Sundance Film Festival Goes Virtual, But Also National With Screenings in 24 States
In an attempt to maintain a sense of community at a time when large gatherings are impossible, the Sundance Film Festival has announced an ambitious combination of virtual screenings and a network of local events in more than 30 cities around the United States.
“Festivals are complicated machines,” Sundance festival director Tabitha Jackson told TheWrap. “To have to disassemble one that’s been running smoothly for 40 years and reassemble it is about understanding, what do we hold tight to, and what do we let go? What happens when you redistribute the moving parts of a festival from Park City to Park City plus 25 other states plus an online platform? How do we preserve the energy, so that audiences, artists and industry are all getting what they need from a festival?”
In place of the usual 11-day event in Park City, Utah, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival will take place over seven days, from Jan. 28 through Feb. 3. While the festival currently plans to hold events at The Ray, a Park City theater that is one of the festival’s usual venues, the 70-plus films in the lineup will all have virtual premieres followed live Q&As. Those premieres can be viewed anywhere in the United States, and in some cases globally as well.
*Also Read:* How Sundance and Other Film Festivals Are Prepping for Virtual 2021 Event - and Permanent Changes Post-COVID (Video)
In addition to those events, the festival has partnered with drive-ins, arthouse theaters and community organizations to create a Satellite Screen network. These venues, which include the Rose Bowl and Mission Tiki Drive-In in Los Angeles and the Jacob Burns Film Center & Media Arts Lab in New York, will show festival films (health and safety guidelines permitting) and create additional local programming to run during the festival.
The key factor as Sundance began planning in March, Jackson said, was the recognition that “being in the same physical space may not be possible or safe. The fact that you can be in the first audience for a film safely from where you are, and still have that feeling of ‘nobody has seen this film, is this going to be the one?,’ I think that’s extraordinary.”
Sundance is expected to announce its full lineup of films in mid-December, and its slate of special events and talks in January. It will present fewer films than it normally does, because of the shorter duration of the festival; the same number of new films will premiere per day as it showed during its 11-day fests.
*Also Read:* How Film Festivals Have Thrived in a Year of Pandemic
New films will debut for the first six days of the festival, with each movie getting a dedicated premiere slot between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. (The seventh day will be devoted to repeat screenings of the festival’s award winners.)
The custom-designed online platform will enable viewers to enter a virtual lobby prior to each screening, and also to participate in a live Q&A after the screening. Viewers can begin screen the film live at its announced start time, or start watching within three hours of that time. “What we learned from talking to the artists is that when they present their work to an audience for the very first time, they want to have response from that audience,” Jackson said. “So every single screening will have a live Q&A.”
Films will be available in a press screening room the day after their premieres, and to the public on demand on the second day after the premiere. Films in the Short Film and Indie Series programs will be available on the platform for the entire length of the festival. All of the films will be closed-captioned on demand, and Q&As will have live subtitles.
Additional online areas during the festival include Festival Village, where partners and sponsors can host a variety of events; Main Street, with digital partner spaces for conversations and musical performances; and the Artist Lounge, for artist programming and private events.
*Also Read:* 10 Things to Be Thankful for in This Weird, Messy Awards Season (Including Netflix)
In addition, the New Frontier section will consist of 14 innovative works and will be accessible on a bespoke virtual platform that can be accessed by computers and VR headsets. The section will also feature the New Frontier Gallery, for live performances; Cinema House, for feature films; and Film Party, an interactive social space.
The Satellite Screens initiative will take place in collaboration with 32 different organizations or arthouses in 24 different states, plus Puerto Rico. While most will screen Sundance films, additional programming is being created by the individual organizations – with the physical details to be worked out depending on the pandemic restrictions in each city at the end of January.
“Each arthouse has an idea of what they want to express,” Jackson said. “Outdoor screenings and drive-ins feel safer than in-cinema screenings now, but it’s all about what’s safe nearer the time.”
