Take Birdly, a full-body VR experiment that turns you into a bird flying above the streets of San Francisco, soaring higher with every flap of your arms. Or Project Syria, which throws the viewer in the middle of a harrowing rocket attack. Or, perhaps most darkly, Perspective; Chapter I: The Party, which lets you see the world through the eyes of a man, and then a woman, as an encounter at a college party turns into sexual assault. All are on display at New Frontier, Sundance’s annual showcase for works at the intersection of art and technology. And they’ve quickly become the talk of the festival.

The most buzzworthy feature of 2015’s Sundance Film Festival isn’t a film at all, but a pair of virtual reality goggles you strap to your head. Three years after VR made its debut at Sundance, the technology has fully established itself. An entire section of the festival is now devoted to VR experiences, many of them more interactive than what we’ve seen to date. Talk to filmmakers and they’ll tell you they can’t remember being so excited: some say it’s like they’re present at the dawn of a new medium.

filmmakers say they can’t remember being so excited Virtual reality debuted at Sundance in 2012 with Nonny de la Peña’s Hunger in Los Angeles, which used an early head-mounted display to place viewers in the middle of a food line outside a church. That project was developed by then-19-year-old Palmer Luckey, and the success of Hunger spurred him on to build a consumer version of his VR headset. He called it Oculus Rift, and launched it successfully on Kickstarter; last year, Facebook bought his company for $2 billion. In the wake of Oculus’ success, and under the direction of curator Shari Frilot, VR dominates New Frontier this year. "I think what’s behind the explosion is the marketplace embracing it," Frilot says. Of the 14 projects in the showcase, 11 are enhanced by virtual reality. Most are independent art projects, but not all: Fox Searchlight is also here with Wild — The Experience, putting users in between actresses Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern in a scene inspired by the recent movie of the same name. Unfortunately, several of the experiences at New Frontier replicate the problematic types of VR we’ve seen for years: static scenes, devoid of interaction. And others demonstrate how many of the tricks and techniques that have worked in movies for decades need to be thrown out entirely; Kaiju Fury!, which jumps between a monster fight and a heroine trying to intervene, is an object lesson in how conventional editing can cause VR experiences to collapse almost instantly.

But exhibits like Birdly demonstrate how powerful VR can be when it actually lets you do something: in this case, take to the skies with thrilling ease. There’s not a narrative, exactly, but its creators at the Zurich University of the Arts have considered adding one. "You can do so much more than gaming stuff. You can also tell stories." Hollywood’s recent investment in VR is apparent outside Sundance as well. This week Annapurna Pictures, producer of films like Her and Zero Dark Thirty, announced it is creating a VR division in partnership with artist Chris Milk. Meanwhile, VICE said Friday that it is making forays into VR news documentaries, and 20th Century Fox plans to release several more experiences this year as part of its Fox Innovation Lab. "It really starts this year," says Fabian Troxler, a co-founder of Birdly. "People realize you can do so much more than gaming stuff. You can also tell stories." Which isn’t to say that VR has fully arrived: "It’s still new and there are still a lot of troubles we have to solve," he says. Birdly is highly immersive even for VR: fans blow air on you as you fly, and headphones simulate whooshing noises dependent on your movements. Troxler’s team is currently working to insert smells into the simulation — anything, he says, to further the suspension of disbelief. Fox’s Wild — The Experience was created by the duo of Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël, better known as Felix and Paul. In addition to Wild, the directors brought two other pieces to New Frontier this year designed for the Samsung Gear VR: one in which Montreal musician Patrick Watson gives an intimate performance in his loft, and the other depositing you in a series of scenes featuring Mongolian yak herders. (Of course Samsung would sponsor a VR yak herding experience.)