The Sundance Film Festival has been canceled in-person for the second year in a row, organizers said Wednesday. Sundance, a high-profile independent fest that kicks off the year in movies, was due to take place in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 20 to 30. While it will still go in a different form online, just as it did in 2021, this year’s large-scale gathering has been axed due to concerns over the Omicron variant. “While it is a deep loss to not have the in-person experience in Utah, we do not believe it is safe nor feasible to gather thousands of artists, audiences, employees, volunteers and partners from around the world, for an eleven-day festival while overwhelmed communities are already struggling to provide essential services,” Sundance representatives said in a statement. Though the festival had taken many precautions such as reducing screening capacity to 60%, mandating masks and booster shots and requiring testing throughout the 11 days, growing COVID cases in the United States made it unfeasible to host, they said. It joins the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Grammy Awards and the Critics Choice Awards in either canceling or postponing big comebacks. The 40th edition of Sundance will still be viewable on its special streaming platform and feature films by high-profile names, such as Lena Dunham and Jesse Eisenberg and a four-hour documentary about Kanye West. Only instead of getting an ovation on a stage, the stars will likely be filming Zoom “thank you”s from their homes. Again.
