Sundance: From buzzy to under-the-radar, a festival for every film fan

Gabrielle Union, left, Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer, director Nate Parker, Penelope Ann Miller and Jackie Earle Haley from the film "The Birth of A Nation."

Feb. 1, 2016 3:30 AM PT

Los Angeles Times Film Critic

The Cannes Film Festival, a wise man once said, is not only impossible to describe to someone who’s never been there but also “nearly impossible to describe to someone who has been there.” And what’s true of Cannes is becoming increasingly true of Sundance.

That’s because the annual extravaganza in Park City, Utah, has increasingly become several different but overlapping events — each with its own characteristics, priorities and even its own audience.

Sundance Film Festival 2016: Full coverage

Most visible is Hot Ticket Sundance, the festival that journalists, critics and movie business movers and shakers tend to frequent. Its focus is on the films people are talking about and fighting to get into, whether because of high acquisition price, place in the zeitgeist or even actual quality.

The hottest movie this year and the all but inevitable winner at Saturday night’s awards ceremony of both the dramatic grand jury prize and audience award was Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation.”

A seven-year labor of love for Parker, who starred, wrote and produced in addition to directing, “The Birth of a Nation” deals with the charismatic Nat Turner and the events leading to his 1831 Virginia slave rebellion. Deeply felt, emotional filmmaking, albeit with problematic elements, “Birth” was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a reported Sundance record of $17.5 million.

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Stars of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival are photographed in the L.A. Times’ photo and video studio on site in Park City, Utah. The festival runs through Jan. 31.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Michael Shannon is a stars of “Complete Unknown” and “Frank and Lola.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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“Mad Men” veteran Elisabeth Moss is at Sundance with her new film, “The Free World.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Imogen Poots is the Lola of “Frank and Lola,” in which she stars opposite Michael Shannon.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Danfung Dennis, seated, and Casey Brown are behind the virtual reality experience “Condition One.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Bobby Naderi is one of the stars of “Under The Shadow.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Boyd Holbrook is a star of “The Free World.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Chloe Sevigny from the film “Antibirth” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Jared Harris of “Certain Women” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Tracy Letts of “Indignation” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Logan Lerman of “Indignation” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Kate Lyn Sheil from the film “Kate Plays Christine” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Werner Herzog, director of “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Brooklyn Decker from the film “Lovesong” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Casey Affleck of “Manchester by the Sea” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Norman Lear, subject of the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Rachel Grady, left and Heidi Ewing, co-directors of “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” pose for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Abigail Spencer of the series “Rectify” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Ellen Page, starring in “Talullah,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Allison Janney of “Talullah” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Josh Groban, from the film “The Hollars,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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John Krasinski of “The Hollars” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Laura Albert, from the film “The JT Leroy Story,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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India Menuez, from the film “White Girl,’ poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo and video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah.

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Artist Cai Guo-Qiang is the subject of the documentary “Sky Ladder.”

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Craig Robinson is a star of the film “Morris From America.”

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Keith Stanfield is an actor in Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis biopic, “Miles Ahead.”

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Don Cheadle is the star and director of the Miles Davis biopic “Miles Ahead.”

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Isabelle Allen is an actress from the film “Let’s Be Evil.”

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Actor Dulé Hill from the film “Sleight.”

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James Spinney, left, and Pete Middleton are the writers and directors of the film “Notes on Blindness.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Kirsten Johnson is the director of the film “Cameraperson,” a memoir of her work as a documentary cinematographer.

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Director Matt Ross from the film “Captain Fantastic.”

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Nick Jonas from the film “Goat.”

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Rob Zombie, director of the film “31.”

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Andre Hyland, director and screenwriter from the film “The 4th.”

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Viggo Mortensen from the film “Captain Fantastic.”

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Riley Keough from “The Girlfriend Experience.”

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Ben Schnetzer from the film “Goat.”

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Kate Beckinsale from the film “Love and Friendship.”

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Taika Waititi, writer and director from the film “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.”

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Todd Solondz, director from the film “Weiner Dog.”

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James Schamus, director for the film “Indignation.”

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Matt Johnson, director and star of the film “Operation Avalanche.”

( Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Winner of the grand jury prize for world drama was Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” a moving story of a mother and daughter in Israel’s Bedouin community caught between tradition and modernity.

