Maggie Gyllenhaal’s obsession with one talented student has disastrous consequences in “The Kindergarten Teacher,” a disturbing drama that was the talk of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Regina King also turned heads playing a tough but loving mother of a pregnant girl in “If Beale Street Could Talk,” an adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel of the same name that will surely score her an invitation to the Oscars. Both films are testaments to actresses at the top of their game.