Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival
Break out the Uggs and make a hot toddy for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival’s online edition.
A silver lining for cinephiles during this tumultuous time, the Sundance Film Festival is going virtual from January 28 to February 3. Its glamorous, ski-resort backdrop of Park City, Utah, may not be in the mix this year, but organizers, including the festival’s new director Tabitha Jackson, are ensuring the event’s star-studded frisson translates to home viewing. Whether a hot director, tomorrow’s starlet or the moviegoing public, anyone in the U.S. is invited to purchase festival passes and tickets for single films to access a similar scenario to the real deal. Attendees virtually mingle in the interactive, online “lobby” before the film starts. (Who knows who will show up. This could be your lucky break.) Tickets are limited to emulate theater capacity, and live Q&A discussions follow screenings.
Nearly 75 world and festival premieres are available to stream within a four-hour window at your leisure, another perk in contrast to the IRL version. There’s an on-demand option, too, a couple days after premieres. For those who aren’t interested in slogging through the packed schedule, a special pass allows 24-hour access to the 32 award-winning films at the finale.
Buzzy contenders favor drummer-turned-director Questlove’s documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, as well as “CODA,” a familial tale involving a daughter and her deaf parents starring Oscar winner Marlee Matlin. The latter’s director Sian Heder made a big splash at the 2016 Sundance with her debut film “Tallulah.” Women are gaining ground on the roster, too, including veteran actresses who are getting behind the camera. Rebecca Hall adapts the 1929 novel “Passing,” about being a light-skinned, African-American woman, while Robin Wright portrays a woman who’s more at home in the wilderness in “Land,” her first directorial feature.