In other noteworthy dramatic awards, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Chad Hartigan for his “Morris From America,” a deft coming-of-age tale with a twist: 13-year-old Morris, along with his father, are “the only brothers in Heidelberg,” a staid German city. And the director’s award went to Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s “Swiss Army Man,” a film about a flatulent corpse. Really.

Also part of Hot Ticket Sundance, though not eligible to win anything because of the festival’s determination to ghettoize established creators, was Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea.” The kind of powerful, emotional filmmaking that leaves a scar, “Manchester,” to be distributed by Amazon Studios, stars Casey Affleck as a surly misanthrope forced to confront the tragedy that upended his life.

The second Park City subset might be called Quotidian Sundance. The films here invariably play to appreciative audiences at packed houses (“500 people at 8:30 a.m., awesome,” said one director), though they do tend to fly under the radar, eschewing Hot Ticket status no matter their quality.

Two of the most satisfying of these, quarantined like “Manchester” in the Premiers section, were New Zealand director Taika Waititi’s “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and Joshua Marston’s “Complete Unknown.”

The adventure-filled tale of an unlikely alliance between an overweight reprobate of a teenager and a surly loner (the veteran Sam Neill at his best), “Wilderpeople” is very much its own film, warm, playful, comic and eccentric all at once.

“Complete Unknown” is a smooth and pleasingly enigmatic entertainment, a treat for fans of actress Rachel Weisz, who, costarring with the protean Michael Shannon, displays the range of her talent as a woman with the chameleon-like ability to discard lives like second skins.

Sundance documentaries, for their part, were as uniformly strong and fascinating as they’ve been in previous years, and if none of them made it into the Hot Ticket category, that was not for lack of trying.

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Imogen Poots, from the film “Frank and Lola,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Imogen Poots poses for a portrait at the Sundance Film Festival.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Imogen Poots and director Matthew Ross from the film “Frank and Lola” pose for an L.A. Times photo at the Sundance Film Festival.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Louis Black and Karen Bernstein, filmmakers from the film “Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny,” in a portrait taken at the L.A. Times studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Chris Hegedus, left, Steven Wise and D.A. Pennebaker of the film “Unlocking the Cage” pose for a portrait in the L.A. Times studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Chris Hegedus, director of “Unlocking the Cage,” in a portrait at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Jon Shenk, left, subject Daisy Coleman and Bonni Cohen, director from the film “Audrie & Daisy,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Vincent Piazza from the film “Intervention.”

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Daisy Coleman, subject from the film “Audrie & Daisy.”

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Director Clea DuVall from the film “Intervention.”

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Michael Shannon from the films “Complete Unknown” and “Frank and Lola.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Melanie Lynskey from the film “Intervention.”

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Michael Shannon from the film “Complete Unknown.”

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Ben Schwartz from the film “Intervention.”

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Michael Shannon from the films “Complete Unknown” and “Frank and Lola.”

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Jason Ritter, left, Ben Schwartz, Natasha Lyonne, Vincent Piazza, Clea DuVall, director, Melanie Lynskey from the film “Intervention.”

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Ben Schwartz, left, and Jason Ritter from the film “Intervention.”

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Jason Ritter from the film “Intervention.”

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Aaron Brookner, director from the film “Uncle Howard.”

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Executive producer/narrator Katie Couric, right, and filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig from the film “Under The Gun.”

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Executive producer/narrator Katie Couric from the film “Under The Gun.”

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Michael Shannon from the films “Complete Unknown” and “Frank and Lola.”

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Amandla Stenberg from the film “As You Are.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Michael Chernus, left, Michael Shannon and director Joshua Marston from the film “Complete Unknown.”

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Michael Chernus, left, Michael Shannon and director Joshua Marston from the film “Complete Unknown.”

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Danfung Dennis, filmmaker, and Casey Brown, producer from the virtual reality experience “Condition One.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Ciro Guerra, writer-director from the film “Embrace of the Serpent.”

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Josh Fox, director from the film “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Christopher Waldorf, left, Chi Chi Mizrahi,, MikeQ, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, co-writer/subject, Sara Jordeno, writer-director, Gia Marie Love, Kenneth “Symba McQueen” Soler-Rios from the film “Kiki.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Kahane Cooperman, showrunner/executive producer from the film “The New Yorker Presents.”

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Frankie Shaw, director-writer stars in “Too Legit.”

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Dawn Porter, director from the film “Trapped.”

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Keith Fulton, director, Lou Pepe, director, Jennifer Coffield and A.J. Wright from the film “Bad Kids.”

