The hype machine singled out some clear, if tragic, winners from the lineup of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For instance, there was Other People, SNL writer Chris Kelly's heartfelt, semi-autobiographical film starring Molly Shannon as a mother with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Not to mention Birth of a Nation, a film about the Nat Turner Rebellion that won Sundance's domestic drama category—and then sold to Fox Searchlight for an unprecedented $17.5 million. But some of the most difficult films to watch from this year’s crop are among the most important.