This year's Sundance Film Festival was rich with films and the theatres were warm, even as temperatures outside dipped to below freezing point. It snowed only once but the sidewalks remained slippery for a few days.
Stars from Hollywood and elsewhere descended at the festival that Robert Redford launched to support indie cinema.
Since 1978, the definition of indie cinema has greatly changed. That would explain the festival hosting stars like Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Josh O'Conner and Jon Hamm.
But it was the stories that mattered. Strong human documents with fictional narratives and true events told by talented filmmakers from around the world.
Aseem Chhabra ranks his Top 10 Sundance films.
10. The Ugly Stepsister (Norway)
The Ugly Stepsister is a creepy take on the classic Cinderella story.
In Director Emilie Blichfeldt's version, Cinderella's father remarries hoping that the stepmother would help bring up his poor motherless daughter. Instead, the stepmother clearly shows love for her two own daughters, taking extreme measures to make the stepdaughter physically attractive to the prince.
There are many terrifying moments.
At times, people in the audience covered their eyes or made sounds expressing their discomfort.
But watching a film a theatre filled with fans of dark cinema is fun.
9. The Ballad of Wallis Island (UK)
In this delightful crowd-pleasing film, an eccentric middle-aged widower Charles (Tim Key) lives in an old castle on a remote island. He has had the good fortune of winning the grand lottery prize twice. And he has a strange plan: To get his two favourite singers perform for him at a private concert.
But Charles's plans have odd twists.
First, the two singers he invites Herb (Tom Basden) and Nell (Carey Mulligan) used to be partners, professionally and personally.
But they have now broken up and Charles has this strange confidence that he can get them back together, at least for one concert.
How Charles manages to work things to his advantage is what makes Director James Griffith's The Ballad of Wallis Island a very entertaining affair.
8. The Kiss of the Spider Woman (US)
A 40-year-old classic with William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga has been remade into a musical with Jennifer Lopez leading the cast. In the new film directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls), Lopez plays an imaginary actress Ingrid Luna, who in her most iconic role as a Spider Woman, kills her prey by kissing them.
The film is set in an Argentinian prison in 1981 where a political prisoner Valentin (Diego Luna) shares his cell with a gay hairdresser Luis (Tonatiuh).
To pass time, Luis narrates imaginary film stories that leads to a special bond between the two men.
Lopez plays the role of her lifetime: Singing and dancing on the screen for the first time.
It's early in the year but I believe Lopez, who is also the executive producer of the film, has almost assured a 2026 Oscar nomination for herself.
7. The Perfect Neighbor (US)
In The Perfect Neighbor, Emmy award-winning Indian American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir examines Florida's Stand Your Ground laws that allows people to defend their property against suspicious activity and in some cases, even justifies shooting of trespassers.
Gandbhir follows the June 2023 killing of an African American, mother of four young children by her white neighbour, who claimed she felt threatened by the victim.
Using mostly police body cam footage, Gandbhir and her editor construct a compelling documentary that has a lot to say about race relations in America today.
Gandbhir won the Directing Award: US Documentary for The Perfect Neighbor.
A few days later, IndieWire's poll conducted with 176 journalists covering the Sundance Film Festival selected The Perfect Neighbor as the top documentary of the festival.
6. Coexistence, My Ass! (US/ France)
Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi grew up in an idyllic environment where Jewish and Palestinian children studied together, spoke each other's languages, ate in each other's home. So Eliassi believed that peace could be achieved between the Jews and Arabs.
When her beliefs were challenged, Eliassi, a UN diplomat-turned-comedian, used the complexity of the issues as the source for her comedy material. She would make her audience uncomfortable, but also make them laugh and sometimes tear up as well.
In Director Amber Fares' hands, Coexistence, My Ass!, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression, takes an urgent tone, especially after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israelis. We see Eliassi's beliefs being shattered.
But this film offers hope, and that is why Eliassi's work will stay relevant.
5. The Things You Kill (Turkey)
Canadian Iranian filmmaker Alireza Khatami (Terrestrial Verses, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival) has made a riveting psychological thriller where a university professor, troubled by his mother's mysterious death, arranges for a revenge killing.
With a large effective Turkish cast, with scenes set in sweeping landscapes, The Things You Kill is an intriguing drama that will haunt viewers even when Khatami does not neatly package the ending.
At Sundance, Khatami won the well-deserved Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic and that should ensure the film will travel to other festivals.
4. All That's Left of You (Germany/ Cyprus)
In the midst of the explosive situation in Gaza, where over 40,000 civilians were killed, and now President Donald Trump hinting that US may take over the bombed-out land, Director Cherien Dabis (Amreeka) has made an epic, inter-generational saga that explores the lives of a Palestinian family, since the creation of Israel and the Nakba event that forced the original inhabitants of the land to become refugees in their own country.
All That's Left of You is a deeply moving film starring some of the finest Palestinian performers, including members of the legendary Bakri family, the father Mohammad Bakri, and his two sons, the younger one Adam (Omar) who plays the younger version of the patriarch of the family, and Saleh (The Blue Caftan, The Teacher) who carries the latter half of the film on his shoulders.
He is ably accompanied by Palestinian American Dabis, who plays Saleh's wife in the film.
All That's Left of You is a gripping drama and an important document about the times we live in.
3. Sabar Bonda (India)
The first Marathi language film to be programmed at Sundance, Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) is partly inspired by Director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade's personal experience when he visited his ancestral village to mourn his father's death.
But the story changes there, when the film's protagonist Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) reconnects with his childhood friend Balya (Suraaj Suman) and the two develop a romantic relationship.
Often same-sex relationship narratives in India are set in urban areas.
Sabar Bonda, winner of the Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema: Dramatic section, is a rare film that explores an LTBTQ story set in rural India.
2. Twinless (US)
During sessions at a twin bereavement center, Dennis (played by Director-Writer James Sweeney) meets Roman (Dylan O'Brien). Both men are mourning the losses of their twins with whom they had complicated relationships.
Roman and Dennis become good friends, a support to each other. But there are underlying sexual tensions, and Dennis is also holding on a dark secret which could threaten the friendship.
At times, Twinless is hilarious and at others, it is extremely tragic.
But it is one of the smartest films to premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Festival goers and jury members loved the film.
Twinless ended up winning two prizes: US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting and the Audience Award: US Dramatic.
1. Rebuilding
In his sophomore feature, Director Max Walker-Silverman (Long Songs) gives us a loving, yet deeply sad portrait of people in a part of the American West, struggling after a fire has destroyed their farms and livelihood.
Josh O'Connor (Challengers, God's Own Country) plays a divorced father of a young girl, who has lost everything but his dignity in the fire and is now living in a temporary camper provided by the government. His neighbours in the campers are all survivors of the fire.
How they rebuild their lives, with love, compassion, support and the will to continue living, makes Rebuilding a heartfelt film.
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