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Lou Pepe, left, and Keith Fulton, directors from the film “Bad Kids.”

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Jennifer Coffield and A.J. Wright from the film “Bad Kids.”

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Michael Villar from the film “Carnage Park.”

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Mickey Keating, director from the film “Carnage Park.”

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Rebecca Hall from the film “Christine.”

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Tahir Jetter, director from the film “How to Tell You’re a Douchebag.”

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Alex Ross Perry from the movie “Joshy.”

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Jenny Slate from the movie “Joshy.”

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Thomas Middleditch from the movie “Joshy.”

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Nick Kroll, left, Brett Gelman, Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally, Alex Ross Perry, Jenny Slate, Jeff Baena, director, and Lauren Weedman from the movie “Joshy.”

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Jeff Baena, director, from the movie “Joshy.”

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Paulina Garcia from the film “Little Men.”

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Diego Luna, director of “Mr. Pig.”

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Maya Rudolph, star of “Mr. Pig”

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Actors Danny Glover, from left, Maya Rudolph and “Mr. Pig” director Diego Luna.

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Writer-director Richard Tanne, from left, Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers, from “Southside With You.”

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Tika Sumpter from “Southside With You.”

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Actor Waleed Zuaiter from “The Free World.”

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Writer-director Jason Lew, from “The Free World.”

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Boyd Holbrook, from “The Free World.”

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Elisabeth Moss, from “The Free World.”

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Elisabeth Moss, from “The Free World.”

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Boyd Holbrook, from left, Octavia Spencer, writer-director Jason Lew, Elisabeth Moss and Waleed Zuaiter, from “The Free World.”

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Octavia Spencer, from “The Free World.”

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Octavia Spencer, from “The Free World.”

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Bobby Naderi, from “Under the Shadow.”

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Bobby Nader, from “Under The Shadow.”

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Jeff Daniels Phillips, right, and Richard Brake from the film “31.”

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Ashley Bell, left, Pat Healy, Mickey Keating, Michael Villar and James Landry Hébert from the film “Carnage Park.”

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Ashley Bell from the film “Carnage Park.”

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Rebecca Hall from the film “Christine.”

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Rebecca Hall and director Antonio Campos from the film “Christine.”

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Dylan Gelula from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Writer-director Kerem Sanga from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Brianna Hildebrand, left, Kerem Sanga, writer-director, Brianna Hildebrand, Dylan Gelula and Mateo Arias from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Brianna Hildebrand, left, Kerem Sanga, writer-director, Brianna Hildebrand, Dylan Gelula and Mateo Arias from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Brianna Hildebrand from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Mateo Arias from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Mateo Arias from the film “First Girl I Loved.”

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Thomas Middleditch from the movie “Joshy.”

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Lauren Weedman from the movie “Joshy.”

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Brett Gelman from the movie “Joshy.”

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Adam Pally from the movie “Joshy.”

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Nick Kroll from the movie “Joshy.”

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Maya Rudolph from the film “Mr. Pig.”

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Maya Rudolph from the film “Mr. Pig.”

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Danny Glover from the film “Mr. Pig.”

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Haerry Kim from the film “Spa Night.”

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Haerry Kim, left, director Andrew Ahn and Joe Seo from the film “Spa Night.”

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Director Andrew Ahn from the film “Spa Night.”

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Joe Seo from the film “Spa Night.”

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Asif Kapadia, filmmaker from “Ali & Nino,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Alysia Reiner, left, and Sarah Megan Thomas from the film “Equity.”

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Alysia Reiner from the film “Equity.”

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Sarah Megan Thomas from the film “Equity.”

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Steven Caple Jr., writer and director for the film “The Land.”

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Jorge Lendeborg Jr. from the film “The Land.”

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Moises Arias from the film “The Land.”

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Rafi Gavron, left, Ezri Walker, Steven Caple Jr., Moises Arias and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. from the film “The Land.”

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Ezri Walker from the film “The Land.”

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Moises Arias from the film “The Land.”

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Yoshiki from the film “We are X.”

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Stephen Kijak, left, and Yoshiki from the film “We are X.”

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Co-directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg from the film “Weiner.”

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Penelope Ann Miller from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Armie Hammer from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Gabrielle Union from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Gabrielle Union, left, Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer, Nate Parker, director, Penelope Ann Miller and Jackie Earle Haley from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Nate Parker, director from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Jackie Earle Haley from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Aja Naomi King from the film “The Birth of A Nation.”

