In a letter, Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez said the 2024 event, which will showcase more than 90 feature films and 60 shorts, will continue to prioritize in-person screenings.
Next year’s 40th anniversary festival is scheduled for Jan. 18 to Jan. 28 in Park City and Salt Lake City. Online screenings will not be available until the second Thursday, Jan. 25, two days later than this year’s event.
Based on Hernandez’s announcement, three of this January’s venues have been cut from the 2024 affair. In Park City, the Park Avenue Theatre at the Yarrow wasn’t listed. That’s in addition to the screening room at Sundance Mountain Resort and the Grand Theatre at Salt Lake Community College.
2024 Sundance Film Festival venues:
Park City
- Eccles Theater
- Egyptian Theatre
- Holiday Village Cinemas
- Library Center Theatre
- The Ray Theatre
- Redstone Cinemas
- Prospector Square Theatre
Salt Lake City
- Megaplex Theatres at The Gateway
- Broadway Centre Cinemas
- Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
—
Sundance recently laid off 11 staffers, which account for around 6% of the organization, according to news reports.
Premier screenings will run through Tuesday, Jan. 23, followed by multiple showings of each film in both Park City and Salt Lake City.
A new change is that screenings on the first day of the festival, Thursday, Jan. 18, will begin at noon. The festival director encouraged people out-of-state to travel on Wednesday.
Festival awards will be presented Friday, Jan. 26, and again will be held at The Ray.
Sundance Senior Programmer Basil Tsiokos said the film selection for the festival is already in progress.
“We’ve had submissions open for the last almost two months now, and our team will be watching through November,” Tsiokos said. “We have an intense period of time where we just watch films and discuss… we don’t announce our lineup until December, but it takes months and months to get through all the films to decide on what makes the most sense for the festival lineup.”
He said he typically watches around 500 feature films, whereas shorts programmers watch thousands.
“You see some amazing films, but you also see some terrible films,” Tsiokos added. “If a film gets into the festival, it means all the programmers have watched the film, debated the film, some agree, some disagree, but we have very, very spirited discussions. So if a film is in the festival, up to 14-15 people have seen it. If a film is not in the festival, it usually goes through at least two people to sort of make sure that we’re not missing something.”
The early deadline for short film submission has already passed, but filmmakers have another month to submit works to be considered for the 2024 festival. Sundance said details about tickets will be released in late September.
