Where to Watch the Sundance Class of 2022 on Streaming

Back in the heady days of the 1990s indie film boom, the Sundance Film Festival was the epicenter of a movement in independent film, led by filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Todd Haynes, Alexander Payne, Nicole Holofcener, and Whit Stillman. The films that hit big there would often make their way into American arthouse theaters — multiplexes, too, sometimes — and became a key a part of the cinematic ecosystem of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Those days are largely gone, for a variety of reasons. The Sundance class of 2022 was striking for how completely — with very few exceptions — its lineup was funneled directly to streaming platforms. Even when acquired by studios like Focus Features or Searchlight, most films were set up to premiere on Hulu, Peacock, Prime Video, or HBO Max. A festival that was once at the cutting edge of American cinema is now a feeder system for the streaming content churn.

Crucially, this isn't a reflection on the films themselves. The 2022 Sundance crop featured several very strong films, alongside many fascinating efforts that are worth watching even if they fall a bit shy of greatness. What's more, almost all of this year's major Sundance titles are available to stream right now, a mere seven months after the festival, a silver lining in the theatrical-to-streaming transition for indie film.

Below are ten movies from the Sundance Class of 2022 which are now (or in two cases, will soon be) available on streaming.

Navalny

Streaming on: HBO Max

One of this year's quickest Sundance-to-release turnarounds had a good bit of urgency behind it. The documentary Navalny was announced as a late addition to the festival and screened as a reflection of current events and breaking news. The film centered on the story of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and events related to his poisoning, which Navalny has claimed was orchestrated by the Putin regime. The film premiered amid the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which would happen a month later, and it went on to win both the Audience Award in the U.S. documentary competition as well as the Festival Favorite award (a kind of tournament-of-champions honor among the big award winners). The film premiered on CNN+ (RIP) April 24th, and now streams on HBO Max.

Master

Streaming on: Prime Video

Each year's Sundance lineup tends to lean on a few common themes. Master is the first of two films on this list that tackle the Black experience on college campuses,with Regina Hall playing the newly hired headmaster at a prestigious northeast university, while a young Black freshman (Zoe Renee) experiences both microaggressions and something more supernaturally threatening. Although reviews were mixed, Mariama Diallo's movie takes some big swings and the twist near the film's end truly must be seen to be believed. Amazon premiered the film on Prime Video on March 18th.

Dual

Streaming on: AMC+

This off-kilter sci-fi film comes from writer/director Riley Stearns, whose previous two films — Faults and The Art of Self Defense — were both South by Southwest premieres. Dual strikes an ominous yet archly comedic tone as Karen Gillan (Nebula from the Guardians of the Galaxy films) plays a terminally ill woman who, in this near-future landscape, chooses to have a clone of herself created to live on after she's gone. When her circumstances change, things get complicated, and Gillan's character must face off with her double. It's a twisty and darkly funny film that also stars Aaron Paul and Theo James, and it was acquired at the festival by RLJE Films, which premiered it theatrically before it settled on AMC+ on May 20th.

Emergency

Streaming on: Prime Video

Director Carey Williams's Emergency won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for writer K.D. Davila, four years after the pair premiered the short-film version of this story at the 2018 Sundance festival. The film is canny and often unsettling, kind of a One Crazy Night college adventure, only the protagonists are a pair of Black college students whose participation in the kinds of debaucherous antics that might have been the stuff of a Superbad-esque teen comedy are not afforded the same benefit of the doubt by campus cops or their fellow students, thus turning the whole night into a tense, dangerous, life-or-death prospect. Strong performances by leads RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, and Sebastian Chacon keep the film from being merely an intellectual exercise, and it's well worth a watch. It premiered May 27th on Prime Video.

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Streaming on: Apple TV+

The winner of the Audience Award among dramatic films in competition, the latest film from writer/director/actor Cooper Raiff was acquired for $15 million by Apple at the festival, and released on Apple TV+ June 17th. The film itself is a charming romantic dramedy about a twentysomething guy with no direction in his life (Raiff) who finds himself drawn to a beguiling yet complicated married mother (Dakota Johnson), but with Apple's acquisition caming just a few months before their Sundance 2021 buy, CODA, won Best Picture at the Oscars, expectations were a bit too high (don't expect Cha Cha Real Smooth to be an Oscar player at all). Still, there's no doubt that Raiff's star is on the rise.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Streaming on: Hulu

Emma Thompson's performance in this well observed drama about an older woman looking to broaden her sexual horizons with a male escort was one of the best-reviewed of the festival. Although it screened outside of competition, Thompson's performance was lauded enough that Searchlight — which acquired the film at Sundance for a reported $7.5 million — made the decision to campaign it for Oscars even after initially shunting it directly to Hulu.

The Janes

Streaming on: HBO Max

Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes's documentary about the Chicago collective who helped arrange for safe abortions for women in the pre-Roe 1960s screened in the U.S. documentary competition and premiered on HBO and HBO Max on June 8th.

Fresh

Streaming on: Hulu

Mimi Cave's audacious horror movie starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as a smitten young woman and Sebastian Stan as her very bad boyfriend screened in the Midnight section of the festival. Searchlight acquired the film before the fest had even begun, and it was quickly set for a March 3rd premiere on Hulu.

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul

Streaming on: Peacock

Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown play married pastors at a Southern megachurch who are rocked by a personal scandal (his) and need to work to rebuild their congregation, all while filming a damage-control documentary. Hall and Brown turn in magnificent performances, and the film was acquired by Focus Features, which is releasing the film September 2nd both in theaters and on Peacock.

Nanny

Streaming on: Prime Video

The Grand Jury Prize winner in the U.S. Dramatic Competition was Nikyatu Jusu's film about an undocumented Senagalese woman working as a nanny for a wealthy American family who begins to experience strange and perhaps haunting visions. Critics lapped up the film, which fuses elements of horror and domestic drama, and it was acquired by Amazon Studios and Blumhouse Productions, which plan to release it in theaters in November, followed by a streaming release on Prime Video in late December.

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.