All the best movies we saw at Sundance Film Festival, ranked (including 'Twinless')

Hoping to see the next "Clerks," "Reservoir Dogs" or "Get Out" before anyone else? That's why you go Sundancing.

Another Sundance Film Festival is in the books for those who enjoy all things indie cinema. For more than 40 years, the annual event has gifted movie fans with a deep bench of great films, from "Sex, Lies and Videotape" and "Hoop Dreams" to "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Hereditary." Sundance has also been a launch pad for Oscar films: "CODA" bowed during the 2021 festival and won best picture a year later, while the best of 2024's entries, "A Real Pain," is nominated for best original screenplay and supporting actor (for Kieran Culkin) at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.

Here's every movie we saw this year at Sundance (including the award winners), ranked.

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11. 'Luz'

Hong Kong gallerist Ren (Sandrine Pinna) travels to France to visit her sick stepmom (Isabelle Huppert). Chinese ex-con Wei (Xiao Dong Guo) is desperate to know his estranged influencer daughter (En Xi Deng) who thinks he's dead. But Ren and Wei's journeys intersect in a virtual reality game where each has gone searching for something, and a chance meeting leads to both helping the other find what they need – and also a mythical deer. While director Flora Lau's drama is filled with subplots that muddy the emotional narrative, it does offer an immersive, neon-drenched digital world nicely fleshed out with relatable humanity.

10. 'Zodiac Killer Project'

Director Charlie Shackleton couldn't get the rights to a book by former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty, so his planned Zodiac Killer documentary got scrapped. He then did the next best thing: Shackleton made a movie about what that movie would have looked like. ("How many people are going to watch this, realistically?" Shackleton wonders during the film.) The winner of Sundance's NEXT Innovator Award is partly about Lafferty's investigation but also an unconventional exploration of the filmmaking process and a cleverly lighthearted look at pop culture's obsession with all things true crime.

9. 'Sukkwan Island'

Based on David Vann's novella, the increasingly intense survival thriller stars Swann Arlaud ("Anatomy of a Fall") as a divorced dad who invites his 13-year-old son (Woody Norman from "C'mon C'mon") to spend a year on an isolated island amid gorgeous Norwegian fjords. Spending needed father-son time in a cabin and living off nature quickly turns treacherous, not only because of bears and harsh weather but also the father's emotional issues and treatment of his kid. Sure, it takes a bit to get going and might have you second-guessing that next camping trip, but the gut-wrenching last-minute twist makes it all worth it with a deft shifting of perspective.

8. 'Folktales'

This often-moving documentary is hard not to love just for the sheer amount of adorable sled dogs. For their latest film, "Jesus Camp" directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow teens at a Norwegian folk high school near the Russian border, an arctic locale where they get lessons in survival and being an adult while also learning the ins and outs of dog sledding. Some kids come needing to get over family trauma, some are seeking the right career path, while others are socially introverted and need the pooches to help them come out of their shells.

7. 'Touch Me'

Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Craig (Jordan Gavaris) are unemployed besties living together when a sewer situation makes their apartment unlivable. They wind up going to a posh, remote compound to spend time with Joey's on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a breakdancing alien with a love for cross-species intercourse and an addictive touch that alleviates anxieties. Friendships are tested and weird stuff abounds in Addison Heimann's wild horror comedy, which balances bonkers sex fantasies with a pleasantly deep exploration of emotional trauma and toxic relationships.

6. 'Didn't Die'

From muted black-and-white cinematography to complex themes, the comedic zombie flick is a solid love letter to George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" but with a modern touch of pandemic-era paranoia. Kiran Deol plays the Indian American host of a snarky podcast who travels around a post-apocalyptic landscape with her brother (Vishal Vijayakumar) sharing stories and telling her listeners to avoid undead "biters." For their 100th episode, they head back to their hometown, where they reunite with family and old flames and are forced to come to grips with their past and an uncertain future. Come for the kills, stay for the chewy emotional complexity.

5. 'The Ugly Stepsister'

Cross "Cinderella" with "The Substance" and you've got Emilie Blichfeldt's clever, comedic and proudly unsettling body horror twist on a familiar fairy tale. Elvira (Lea Myren) yearns to marry the charming poet prince of her kingdom but among the competition to be the belle of the upcoming ball is Elvira's attractive new stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch N?ss). Elvira's mom (Ane Dahl Torp) champions Elvira going to extreme lengths in the "beautification" process, which includes a nasty bit of old-school rhinoplasty and the use of tapeworms for weight loss (not recommended, by the way) in some seriously stomach-churning scenes.

4. 'Atropia'

The 2006-set war satire – winner of Sundance's U.S. dramatic Grand Jury Prize – centers on a military role-playing facility in the California desert where Fayruz (Alia Shawkat), an actress with Iraqi roots, and other thespians populate a faux Middle Eastern village. They try to impress Hollywood types while also prepping young Army men for what they'll encounter overseas, from terrorist simulations to the piped-in smell of "burning flesh." Fayruz's life gets a little more complicated when she falls for a real soldier (Callum Turner) playing an insurgent in a comedy where a healthy dose of silliness (and a fun A-list cameo) helps the imperialism go down.

3. 'Oh, Hi!'

New couple Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) venture off to the countryside for their first romantic getaway with all the accoutrements: lake makeout sessions, over-the-top renditions of "Islands in the Stream," some harmless sex play, etc. Then a truthful reveal upends those loving antics and sends the rom-com into "Misery"-but fun territory. Filmmaker Sophie Brooks' genre mashup starts stronger than it ends, but the cast is aces, especially a go-for-broke Gordon, and even after juggling a bunch of tones, "Oh, Hi!" still manages to say something meaningful about relationships.

2. 'Pee-wee as Himself'

Pee-wee Herman was a beloved, bowtie-clad pop-culture icon. Paul Reubens wasn't. And therein lies one of the most intriguing aspects of this revealing (and fascinating, especially for '80s kids) documentary. Reubens, who died in 2023 after privately battling cancer, gets real about the huge successes and psychological complications of becoming Pee-wee, why he was a closeted gay man, and the emotional consequences of his later legal troubles and being labeled a pedophile. However, he balances those personal complexities with humor and honesty that posthumously show the ultra-private Reubens to be as affable and mercurial as his alter ego.

1. 'Twinless'

After the sudden death of his identical twin brother Rocky, a grieving and out-of-sorts Roman (Dylan O'Brien) attends a support group where he meets Dennis (James Sweeney). The two lonely guys form a codependent bromance of sorts: Roman grapples with guilt and emptiness after his loss, but Dennis harbors a secret that threatens their shaky states of mind. Sweeney also writes and directs this sharp and insightful comedy, a winner of a Sundance audience award for U.S. dramatic films. And O'Brien ? the recipient of an acting grand jury prize ? has never been better nimbly navigating the smart humor and big heart of a movie about moving on.

(This report has been updated with new information and new photos.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sundance reviews: All the best movies we saw at the film festival