Sundance Will Stick to Hybrid Festival for 2024 — but the In-Person Experience Is Premium

Ryan Lattanzio
·3 min read

After two consecutive years of robust at-home online screenings for ticket-buyers and passholders, the Sundance Film Festival will prioritize the in-person experience for the 2024 edition. This year’s festival runs January 18 through 28 in Park City, Utah.

But that doesn’t mean Sundance won’t include a virtual component in 2024 under new Artistic Director (and IndieWire co-founder) Eugene Hernandez. The festival will continue to offer virtual screenings, as it has for the past three years, but those offerings will be more select and available during a shorter window than in years past.

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This year, online viewing for the general public will not be available until the back half of the festival, kicking off on January 25 and running until the final day of the festival, January 28. Online selections are expected to focus primarily on films in the five Competition sections (including NEXT). The festival will, however, make those online films available to press and industry a day earlier, January 24.

Selections from other sections (including high-profile titles out of the Premieres lineup) will also be invited to opt into the virtual platform. (The 2022 edition saw most of the Premieres titles on the virtual platform.) The second half of the festival will also give audiences a second chance to catch ones they missed throughout opening weekend, per tradition.

In a note shared from Hernandez to press on Tuesday, the Sundance head wrote, “The 2024 Sundance Film Festival will kick off with premiere screenings of each film through Tuesday the 23rd, with multiple screenings of each film in Park City and Salt Lake City. This year, we’re getting started a little earlier, screenings will begin around noon on January 18th. So if you’re coming from out of state, consider traveling on Wednesday so you don’t miss any of our opening day.”

In-person premieres will take place in Park City at the Eccles Theater, Egyptian Theatre, Holiday Village Cinemas, Library Center Theatre, The Ray Theatre, Redstone Cinemas, and Prospector Square Theatre, with private events at The Park. In Salt Lake City, films will screen downtown at the Megaplex Theatres at The Gateway, at the Salt Lake Film Society’s Broadway Centre Cinemas, and at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

Hernandez continued, “We’re prioritizing a festive and formative in-person Festival in Park City and Salt Lake City all the way through the closing weekend. With the addition of special programming and more opportunities to see all of the films in both cities during the second half of the Festival, we hope you’ll join us for more days of Sundance 2024. Or, if your schedule and resources are limited, plan to dig in at the midpoint to get a taste of everything we’re planning through the Festival’s final weekend. This is a great time for new artists to join us. The midpoint is also when we will be welcoming back Festival alumni from across our four decades — along with the next generation of artists — to join us on the Mountain to take in our special events, see this year’s films and connect and reunite with one another.”

Regarding online screenings, the Hernandez, “Beginning on Thursday, January 25, we will also launch at-home screenings of the films in our five Competition sections (including NEXT). Films invited to our other sections can also opt-in to screen online during this limited sneak preview window. Press and industry will have online access to these competition films and others that opt-in for the professional community beginning one day earlier on January 24.”

This year’s festival, Hernandez noted, will again 90-plus feature films and 60-plus shorts. The festival awards will take place Friday, January 26 at The Ray.

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