Due to an increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, both the Grammy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival have changed their plans for 2022. (via CNBC and Indiewire). The Grammy Awards have been postponed until further notice, and instead of risking an in-person event, the Sundance Film Festival will go virtual.
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente and festival director Tabitha Jackson have announced that the festival’s plans have changed, with the Utah-based event now only airing online. It was supposed to be a hybrid event, but due to the high transmissibility of the omicron variant, festival organizers decided to go all virtual.
The Sundance Film Festival will still begin on January 20th and will consist of 11 days of online programming and with some changes to the screening schedule, Last year’s Sundance Film Festival was also influenced by COVID-19: not only was the event streamed live online, but the pandemic’s effects were artfully woven into some of the featured films.