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Jessie Kahnweiler, star-director-producer, from the film “The Skinny.”

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Illeana Douglas, star-producer, left, Jill Soloway, executive producer, Rebecca Odes, executive producer, Jessie Kahnweiler, star-director-producer, and Andrea Sperling, producer, from the film “The Skinny.”

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Jill Soloway, executive producer from the film “The Skinny.”

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Jessie Kahnweiler from the film “The Skinny.”

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Rebecca Odes, executive producer from the film “The Skinny.”

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Illeana Douglas from the film “The Skinny.”

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Illeana Douglas from the film “The Skinny.”

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Andrea Sperling, producer from the film “The Skinny.”

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DeWanda Wise from the film “How to Tell You’re a Douchebag.”

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Jenna Williams, from the film “How to Tell You’re a Douchebag.”

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Alano Miller, left, DeWanda Wise, Tahir Jetter, Charles Brice and producers Julius Pryor IV and Marttise Hill from the film “How to Tell You’re a Douchebag.”

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Jennifer Ehle, from the film “Little Men.”

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Jennifer Ehle, left, Michael Barbieri, Mauricio Zacharias, Paulina Garcia, Ira Sachs, director, Theo Taplitz and Greg Kinnear, from the film “Little Men.”

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Greg Kinnear from the film “Little Men.”

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Michael Barbieri, left, and Theo Taplitz from the film “Little Men.”

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Director and co-writer Ira Sachs, left, and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias from the film “Little Men.”

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Ira Sachs, director/co-writer from the film, “Little Men.”

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Mary Stuart Masterson from the film “As You Are.”

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Miles Joris-Peyrafitte from the film “As You Are.”

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Amandla Stenberg from the film “As You Are.”

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Scott Cohen from the film “As You Are.”

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Owen Campbell from the film “As You Are.”

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Parker Sawyers from the film “Southside With You.”

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Tika Sumpter from the film “Southside With You.”

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Richard Tanne, writer-director from the film “Southside With You.”

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Jeff Feuerzig, director from the film “The JT Leroy Story.”

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Robert Jumper, left, director Tim Sutton, Anna Rose and Maica Armata from the film “Dark Night” in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

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Director Pieter-Jan De Pue from the film “The Land of the Enlightened.”

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Michal Huszcza, left, Michal Marczak, director, and Kris Baganski from the film “All These Sleepless Nights” get cozy.

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Abigail Spencer from the series “Rectify.”

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Director Robert Greene and actress Kate Lyn Sheil from the film “Kate Plays Christine.”

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Actress Kate Lyn Sheil from the film “Kate Plays Christine.”

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Executive Producer Jim McNiel from the film “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.”

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Werner Herzog, director of the film “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.”

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Laura Albert from the film “The JT Leroy Story.”

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Jeff Feuerzig and subject Laura Albert from the film “The JT Leroy Story.”

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Jason Benjamin, director from the film “Suited.”

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Jenni Konner, producer, left, Jason Benjamin, director, and Lena Dunham, producer, from the film “Suited.”

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Jared Harris from the film “Certain Women.”

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Jared Harris from the film “Certain Women.”

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Q., director of the film “Brahman Naman.”

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Q., director of the film “Brahman Naman.”

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Naman Ramachandran, left, Q., and Shashank Arora with Werner Herzog.

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Tanmay Dhanania, left, Shashank Arora, Naman Ramachandran, Steve Barron, producer, Q., director, Sid Mallya, screenwriter, from the film “Brahman Naman.”

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Ralph Rodriguez, left, Brian “Sene” Marc, Morgan Saylor, Adrian Martinez, India Menuez, Justin Bartha, Elizabeth Wood, filmmaker, and Anthony Ramos from the film “White Girl.”

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Brian “Sene” Marc from the film “White Girl.”

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Morgan Saylor from the film “White Girl.”

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Anthony Ramos from the film “White Girl.”

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Adrian Martinez from the film “White Girl.”

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India Menuez from the film “White Girl.”

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Justin Bartha from the film “White Girl.”

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Elizabeth Wood from the film “White Girl.”

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Gavin Free for Lazer Team levitates.

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Anne Fontaine, director from the film “Agnus Dei.”

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Chloe Sevigny, left, Danny Perez and Natasha Lyonne from the film “Antibirth.”

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Chloe Sevigny from the film “Antibirth.”

