Ethan Hawke Reflects on a ‘Great Night’ at Sundance As Before Sunrise Turns 30

Ethan Hawke looks back at the Sundance premiere of Before Sunrise 30 years ago with great fondness and nostalgia. Read on to know the details.

Written by Ipshita Chakraborty , Entertainment Journalist

Updated on Jan 28, 2025 | 02:58 PM IST | 24.8K

CC: Instagram

Ethan Hawke is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the classic 1995 romantic drama Before Sunrise, the film that propelled director Richard Linklater's beloved trilogy Before.

On Monday, January 27, Hawke, now 54, commemorated the anniversary with a trip down memory lane in an Instagram post, featuring three images with his Before Sunrise co-star Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater. He reminisced about the night Sundance founder Robert Redford introduced the film. Hawke said it was a memorable night.

Hawke wrote, "This time 30 years ago our movie Before Sunrise debuted at Sundance. Redford himself introduced it. Great night."

Released in 1995, Before Sunrise introduced American traveler Jesse to audiences and his counterpart, Céline—the French student with whom he makes his acquaintance by chance in Europe. Their brief but deep connection established two sequels—Before Sunset in 2004 and Before Midnight in 2013—that revisited Jesse and Céline at other periods in their lives.

Actor Topher Grace called the Before trilogy the "best trilogy of all time" in the comments. This film series, known for its realistic dialogue and deep emotional resonance, was always a crowd favorite among cinephiles.

Although Hawke, Delpy, and Linklater discussed a possible continuation of the franchise, Delpy declared in 2021 that they didn't come across a convincing idea for telling Jesse and Céline's further story.

According to Delpy, the only agreement the three of them had was with the notion of writing something again if it matched the artistic caliber of the preceding three movies.

Julie Delpy told Variety, "What happened was that we—all three of us—agreed that we couldn’t come up with something good for a fourth one. It’s that simple. We didn’t fight. We’re not on bad terms. Everyone’s happy. It’s so much drama for nothing... We just didn’t come up with a good idea."

For now, fans can stream Before Sunrise starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Andrea Eckert on Netflix.