2021 Sundance Film Festival announces virtual lineup

For the first time, the Sundance Film Festival is coming to screen near you.

Next month the festival – which has celebrated independent film for decades at its base in Park City, Utah – will be held virtually instead, with movies presented online from January 28 through February 3. Films will be available to stream via Sundance's digital platform across the U.S. (and, in some cases, internationally), and also will be presented on satellite screens nationwide, including arthouse cinemas, museums and drive-ins. [A complete list of venues may be found here.]

On Tuesday the festival lineup was announced. The 2021 edition of Sundance will include 72 feature films from 29 countries (the majority of which are world premieres) and 50 short films, with half of the features directed by women or non-binary individuals. Of the full slate of films, 51%, were directed by one or more filmmakers of color, 15% by one or more people who identify as LGBTQ+.

Screenings will also feature Q&As with filmmakers, who will no doubt discuss the added difficulties of creating – and completing – an independent film at a time when COVID has shaken up the entire motion picture production and exhibition industry. There are also interactive programs incorporating storytelling, animation, AI and performance art.

The Sundance Film Festival (and its precursor, the United States Film Festival, created by the Utah Film Commission) has been held in the mountains of Park City since 1989, and has become a bellwether of indie moviemaking. Recent award-winners bowing at the festival have included "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," "Morris From America" and "Swiss Army Man," and the documentaries "Time," "Boys State," "One Child Nation" and "Last Men in Aleppo."

Sundance's transition to a virtual platform follows how other major film festivals, including Tribeca, New York, DOC NYC and Toronto, have responded to the pandemic (and to the closure of theatres in many cities), bringing films to audiences online and expanding their reach considerably. (This year's New York Film Festival, held primarily online, sold 40,000 streaming tickets to viewers across the U.S.)

"This festival is a singular response to a singular year – both in design and curation – and we are excited about the new dimensions of possibility it will reveal, but at its core is something that speaks to our most enduring values," said festival director Tabitha Jackson.

Sundance founder and president Robert Redford said the Sundance Institute has reimagined the festival to preserve a sense of community, by forging "a new collective vision: one that honors the spirit and tradition of these invigorating yearly gatherings in Utah, while making room for imaginative new possibilities in a new online format."

The majority of films in the lineup are by first-time directors, but there are some familiar names among those at the helm, including "House of Cards" star Robin Wright, who directs and stars in the drama "Land"; actress Rebecca Hall ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") directing her first feature, "Passing," about two African American women in the 1920s, one of whom passes for white; and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, whose documentary, "Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)," incorporates found footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, unseen for half a century, with performances by such artists as Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

For details on the 2021 Sundance Film Festival program, go to festival.sundance.org.

Tickets and passes will go on sale beginning January 7, 2021.  

To watch a trailer for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival click on the player below: