'In the Summers,' 'Didi' top Sundance awards. Here are more movies we loved.
And that's another Sundance Film Festival, officially in the books.
On Friday, the annual gathering in snowy Park City, Utah, of movie lovers and Hollywood industry types – celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – announced the winners of its top prizes. "In the Summers," a decades-spanning epic about a man and his two daughters, received the U.S. dramatic Grand Jury Prize. "Didi," about a Taiwanese-American boy's last summer before high school, took home the festival's other major trophy, the U.S. dramatic audience award. "Porcelain War" and "Daughters" picked up top documentary trophies, while the NEXT Innovator Award went to satirical dramedy "Little Death," starring David Schwimmer as a TV writer with a midlife crisis.
If you missed out and want to experience Sundance from your couch, the festival has many of this year's movies (including award winners) available to watch on its online digital platform through Sunday.
These were our other favorite films from this year's Sundance lineup:
'Ghostlight'
Whenever you get a chance to watch this heartfelt flick – the closest thing Sundance had to "CODA" this year – have some tissues handy. Keith Kupferer is top notch in the dramedy as a middle-aged construction worker who's reluctantly recruited for an acting troupe's take on "Romeo and Juliet" and finds the plot mirrors a tragedy in his life that still haunts him. "Triangle of Sadness" breakout Dolly De Leon plays the main character's feisty stage partner and the star's daughter, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, is excellent as Dan's rebellious kid. – Brian Truitt
Sundance Film Festival: All the best movies we saw, ranked (including 'Love Me')
'Kneecap'
The quasi-biopic comedy, which won Sundance's NEXT audience award, is a crowd-pleasing, enjoyably anarchic introduction to the Irish-speaking hip-hop group's musical shenanigans and political leanings. Starring the real-life members of Kneecap, the wild and highly watchable journey of two childhood friends from Belfast and a music teacher features rap tunes, Michael Fassbender (as a complicated father figure), various cops and crooks and a youthful middle finger to a repressive establishment. – Truitt
'Ponyboi'
River Gallo is a revelation in this beguiling crime thriller, which is bound to become an unlikely Valentine’s Day classic with its sordid yet sneakily emotional tale of a New Jersey sex worker. The intersex actor has electric chemistry with Murray Bartlett (“The Last of Us”), who plays a tender cowboy with a penchant for Bruce Springsteen. And “Teen Wolf” heartthrob Dylan O’Brien brings the perfect amount of sleaze to a small-time pimp and drug dealer. ? Patrick Ryan
'A Real Pain'
If you dig Kieran Culkin in "Succession," he's just as salty – and equally as terrific – in Jesse Eisenberg's second directorial feature. The dramedy stars Eisenberg and Culkin as two estranged cousins who go on a Holocaust tour in Poland to reconnect with their Jewish heritage and honor their beloved grandma. They test the nerves of their tour group (and each other) while wading through their own issues in a funny and thoughtful dramedy about family expectations and dealing with the past. – Truitt
'Sebastian'
In Mikko M?kel?’s bewitching erotic drama, a young gay journalist (Ruaridh Mollica) leads a double life: freelancing for a magazine as he pens his first novel while moonlighting as an escort. His sexual exploration begins as writing research, but the lines soon begin to blur as he grapples with shame, boundaries and how to truly be intimate with other men. “Sebastian” is a compelling story about the lengths we’ll go to for our art, and a genuinely steamy film that captures the beauty of queer sex. ? Ryan
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sundance winners: 'In the Summers,' 'Didi' top festival
