25 must-see movies from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival

With the second consecutive virtual Sundance Film Festival now at a close, the heartening news is that the indie film showcase once again unveiled a lineup of movies worth dissecting and discussing in the year ahead.

Here are some of our favorites from the festival’s feature competition sections, as well as Next, Midnight and Premieres.

‘Am I OK?’ / ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

One undisputed star of this year’s festival was Dakota Johnson with two films as actor and producer, Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s “Am I OK?” both displaying that there can still be something fresh from even within seemingly venerable Sundance loglines of self-discovery. In “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” Johnson plays a mother to an autistic teenager, conflicted about how to move forward in her life as she strikes up an unexpected friendship with a 22-year-old played by Raiff. In “Am I Ok?” Johnson plays a woman who finds her relationship with her a longtime best friend (Sonoya Mizuno) pulling apart at the exact moment she needs it most, as she embraces for the first time her identity as a lesbian. Both films have a sense of discovery and an enveloping warmth, and “Cha Cha” became the biggest sale of the festival so far when it went to Apple TV+ for a reported $15 million.

‘Call Jane’ / ‘The