Sundance Film Festival announces ’22 feature films

Alan Cumming appears in My Old School by Jono McLeod, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Photo: Sundance Institute

PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Institute announced the lineups for the Feature Film, Indie Episodic, and New Frontier categories for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.

The festival is set to take place January 20 through 30, in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Sundance Mountain Resort. It will be the first hybrid festival, via the online platform at festival.sundance.org.

The full slate of works announced on Thursday includes 82 feature-length films representing 28 countries. 42% of the feature film directors are feature film first-timers.

91% of the feature films will be world premieres, they were selected from 3,762 submissions.

View the full program at sundance.org

“This year, we look forward to celebrating this generation’s most innovative storytellers as they share their work across a wide range of genres and forms,” said Sundance Institute founder and president Robert Redford. “These artists have provided a light through the darkest of times, and we look forward to welcoming their unique visions out into the world and experiencing them together.”

Ticket packages go on sale on December 17 at 10 am MST. Single film tickets go on sale on January 6 at 10 am MST.

Feature films will premiere in Utah before they go online with a live Q&A and premiere party on The Spaceship — an immersive platform accessible via laptop or VR headset.

Subsequent screenings will take place in-person and in on-demand windows on the platform. The New Frontier program will be globally accessible online via The Spaceship platform from January 20-28, with in-person augmentation and live performances at The Craft, a new artist-centered venue in Park City.

Short films and Indie Episodic work will play in person in Utah and be available on the platform.

“I’m so impressed by, and proud of, the work that the curatorial and production teams have done to plan this Festival,” said Joana Vicente, the Institute’s CEO. “I think audiences will be extremely excited to convene and engage with the incredible stories these artists are telling.”

Sundance will require vaccinations and face masks at the festival (health safety protocols).

The festival will open on January 20 with an experiment as audiences gather online and in-person for a special New Frontier presentation of Sam Green’s 32 Sounds, taking place simultaneously in Park City’s Egyptian Theatre and in The Spaceship’s Cinema House.

Day one films will then open the festival in Park City: 11 features and a shorts program.

Day One Features are Emergency, Fire of Love, Fresh, La Guerra Civil, A Love Song, Marte Um (Mars One), The Princess, Tantura, When You Finish Saving the World, and The Worst Person in the World.

Lucy and Desi is the 2022 Sundance Film Festival’s Salt Lake City Opening Night Gala Film, premiering at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on January 21.

Eight feature films have been selected for the Festival’s Satellite Screens, and will play at those seven independent arthouse cinemas across the United States for local audiences during the festival’s closing weekend, Friday, January 28, through Sunday, January 30.

The films are Alice; Emergency; Every Day in Kaimukī; Free Chol Soo Lee; Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul; La Guerra Civil; Marte Um (Mars One); and Sirens, with additional Short Film participation to be announced.

This program will play at Amherst Cinema in Amherst, Massachusetts; a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Digital Gym Cinema in San Diego, California; Indie Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee; mama.film in Lawrence, Kansas; Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington; and SNF Parkway Theatre, home of the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore, Maryland.