118 feature films were screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival. They ranged from small indies seeking American distribution to early Oscars contenders and studio films seeking indie credibility. Not every film could be a critical darling, but these ten films certainly fit the bill. Critics raved about these 10 films that you should have on your radar in the coming months.
These are the 10 best films at Sundance 2020 according to Rotten Tomatoes. In the case of ties, the number of critic reviews they have on the site and the average rating was used.
Promising Young Woman - 97%
Promising Young Woman stars Casey Mulligan in the feature directorial debut of Killing Eve writer Emerald Fennell. Mulligan stars as Cassie, a woman who dropped out of medical school after a traumatic experience. She spends her nights exacting vigilante justice on would-be rapists. Praise has been universal for Mulligan's performance in what is frequently being called the best performance of her career as well as the film's daring to take rape culture seriously as a topic in a mainstream film.
Focus Features will release Promising Young Woman April 17, 2020.
Relic - 100%
The debut feature from Natalie Erika James puts a spin on the haunted house story. The film stars Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote as Kay and Sam, a mother and daughter who search an Australian country home after matriarch Edna (Robyn Nevin) goes missing. Kay and Sam realize something is wrong when Edna returns after three days as if nothing happened. Bloody Disgusting's Megan Navarro called the film "an audacious debut" that "explodes into full-blown horror in a wholly unexpected way."
Relic is still searching for a U.S. distributor.
Dick Johnson Is Dead - 100%
Dick Johnson is Dead, except he isn't. It's hard to tell whether this blend of documentary and fiction is running from or embracing the inevitability of its subject's death. Kirsten Johnson, documentarian and the subject's daughter, uses the movie as a means to kill and resurrect her father in increasingly hilarious ways and capture him on camera as his memory begins to slip away. The film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling.
Dick Johnson is Dead is scheduled to release on Netflix later this year.
Herself - 100%
Herself stars Irish actress Claire Dunne as a mother who builds her own house after leaving an abusive husband. She enlists the help of a disparate but connected group of individuals to build the house as a means of circumventing the Irish bureaucracy and the Dublin housing market. Dunne co-wrote the script with Malcolm Campbell and Phyllida Lloyd directs her first film since 2011's The Iron Lady.
Amazon Studios purchased the North American rights to the film and is planning to release it later this year.
On the Record - 100%
On the Record courted controversy before its release after executive producer Oprah Winfrey exited the film. When Winfrey left the project, the film was dropped from her distribution deal with Apple TV+. On the Record is primarily about Drew Dixon, a music executive who accused hip-hop moguls Russell Simmons and L.A. Reid of sexual harassment in a 2017 New York Times piece. She also accused Simmons of raping her while she worked at Def Jam Records in the mid-to-late 1990s.
The film is still seeking a U.S. distributor.
The 40-Year-Old Version - 100%
The 40-Year-Old Version is the first feature from Radha Blank. The semi-autobiographical comedy features Blank as a 40-year-old playwright who decides to reinvent herself as a rapper. Years after receiving "30 Under 30" awards, Blank's character is struggling to get her work produced and teaches drama to high school students. The world takes notice of Blank when she begins rapping. The film has a history at Sundance: it was selected for the 2017 Screenwriters and Directors Labs.
Netflix is currently in talks to buy the film.
Crip Camp - 100%
Crip Camp is the second film in Barack and Michelle Obama's production deal with Netflix. The documentary depicts Camp Jened, a summer camp for people with disabilities co-director Jim LeBrecht attended in the 1970s. LeBrecht has spina bifida and was a camper at a pivotal time in the disability rights movement; he attended the camp in the early 1970s just before the passing of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The film won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award at this year's festival.
RELATED: 10 Movies You Need To See Shown At Sundance 2019
Crip Camp is scheduled to release on Netflix later this year.
Palm Springs - 100%
Palm Springs became the most expensive film ever purchased at Sundance after Neon and Hulu bought the movie for $17,500,000.69. The amusing sum is indicative of the spirit of the Lonely Island's third film. The romantic comedy stars Cristin Milioti (of The Venture Bros and Fargo: Season 2) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andy Samberg as two people whose meet-cute at a wedding in the California desert goes very wrong.
Palm Springs does not have a release date as of writing.
Minari - 100%
Minari is Lee Issac Chung's semi-autobiographical memoir about his childhood growing up in Arkansas. The film stars Steven Yeun and Yeri Han as chicken sexers (people who determine the sex of newborn chicks) who move from a hatchery in California to a plot of farmland in Arkansas, where Jacob plans to grow vegetables. Alan S. Kim also stars as David, their youngest son.
The film won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at this year's festival. A24 will release Minari later this year.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always - 100%
The title of Eliza Hittman's third feature comes from a questionnaire its protagonist fills out during a pre-abortion screening. Sex is a common thread in all of Hittman's work, but the stakes are at their most serious in Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Sidney Flanigan stars in her debut performance as a rural Pennsylvania teen who goes to New York to get an abortion. The film won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Neorealism.
Focus Features will release Never Rarely Sometimes Always March 13, 2020.