 28, 2025
Martino added that this shift in people being open to debate stems from how President Donald Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in the 2024 election. Because of this, people are recognizing that they should not be part of “the resistance” all the time and find out what their neighbors believe.
Martino is featured in the documentary, which is directed by filmmakers Barry Levinson and Robert May. He stated in a video posted to X that he initially did not want to participate in the documentary but chose to join after May informed him no one with conservative beliefs wanted to be part of their series, prompting him to encourage others who share his beliefs to participate in the project as well.
“And I am excited that this film is at Sundance, and I’m excited cause I’ve now seen the first two of five episodes,” Martino said. “And you know what? [Robert] did exactly what he promised me: that he would portray it as it happened. I didn’t want to be portrayed as good or bad, I just wanted the facts to be told. And when the facts are told, guess what? Us on the Right, we look pretty damn rational.”
My family is a key part of the new documentary series “Bucks County, USA” premiering at Sundance next week.
Here are my thoughts on the project: pic.twitter.com/bddKy5sYIZ
— Paul Martino (@ahpah) January 22, 2025
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The main focus of Bucks County, USA is on two teenage girls named Evi and Vanessa, who are both friends despite their political differences. The directing duo met with multiple people across Bucks County, a politically divided county in a swing state that Trump won by a little over 120,000 votes last November.
The shift at the Sundance Film Festival comes as Trump has aimed to usher in a “new golden age” of the nation as he outlined at his inauguration last week. Part of this bid for the nation’s new golden age includes Hollywood, with the president announcing earlier this month that actors Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone would be his “eye and ears” in Hollywood, which he described as a “very troubled place.”