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Chloe Sevigny from the film “Antibirth.”

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Natasha Lyonne from the film “Antibirth.”

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Rachel Grady, co-director from the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.”

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Heidi Ewing, co-director, Norman Lear, Rachel Grady, co-director, from the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.”

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Norman Lear from the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.”

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Heidi Ewing, co-director from the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.”

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Heidi Ewing, co-director from the film “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.”

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Kenneth Lonergan, director from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Lucas Hedges, left, Kenneth Lonergan, director, and Casey Affleck from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Lucas Hedges, left, and Casey Affleck from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Lucas Hedges, left, and Casey Affleck from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Lucas Hedges from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Casey Affleck from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Casey Affleck from the film “Manchester by the Sea.”

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Writer-director Sian Heder from the film “Talullah.”

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John Benjamin Hickey, left, Allison Janney, Ellen Page, Sian Heder, writer-director, and Tammy Blanchard from the film “Talullah.”

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Ellen Page from the film “Talullah.”

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Director Roger Ross Williams from the film “Life Animated.”

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Allison Janney from the film “Talullah.”

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John Benjamin Hickey from the film “Talullah.”

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Tammy Blanchard from the film “Talullah.”

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Brooklyn Decker from the film “Lovesong.”

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Jena Malone from the film “Lovesong.”

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Jena Malone, left, and Riley Keough from the film “Lovesong.”

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Director Roger Ross Williams from the film “Life Animated.”

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Jonathan Freeman, left, Owen Suskind, Gilbert Gottfried and director Roger Ross Williams from the film “Life Animated.”

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John Krasinski from the film, “The Hollars,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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John Krasinski, left, Charlie Day, Margo Martindale, Sharlto Copley and Josh Groban from the film “The Hollars.”

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Josh Groban from the film, “The Hollars,” in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. ( Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Sharlto Copley from the film, “The Hollars,” in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Margo Martindale, from the film, “The Hollars,” in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. ( Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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John Krasinski from the film, “The Hollars,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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David Wheeler, left, Nicole Hockley, Mark Barden from the film “Newtown.”

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Kim Snyder, left, director, and Maria Cuomo Cole, producer, from the film “Newtown.”

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Nicole Hockley, David Wheeler, Maria Cuomo Cole, producer, Kim Snyder, director, and Mark Barden from the film “Newtown.”

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Todd Solondz, director of the film “Wiener-Dog,” poses for a portrait in the L.A. Times photo & video studio at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

( Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The grand jury prize here went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s “Weiner.” A searing snapshot of how modern political campaigns are run and the way our current culture of public shaming works, it’s so intimate and invasive that you frankly wonder why the subject, disgraced former congressman and abortive New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, agreed to participate.

The documentary directing award went to Roger Ross Williams for “Life, Animated,” about an autistic boy whose life is changed by Disney animation, while the documentary audience award went to Brian Oakes’ “Jim: The James Foley Story,” about the U.S. journalist executed by Islamic State.

On the world documentary front, both the grand jury prize and the audience award went to Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s “Sonita,” the deftly done story of a young Afghan woman in Tehran who dreams of rap stardom while her family plans to sell her as a bride.

Also noteworthy, though not winners, are two other films about unusual individuals:

“Maya Angelou and Still I Rise.” The opportunity to spend time exploring the rich and complex life, as painful as it was joyous, of this exceptional writer was as nourishing as it sounds.

“Uncle Howard.” Filmmaker Aaron Brookner’s poignant attempt to connect with and memorialize his late uncle Howard, the idol of his youth, director of “Burroughs, The Movie,” and an exemplar of the 1980s downtown New York hipster scene.

With everything from demonstrations run by Samsung to “Factory Farm,” an unflinching look inside a slaughterhouse sponsored by Animal Equality, on view, virtual reality was present enough at Sundance 2016 to be its own mini-festival.

This was especially so at the festival’s New Frontier section, a pioneer for several years running in presenting VR to eager viewers, which this year showcased more than 30 examples of the technology in action, including “theBlu, Encounter,” a mesmerizing underwater experience that has an 80-foot blue whale floating serenely by, and “The Leviathan Project,” which cleverly incorporates touch into the VR world.

Most impressive was “Real Virtuality: Immersive Experience,” which truly immerses you so completely in a complex alternate reality, including moving through an enormous neon-lit city, that you’d swear you’d actually been there. No one really knows where VR is going, but experiences like this make you eager to go along.

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