“What we noticed this year was just how living through the past 20 months has really influenced the work of these artists,” said Kim Yutani, the festival’s program director. “We’ll be guided by the science,” she said.ĬOVID-19 doesn’t pop up much as a central topic of the films selected for the festival - compared to the 2021 festival, when the COVID-in-China documentary “In the Same Breath” and quarantine allegories like “The Pink Cloud” and “In the Earth” played. Sundance has hired its own epidemiologist and a COVID-19 compliance officer, Jackson said, and she is listening to the guidelines from public health officials. Jackson said that she and her staff have not felt panic over news of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, “because we designed a festival with flexibility in mind - assuming that there was going to be the likelihood of something popping up as we hit winter.” We haven’t had an adverse response to anything that we said, which has been wonderful.” “We wanted to make sure that we weren’t leaving a void of confusion or speculation. “It just seems like common sense,” said Jackson, who announced the policy this summer so attendees would have plenty of time to get their shots. Masks also will be required in all indoor venues and in line to get into screenings and events. Every title will be screened at the in-person venues, then debut online.Īnyone attending the festival in person - ticket-buyers, filmmakers, volunteers and staff - will be required to show proof that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute announced Thursday the 82 feature films that will screen in venues - and on the festival’s online platform - from Jan. This year is another complete re-imagination, to have a festival which is both IRL and URL, both in-person and online.” “Last year was a complete re-imagination, to go online. “I’m resisting the ‘back’ word,” Tabitha Jackson, the festival’s director, told The Salt Lake Tribune this week. The Sundance Film Festival is preparing a return to Park City and Salt Lake City venues in January after going online-only in 2021 - but don’t call it a comeback, organizers say.