The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is set to take place January 18-28, 2024. Photo: Sundance Institute.

“The overarching theme I would say is a sense of innovation and freshness in storytelling…not just from filmmakers fresh out of school but also from veteran filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh,…who is coming back with Presence in our Premier section," said Basil Tsiokos, Sundance senior programmer. "It shows a filmmaker who is still willing to experiment, try different things, try to say things in a different way."

PARK CITY, Utah — The full slate of works announced yesterday includes 82 feature-length films representing 24 countries and eight episodic projects.

A record number of 17,435 submissions arrived from 153 countries or territories, including 4,410 feature-length films. Of these feature film submissions, 1,679 were from the U.S., and 2,741 were international. The eight episodic projects were selected from 573 submissions and there were 385 New Frontier submissions.

Movies dig deeper and are very intimate

While biographical documentaries are not new to the Sundance Film Festival, this year they go deeper and are very intimate. Whether you are a fan of the subject or not, you are likely to learn something new. It is well known that Robert Redford favors environmental topics. This year there are no overarching climate change movies, but there are movies about the environment, nature and how we deal with our natural world. The U.S. documentary “Every Little Thing” tells the story of a woman, who nurtures wounded hummingbirds back to health. The World Cinema documentary “Nocturnes” has moths whispering to us.

New Frontier presents participatory in-theater experiences

This year the New Frontier category emphasizes the in-theater experience. In “Being” audiences will be interacting with an AI that has been purposefully informed by a Black thought perspective from the activist community, people like Bell Hooks and Cornel West. The AI has been used in different experiences, e.g. it has taught audiences how to dance. While in “ENO”, no two performances of the movie will be the same because the movie is designed more like a concert experience, where the performers may choose to play different songs each night. Audiences will be learning new things in this movie driven by a generative engine.

Sundance Film Festival loves Utah audiences

They offer Locals ticket packages, Local Lens free community screenings and special screenings for students in grades 9–12. Don’t forget about their family matinees. This year there are two movies that are suitable for all ages, but more likely sixth-grade and up. “Out of My Mind” presents a sincere experience of teenage girlhood through the lenses of disability and belonging. In the movie, Melody Brooks is navigating sixth grade as a nonverbal wheelchair user who has cerebral palsy. With the help of some assistive technology and her devoted, exuberant allies, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it. The second movie is “10 Lives,” an animated movie about a pampered cat that takes for granted the lucky hand he has been dealt.