Here are the Satellite Screens locations:
*Alabama*:
*Birmingham* with *Sidewalk Film Festival*
Sidewalk Film Center, Sidewalk Drive-In
*Arizona:
Tucson* with *The Loft Cinema*
The Loft Open Air Cinema
*California:*
*Montclair* with *American Cinematheque*
Mission Tiki Drive-In
*Pasadena* with the *Rose Bowl*
Rose Bowl Drive-In
*San Francisco* with *The Roxie Theater*
Roxie Theater, Fort Mason Drive-In
*Colorado:
Denver* with *Denver Film*
Sie FilmCenter
*Florida:*
*Key West* with *Tropic Cinema*
Tropic Cinema, The Key West Lighthouse, The Truman Little White House, The Ernest Hemingway House and Museum
*Miami* with *Third Horizon* and *O Cinema*
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
*Georgia:*
*Atlanta* with *Atlanta Film Society*
The Plaza Theater, Plaza Drive-In, Dad’s Garage Drive-In
*Macon* with *Macon Film Festival*
Douglass Theatre
*Hawaii:
Honolulu* with *Doris Duke Theatre* at the *Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA)*
*Iowa:
Iowa City* with *FilmScene*
FilmScene at The Chauncey
*Kansas:
Wichita* with *mama.film*
mama.film microcinema, Wichita Art Museum, Groover Labs
*Kentucky:
Louisville* with *The Speed Art Museum*
Speed Art Museum
*Louisiana:
New Orleans* with *New Orleans Film Society*
The Broad Theater
*Maryland:
Baltimore* with *Maryland Film Festival*
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Parkway Theater
*Massachusetts:
Brookline* with *Coolidge Corner Theatre*
Coolidge Corner Theatre
*Michigan:
Detroit* with *Cinema Detroit*
*Minnesota:
Minneapolis-St. Paul* with *FilmNorth*
Riverview Theater
*New York:
Pleasantville* with *The Jacob Burns Film Center*
Jacob Burns Film Center & Media Arts Lab
*Ohio:
Columbus* with *Gateway Film Center*
Gateway Film Center
*Oklahoma:
Tulsa* with *Circle Cinema*
Circle Cinema, Circle Cinema Drive-In, Admiral Twin Drive-In, Philbrook Museum, OSU-Tulsa, Tulsa University, Gilcrease Museum
*Pennsylvania:
Philadelphia* with *BlackStar Film Festival*
*Puerto Rico:
San Juan* with A*sociación de Documentalistas de Puerto Rico (AdocPR)*
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR)
*South Carolina:
Columbia* with *The Luminal Theater*
Spotlight Cinemas Capitol 8
*Tennessee:*
*Memphis* with *Indie Memphis*
Malco Summer Drive-In
*Nashville* with *Belcourt Theatre*
Belcourt Theatre
*Texas:*
*Austin* with *Austin Film Society*
AFS Cinema
*Dallas* with *Aviation Cinemas*
Texas Theatre
*Houston* with *Houston Cinema Arts Society*
MoonStruck Drive-In, DeLUXE Theater
*Utah:*
*Park City*
The Ray
*Salt Lake City* with *Salt Lake Film Society*
*Washington:*
*Seattle* with *Northwest Film Forum*
Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning on Jan. 7. Jackson said that ticket prices are under consideration, but added, “The value of accessibility is in the front of our minds as we’ve thought about ticket prices.”
She thinks that the new format will lead to increased ticket sales and a larger audience, but is cautious to make any predictions. “As we look at other festivals, their reach has increased and their audiences have definitely increased,” she said. “I would think that having the accessibility should increase the size of our audience, too – but in this world, there are no assumptions. We have to be humble going into this.
Details will be available later in December at festival.sundance.org.
*Related stories from TheWrap:*
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti Reverses Shutdown of COVID-19 Test Site for Film Shoot After Backlash
Sundance Institute Expands Board With Diverse Group of 7 New Trustees
How Sundance and Other Film Festivals Are Prepping for Virtual 2021 Event – and Permanent Changes Post-COVID (Video)
