PARK CITY, Utah — Before one awards season concludes, the Sundance Film Festival tends to give us a sneak preview of another.

That’s because the annual festival, held in January, shows smart, independent movies that will go on to help define the next cinematic year, many of which eventually become Oscar contenders. In recent years, Sundance has launched best-picture nominees like “Get Out” and “Call Me by Your Name,” and acting winners like J.K. Simmons for “Whiplash” and Casey Affleck for “Manchester by the Sea.”

So which Sundance entries that unspooled over the last week and a half might go the distance all year?

Amazon spent heavily to pick up some of this year’s most buzzworthy contenders, hoping to recapture the magic of the company’s previous Sundance acquisitions, films like “Manchester by the Sea” and “The Big Sick.” The company’s most complete awards player this year is probably “The Report,” a real-life political thriller directed by Scott Z. Burns that feels almost like the “Spotlight” of American-sanctioned torture.