Set in the post one-child era in China and with a cast led by Zu Feng and Guo Keyu, the film puts a middle-class family under the microscope as tension rises after their only son brings home a new friend.

The director notes that his familial study sets out to “amplify their hidden fears, desires and tensions … the closer we get, the more mysterious they become”.

2. Black Box Diaries

In 2020, journalist and writer Shiori Ito was listed as one of the most 100 influential people in the world by Time magazine for her contribution to Japan’s #MeToo movement. Now she adds documentary filmmaker to her list of achievements with Black Box Diaries, which debuts in the World Cinema Documentary category.

The film chronicles her own attempt to investigate the sexual assault she was subjected to, as she tries to take down the high-profile offender. Already famous in Japan, Ito attracted notoriety as she sought to expose the country’s antiquated judicial system and societal norms.

This is destined to become one of the festival’s most talked about films.

3. Agent of Happiness

What is fulfilment? What does it mean for each individual? These questions occupy Agent of Happiness, an idiosyncratic non-fiction film that plays in the World Cinema Documentary strand.

Directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, the film follows Amber, an agent for the Bhutanese government tasked with measuring people’s happiness in the Himalayan mountain kingdom.

Searching for love, and also grappling with his place in society as a member of Bhutan’s Nepali minority, Amber explores what it means to be happy as he broaches various households in the remote kingdom.

It’s a fascinating insight into a little-documented country.

4. Nocturnes

It’s rare that a nature documentary gets programmed in Sundance, but from two filmmakers based in New Delhi, India, comes this very spiritual and surprising non-fiction film.

Premiering in the World Cinema Documentary line-up, Nocturnes, directed by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, takes us into the forests of the Eastern Himalayas and into the secret world of moths.

These most mysterious of insects are drawn to a large canvas in the forest via a bright light, allowing viewers to observe them in their habitat.

An experiential work blessed with immersive sound, it’s a unique look at how moths form a vital part of ecosystems.

5. Love Lies Bleeding

British filmmaker Rose Glass enjoyed remarkable acclaim for her well-crafted feature debut, the stark horror Saint Maud, back in 2019. Now, five years on, she’s back with Love Lies Bleeding, her first American-set adventure and one that mixes love and loyalty with hedonistic violence.

Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a reclusive gym manager who falls for Jackie (Katy O’Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder who is heading through Las Vegas. But as their relationship unfolds, so Lou’s criminal family become involved, turning their world upside down.

Playing in the festival’s Midnight strand, this has got cult tattooed all over it.

6. And So It Begins

Ramona Diaz is a well-established Filipino-American documentary filmmaker whose work includes 2003’s Imelda, a look at the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos.

Now she’s back with And So It Begins, set against the backdrop of national elections at the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial presidency as a people’s movement forms to fight against attacks on truth and democracy.

At a time when election campaigning in the US is ramping up, Diaz’s film will offer a stark reminder of the fragile nature of electoral systems around the globe.

7. Freaky Tales

8. Presence

Steven Soderbergh, who famously launched his career in Sundance with 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape, is back with what might be his first out-and-out horror film.

Presence also marks his second collaboration with David Koepp, the famed screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, following their 2022 tech-thriller, Kimi.

Set in a single location, Presence stars Lucy Liu and Julia Fox (who previously featured in Soderbergh’s underrated No Sudden Move) in a creepy-sounding story about a family who move into a suburban house and become convinced they’re not alone.

Showing in the festival’s Premieres strand, you can expect this not to be a run-of-the-mill haunted house tale given the track records of Soderbergh and Koepp.

9. The Outrun

German director Nora Fingscheidt made a startling impression with 2019’s System Crasher, a film about an unruly child pinballed through social care institutions. Since then, she has made the The Unforgivable with Sandra Bullock, released on Netflix. Now she returns with The Outrun.

A collaboration with the brilliant Saoirse Ronan, the film is an adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s memoir of addiction and recovery. Ronan plays Rona, a drug and alcohol addict who flees London, where her life spiralled out of control, for the wilds of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, where she grew up.

Expect a deeply personal, poignant journey, fiercely acted by Ronan.

10. Winner

Following 2023’s Reality with Sydney Sweeney, Susanna Fogel’s Winner is the second film inside a year to focus on real-life whistle-blower Reality Winner.

This time Britain’s Emilia Jones, who featured in Fogel’s recent film Cat Person, takes on the role of the US National Security Agency contractor who wound up being prosecuted for exposing Russia’s hacking of the 2016 US elections.

While Reality focused on Winner’s initial interrogation by the FBI, using verbatim transcripts from her arrest, Winner will offer a broader view of her story. Given Winner’s contradictory nature – she is a fitness fanatic from Texas who also held guns at home – it should be fascinating.

The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 18 to January 28.