The movies and performances most likely to make an impact in the year ahead, including an ode to 1970s New York and Josh O’Connor going full cowboy.

Questions about the future hung in the frigid January air last week at Park City, Utah, during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (which ended over the weekend). There was the usual hand-wringing about a lack of commercially minded movies on the slate,

No one quite knew what to expect from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which came to the mountains of Utah just two weeks after wildfires swept through Los Angeles. Some festival staff had lost their homes,