Another Sundance has come and gone welcoming a new slew of films to break up the barren January film season and the overstimulating awards conversations. Sundance is the place to discover emerging filmmakers in documentaries, narrative, shorts, and episodic, and for their 40th anniversary, the snowy film festival did not disappoint.

Sundance is the place to experience inspiration from its bold selection and intimate audience experiences, there is nothing like it. In recent years, we have seen a handful of films from the fest continue to spark conversation all year long becoming a favorite for many audiences and critics into solidified classics and future Oscar winners.

Here are some of the standouts worth keeping track of all year long.

It seems like Jesse Eisenberg took in all the criticism from his debut feature and greatly course-corrected to deliver a personal piece through a simple premise hiding a heartbreaking soul in A Real Pain. Eisenberg’s second feature follows cousins on a Holocaust tour through Poland, amongst the grim setting there are moments of tender comedy. Mirroring the actual tourism cousins Benji and David embark on, Eisenberg confronts the idea of being a tourist in your pain. This sincere turn from Eisenberg effortlessly uses the opposite cousin dynamic to measure personal pain against the collective and our ability to heal. Kieran Culkin in his big post-Succession outing brings his expected charisma, but it is when he is at his lowest he is extremely compelling. A Real Pain hollows out the ache hiding beneath the plastered smiles of humanity to fully process the burdens that can sometimes overshadow us. Overall it is a cathartic experience for younger generations who carry the trauma of their ancestors to contextualize modern pain in comparison to history. 

Mavis Beacon was unknown to me until I descended the rabbit hole of Seeking Mavis Beacon to uncover the real-life woman behind the typing legend. In a very impressive directorial debut, Jazmin Jones examines the ideas of digital footprints, parasocial relationships, and identity through an investigative, maximal lens that transforms into commentary centering around the minimization of women in tech. Jones paired with Cyber Doula, Olivia McKayla Ross, navigate through a spiritual journey to connect with their childhood hero speaking to how our obsessions can overtake us to new places. While it is a documentary about finding someone there are moments of self-reflection for both filmmakers to measure creativity within the global pandemic. Seeking Mavis Beacon is a refreshing entry into documentary filmmaking with a distinct POV and authentic depiction of living in the online era. 

Transporting the audience through a plasma portal into the lengths one will go to for their loved one, Love Lies Bleeding is reminiscent of 80’s B movies with an erotic twist. Like Jackie shooting up steroids, Rose Glass injects the vein-popping score and vigorous visuals into the audience as they entail a grounded love story that is not afraid to heighten pure surrealism. Watching this late night odyssey with a full audience squirming in their seats from some very gory imagery is why we go to the cinema. A classic Bonnie & Clyde crime thriller that keeps you enthralled on the ride for how these two will make it out unscathed as it only gets madder. Glass melts away cliche gender tropes of the “strong female character” with her outsider perspective on the American dream. 

Hit Man was designed for the theatrical experience of perfectly mixing a crowd-pleaser with a pure art form of cinema. Glen Powell and Richard Linklater are the next great director/actor duo in this recent collaboration about identity and ego. Hit Man breezes through multiple genres from comedy to steamy rom-com but never loses focus of its main storyline. It is purely a joy to watch Glen Powell and his electric ensemble having fun as actors in a film with high stakes that keeps you guessing how its case with wrap up. It never tries to be smarter than the audience or preach at them, but just allows you to have a fun time in this light world dealing with the grim idea of a Hit Man and actually how ridiculous that trope is. 

Thea Hvistendahl created the most beautiful zombie film with Handling The Undead. Moving as slowly as a zombie, it documents in real-time the grief process told through silent moments of dread and mundane tasks. We watch death consume the living, mirroring the impact of grief in pure poetry. Don’t come into this expecting a zombie film, because Hvistendahl subverts all of expectations to craft a peaceful moment for the undead compared to the sensationalism we are often used to from these creatures.The gorgeous arresting imagery leaves you unsettled as it feels that anything can abruptly disrupt the meditation. Very atmospheric in its haunting isolation on the idea of whether the body or soul defines the living. 

For people who possess the ability to connect with anyone and anything, Psychics are some of the saddest people. Lana Wilson’s slice-of-life documentary focuses on an intimate group of New York City psychics to weave a larger tapestry of human connection. The documentary feels like its own psychic reading with its ability to dive deeper and deeper into the personal pain of its subjects. Wilson isn’t set to sell her audience that psychics are real nor tries to out them as fakes, but the impact of human connection on these chance encounters. Wilson’s powerful film explores the desire to heal and the routes people will go to feel loved. 

In just two films, Megan Park has effortlessly captured female youth from an authentic point of view. My Old Ass focuses on a pivotal point in a young girl’s life, the summer before escaping their hometown for the big city. Park’s second feature is heartbreaking and sweet as she never minimizes the thoughts of young women as they enter a new chapter of life where the world is open for them but how do they choose which way to go? Young people should be able to try and fail to live their lives to the fullest without the pressure of fear. Park doesn’t judge her characters, instead, she lets them fully cycle through to not confine them to one personality. My Old Ass is the perfect film that questions whether we want to live our life knowing our outcomes to save ourselves from disappointment or go all in and experiment for a shame-free journey, 

Music has the power to speak to the moment, and filmmaker John Grimonprez perfectly pairs jazz with Cold War politics to document colonialism and assassinations of the 20th century. In an essay esque structure, Grimonprez’s use of music flows with the idea that history is always evolving and moving like jazz making the combination of these two pure euphoria. The documentary grooves through the Belgian monarchy, the US government, and other entities’ collusion to assassinate Congo’s prime minister through the use of musicians. Editing is crucial here in cutting his movies, texts, outages, and speeches to weave together an overarching narrative on the colonialism of the 1960s. What can connect all these media is the music that speaks as its character. Music navigates the emotions evoked through the various imagery sprinkled throughout the film to help digest the information thrown our way. What is so effective about Grimonprez’s approach is it is actively asking the audience to participate in piecing together the information unraveled before them.