Sundance Film Festival: five must-see films

The Sundance Film Festival returns for another year on Thursday, showcasing around 200 of the most promising and original independent films over ten packed days of screening. With so many films on offer – and most of them lacking a Hollywood-scale publicity machine - the selection can seem overwhelming. But here are five that have got the critics' attention:

Tallulah

So keen was Netflix to get its hands on this darkly comic drama that it has already bought the streaming rights. The film revolves around a homeless woman who kidnaps a neglected child and tries to pass it off as her own, with Variety heralding it as one of the festival's "hot titles". Directed by Orange is the New Black writer Sian Heder and boasting a talented cast headed by Ellen Page and Allison Janney, Tallulah is bound to find an audience.

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Sophie and the Rising Sun

In 1941, the arrival of an Asian stranger at a quiet village in the US shakes up the inhabitants – and no one more so than Sophie (Julianne Nicholson), a lonely spinster caring for her senile relatives. A slow-burning romance develops, but the bombing of Pearl Harbour changes everything. It's based on Augusta Trobagh's book, which won rave reviews, so the film-makers will be hoping they have a similar hit on their hands.

Certain Women

Director Kelly Reichardt has firmly sealed her indie darling status with arthouse favourites such as River of Grass and Meek's Cutoff, so expectations are high for her latest offering. Certain Women follows the lives of three women, played by unlikely but intriguing trio Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart, who each blaze a trail in small town America.

Swiss Army Man

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe lead this quirky drama about a man who becomes strangely attached to a dead body he finds in the wilderness and embarks on a surreal quest to get him home. Sundance's director, John Cooper, told IndieWire the film promises to be "really wild" and that he hopes it will create "both confusion and excitement".

The Birth of a Nation

Sharing a title with DW Griffith's notoriously racist 1915 silent epic, Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation tackles the subject of race in the US from a very different perspective. Parker plays Nat Turner, a Virginia slave who, in 1831, led an uprising which left dozens dead and sent chills through the country. After the rise of Black Lives Matter movement, the subject matter could hardly be more topical and The Birth of a Nation is likely to find an appreciative audience.