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As with 2021, the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the largest showcase of independent film in the United States, had to turn its cinematic spotlight on virtually as the latest COVID outbreak kept filmmakers, critics, and revelers, away from Park City, Utah. Even with the pivot, the ten-day showcase welcomed 82 feature films screened from January 20-30.

God’s Country is a complex neo-western about a female college professor’s escalating feud with two men in the godless countryside. It premiered at Sundance.

As part of the Sundance Film Festival Cinema Café series, Dakota Johnson joined Keke Palmer in a panel discussion about their latest projects. Speaking via Zoom, Johnson says of her two films, Cha Cha Real Smooth, and Am I Ok?  “These are the first two movies from my production company (TeaTime Pictures).

At Sundance’s opening press conference, Senior Programmer John Nein mentioned that this year’s lineup would include several films which would use genre elements in order to tackle profound topics. Nanny, with Anna Diop and Michelle Monaghan, belongs in this category.

A collaboration between director Jim Archer and multi-hyphenates David Earl and Chris Hayward, who co-wrote the movie and also stars in it, Brian and Charles recently enjoyed its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section. A whimsical, amiable cinematic hangout that connects best with fans of Flight of the Conchords and What We Do in the Shadows, the movie unfolds in a mockumentary style chronicling the relationship peaks and valleys between a man and his robot creation, who achieves unlikely sentience but soon begins to chafe at the frustrations of life in their small Welsh town.

Panelists Amy Poehler and Eva Longoria Baston are part of the Sundance Film Festival’s Cinema Cafe series speaking about their documentaries: Lucy and Desi, and La Guerra Civil, respectively.   Via Zoom from Paris, Longoria Baston declares, “This is my first time here as a director with a film!” Poehler is also enjoying her Sundance debut as a director.

Finnish director Alli Haapasalo wanted to show a different picture of teenage girls’ sexuality. She did it with the feature film Girl Picture, which premiered at Sundance.

Nine-time Golden Globe nominee and three-time winner, the late legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone is the subject of a documentary directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) simply entitled Ennio. The film tells of the life and art of one of the greatest film composers of all time, bringing his genius and endearing personality to the audience, spotlighting his humanity and his fascination with the mystery of music.

On August 15, 1926, thousands of fans mobbed the Polyclinic hospital in New York City where Rudolph Valentino had just died after a bout of acute appendicitis, perforated ulcers and peritonitis. In the week before his passing, letters, telegrams, calls and gifts flooded into the hospital as he battled for his life.

Am I OK?, which premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, is a dramedy about a thirty-something-year-old woman coming out as gay to her best friend and realizing that not having everything figured out at this point in life is quite OK. Am I OK? is focused on Lucy’s coming out and her journey to self-discovery.