Science at Sundance 2021 Son of Monarchs , Alexis Gambis , director, Imaginal Disc, 2020, 97 minutes. A Glitch in the Matrix , Rodney Ascher, director , Campfire, 2021, 108 minutes. Taming the Garden , Salomé Jashi, director , Syndicado Film Sales, 2021, 91 minutes. All Light, Everywhere , Theo Anthony, director , MEMORY, 2021, 105 minutes. Bring Your Own Brigade , Lucy Walker, director , Good 'n Proper, 2021, 127 minutes. Luzzu , Alex Camilleri, director , Memento Films International, 2021, 94 minutes. In the Earth , Ben Wheatley, director , Neon, 2020, 107 minutes. Fire in the Mountains , Ajitpal Singh, director , Jar Pictures, 2020, 83 minutes. In the Same Breath , Nanfu Wang, director , Stay At Home Production Inc., 2021, 95 minutes

Like most events that have taken place since March of last year, the Sundance Film Festival—normally hosted in the cozy ski town of Park City, Utah—was held virtually in 2021. But what it lacked in celebrity sightings and snowy ambiance was more than made up for in the festival's assortment of provocative and timely offerings—from gripping accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic and California's wildfire crisis to mind-bending meditations on the limits of perception and the nature of reality. Read on to see what our reviewers thought of nine of the films that featured strong science and technology themes.