EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has set its release plans for Sundance Film Festival pickup, Train Dreams, and it is being given a prime awards season slot and campaign, debuting on the streamer on November 21, 2025 preceded by a theatrical run earlier that month in select theatres.
The film, a key Netflix awards priority this year, drew top reviews during its Sundance debut, currently at 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’m told is expected to be relaunching on the Fall Festival circuit before beginning its run in theatres and on Netflix. It was directed by Clint Bentley (Jockey) with a screenplay by Bentley and Greg Kwedar adapted from Dennis Johnson’s novella first published in the Paris Review in 2002. The writers were most recently Oscar nominated earlier this year for their screenplay of Sing Sing. It stars Joel Edgerton and past Academy Award nominees Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy.
Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier (Edgerton), whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th century America. Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation’s railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys (Jones) and they build a life together, though his work often takes him far from home and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.
An ode to a vanishing way of life, an ever-evolving world, and to the extraordinary possibilities that exist within even the most simple of existences, Train Dreams captures a time and place that are now long gone, and the people who built a bridge to a future they could only dream of.
Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley, Joel Edgerton at the Deadline 2025 Sundance Film Festival Studio
Michael Buckner/ Deadline
“At its core Train Dreams is about the people who keep the world going through work that’s often not celebrated or remembered,” Bentley tells Deadline. “And though the story of Robert Grainier is a simple one, to me it’s a reminder of how precious life is. How the little moments we often take for granted end up being the ones that give life its depth and meaning. These days, as the world seems to be coming apart at the seams, that feels especially poignant.”
Content shared from deadline.com.