Vote to see your favorite film at Sundance Film Festival: Local Lens this summer

Photo: Sundance Institute

Local Lens will offer free indoor and outdoor screenings, as well as Q&As and events

The Sundance Film Festival’s Local Lens program will return this summer, offering free movie screenings for the local Utah community July 17-21 in Park City and Salt Lake City.

New this year, Local Lens will provide an opportunity for Utahns to vote for their favorite Sundance film from years past to be screened as part of the weekend’s events.

Locals can choose between the following four films, which represent each of the last four decades of the Sundance Film Festival:

• “Hairspray” (1988)

  • Director John Water’s classic Hairspray follows the story of Tracy Turnblad, a young Baltimore teen desperate to become a star on a local teen dance program and rallies against racial segregation.

• “Real Women Have Curves” (2002)

  • Director Patricia Cardoso’s Real Women Have Curves sees America Ferrera deliver her breakout performance in the story of a Mexican American teenager who feels stuck between her college ambitions and her responsibilities at home in East Los Angeles.

• “20 Feet from Stardom” (2013)

  • Director Morgan Neville’s 20 Feet From Stardom is a documentary that opens the world of backup singers, primarily women, whose talent and art stand in the shadow of no one, although they never made the spotlight.

• “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (2016)

  • Director Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople follows the journey of a troubled city kid Ricky when he is placed with a foster family in rural New Zealand, and a turn of events sends the boy and his foster uncle on the run in the bush.

Cast your vote for your favorite here before the survey closes on May 14. The winning film will be announced on Thursday, June 13, alongside the full 2024 Local Lens schedule.