PARK CITY, Utah — Every January, just when we’re all sick of yakking about the same 10 Oscar movies, the Sundance Film Festival arrives like a bucket of ice water over the head.

The buzzy indie fest, in the cute but eye-gougingly expensive ski town of Park City, Utah, wakes us up and sets the tone for the moviegoing year, providing an inkling of what’s on innovative filmmakers’ minds.

Back in-person for the first time since 2020, the 45-year-old festival had scandal (Sundance was rocked by late demands that all movies be closed captioned), shockers (Alexander Skarsgård wrestled nude with his clone) and celebs donning parkas even though they’re warmly chauffeured from the St. Regis straight to the red carpet.

Greta Lee and Teo Yoo star as childhood sweethearts in “Past Lives.” Jon PackThe finest film at this year’s Sundance, and one that has a strong chance of becoming one of those Oscar nominees we’re still talking about in 12 months, is writer-director Celine Song’s sublime “Past Lives.” Set over 24 years, red-hot studio A24’s film is about two childhood sweethearts in Seoul, South Korea, who are separated when little Nora’s family moves to Toronto.

Yes, it sounds a lot like “Dead Poets Society” or “To Sir, With Love,” but being based on a true story and being set south of the border raises the stakes and brings on the tears.

Courtesy of the Sundance InstituteMy claws were out for this heinous adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s viral 2017 New Yorker short story, starring Emilia Jones (“CODA”) and Nicholas Braun (“Succession”).