Sundance Film Festival cancels in-person events due to COVID surge

NEW YORK — Just 2 weeks earlier it was to beryllium held successful Park City, Utah, the Sundance Film Festival is canceling its in-person festival and reverting to an wholly virtual variation owed to the existent coronavirus surge.

Festival organizers announced Wednesday that the festival volition commencement arsenic scheduled connected Jan. 20 but volition displacement online. The festival had been planned arsenic a hybrid, with screenings some successful Park City and online. Last year’s Sundance was besides held virtually due to the fact that of the pandemic.

“This was a hard determination to make,” the festival said successful a statement. “As a nonprofit, our Sundance tone is successful making thing enactment against the odds. But with lawsuit numbers forecasted to highest successful our big assemblage the week of the festival we cannot knowingly enactment our unit and assemblage astatine risk. The undue accent to Summit County’s wellness services and our much than 1,500 unit and volunteers would beryllium irresponsible successful this climate.”

The cancellation of an in-person Sundance is simply a immense stroke to an autarkic movie manufacture that has struggled to enactment afloat during the pandemic. Last year’s virtual Sundance, wherever films similar “Summer of Soul (or The Revolution Will Not Be Televised)” and “CODA” made a splash, proved that a integer festival tin inactive foster breakout hits. But filmmakers, executives, audiences and journalists had held retired anticipation that Sundance — the premier American movie festival and a launchpad for young filmmakers — could again footwear disconnected a caller movie twelvemonth with packed premieres successful the Utah mountains.

The Sundance Institute, which puts connected the festival, held retired arsenic agelong arsenic it could successful making the decision. In precocious December, erstwhile the highly infectious omicron variant of COVID-19 was driving cases up nationwide, the festival announced that vaccination boosters would beryllium required for attendees, assemblage capableness would beryllium slimmed down and nary nutrient oregon portion would beryllium allowed successful theaters. That was connected apical of erstwhile protocols that mandated vaccination proof, masking indoors and different requirements.

But with omicron sending lawsuit counts to grounds highs, organizers yet pulled the plug connected bringing crowds backmost to Park City.

“We bash not judge it is harmless nor feasible to stitchery thousands of artists, audiences, employees, volunteers, and partners from astir the satellite for an 11-day festival portion overwhelmed communities are already struggling to supply indispensable services,” said the festival.

Sundance, which runs Jan. 20-30, earlier announced a slate of 82 feature-length films selected from much than 3,700 submissions. Kim Yutani, Sundance’s manager of programming said astatine the clip that “this year’s programme reflects the unsettling and uncertain times we’ve been surviving successful for the past twelvemonth and a half.”

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle connected Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP