Copyright Sundance
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival kicks off tonight with a welcome ceremony at 5:00 pm MT. To celebrate the start of the acclaimed festival’s first virtual experience, CEO/Executive Director Keri Putnam and Festival Director Tabitha Jackson joined Producing Director Gina Duncan for an insightful conversation about the opportunities afforded to artists during this expanded experience and the opportunities they pursued to try and incorporate spontaneous social gatherings into the virtual platform.
Before we go too far, for any readers who don’t currently have a pass, the availability at this point is for individual film tickets ($15) for select screenings and an Explorer Pass ($25), which grants access to stream items from the Indie Series and Shorts categories, as well as access to the New Frontier program, which includes Disney’s new interactive Baymax Dreams short and will become the heart of the social experience for festival goers. Click here to visit the Sundance Film Festival ticket page.
The Sundance team had just ten-months to put together this virtual film festival, with the pandemic changing everything about how the festival typically operates. Capturing the energy of the festival was at the heart of Tabitha’s approach to putting together this experience and the team worked in concert with artists and festival goers to figure out what it would look like. The New Frontier category has historically been where non-traditional media is showcased at the festival and that’s still the case, with XR, VR and AR experiences incorporated. But it’s also where virtual festival goers can find spontaneous conversation opportunities. You have the ability to customize your avatar, turn on your webcam to show your real face on a digital body, and walk through the space where proximity audio allows you to hear and join conversations as you get closer to other attendees. You can even give virtual hugs and watch content with a VR headset in a virtual theater called Cinema House.
Copyright Sundance
One of the hallmarks of the Sundance Film Festival is an exhilarating rush to try and get tickets for the most in-demand screenings or pass types, something that was similar in the virtual platform, although the venue is much bigger this time around. No longer limited by the capacity restrictions of theaters in Park City, Salt Lake City and Robert Redford’s Sundance Mountain Resort, stakeholders in the individual films were allowed to determine the audience size for screenings.
In an effort to recapture the live, in-person premiere experience, each film selection in the festival has a premiere date and time, many of which are followed by a live Q&A. Many of the films also have a second-chance streaming opportunity, but there are still capacity restrictions surrounding them. As with the physical festival, there are opportunities for attendees to access a film via a standby queue in case there are no-shows to the virtual screenings.
The Sundance Film Festival also partnered with arthouse operators in twenty-four states or territories where they are screening select entries for live in-person audiences, sometimes in drive-in experiences. The Sundance team benefitted from seeing how the arthouse theater community innovated throughout 2020 to offer experiences to their audiences, in addition to observing several other virtual festivals.
While the curatorial selection process for the festival was the same as it’s always been, with an emphasis on representing underserved voices in film, the submission numbers were down due to the pause in filming due to the pandemic. There are notably less fictional pieces from U.S. artists this year as many of them went through the same hardships as many Americans in 2020. At the same time, they received more international documentary submissions than in years past and even received some films made during the pandemic. In the end, the programming lineup for the 2021 festival is tighter, which also gives each film a bigger moment at the festival. A total of fourteen films this year were supported by Sundance Labs, a non-profit program that funds artists with unique voices and visions.
Copyright Sundance
As you can imagine, online piracy is a big concern in the digital space and every precaution has been taken to disincentivize pirates from trying to steal films. Many film entries have been locked by geographic location of the ticket holder and each ticket or pass is attached to an email address with strict policies around sharing. Each stream will also have unique watermarks to the ticket holder, making it easy to trace back to the source. Virtual piracy vendors have also been hired to monitor the event in search of any signs of piracy from festival goers.
Major studios and streaming services often acquire films and shows at Sundance Film Festival, with recent examples including Hulu’s hit film Palm Springs and National Geographic’s documentary series City So Real. Representatives from these companies typically get into bidding wars based on audience response at live screenings and the awards at the end of the festival, so the team behind this year’s festival aren’t sure what that acquisition will look like with this virtual festival. They will likely be looking to social media for reactions to films, but could also hang out in Film Party, a space in New Frontier where people can go to talk about specific films.
There are also lots of free talks and events that people can participate in from around the world. Main Street is a digital space that seeks to recreate the feeling of walking through Park City with corporate sponsors providing lots of content and engagement opportunities. Zoom, for example, offers Sundance Film Festival virtual backgrounds in their virtual tent. Cinema Cafe also offers rich discussions on important topics beyond Sundance’s own scheduled talks and events and Tabitha will be hosting a morning show every morning about what’s coming up that day, including special guests from the films being screened.
While this year’s Sundance Film Festival looks different, you can tell that a lot of effort went into recreating the Utah experience of being there in person. There may be glitches and hiccups along the way, but this virtual experience offers some exciting opportunities and gives a wider audience to some films that may have otherwise gone unseen. I’ll be attending all week long, so stay tuned to Laughing Place for news and reviews with a focus on items that may get acquired by some of Disney’s brands, which have historically included Searchlight Pictures, National Geographic, ESPN Films and Hulu. And if you’re participating in this year’s festival, perhaps I’ll see you in New Frontier.