Sundance announces key updates for 2023 festival

The non-profit Sundance Institute has announced initial details for the upcoming 2023 Sundance Film Festival, taking place from 19-29 January 2023.

Designed with the priority of bringing the Sundance community back together in cinemas to watch and experience next year’s culture-shaping stories, the Sundance Film Festival begins in person, in Utah in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort, on 19 January and runs through the 29th. Beginning on Tuesday 24 January, the Festival expands, welcoming audiences across the country to view select films online. The digital offering showcases an on-demand, curated selection of feature films from the 2023 Festival, including all competition titles (U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic, World Cinema Documentary, and NEXT), as well as exciting work across other sections of the feature film program, alongside episodic work and short films. The 2023 Festival culminates with weekend screenings of this year’s Sundance Award-winning films on 28-29 January, both in-person and online.

Audiences globally can experience a regenerated edition of New Frontier that tunes to today’s times, emphasising independent artistic practice and environmental engagement at the crossroads of film, art, and new media technology. New Frontier will feature a cutting-edge line-up of multimedia works and keynote discussions on a bespoke spatialized digital platform beginning 24 January, when the online portion of the Festival kicks off. For the past two years, New Frontier has provided audiences with a gold-standard destination to experience the Festival together while physically apart.

“We are excited to bring the Sundance community together for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, a celebration of independent filmmaking. After two years of being apart, our priority is reuniting in person, while still sharing bold new films with audiences across the country through online access,” said Joana Vicente, CEO of the Sundance Institute. “We’ve designed this year’s Festival based on our learnings from previous years – embracing the traditions that have been meaningful in the past, while also looking toward accessibility for audiences and expanding the platform we provide our storytellers.”

The health and safety of the Sundance Institute staff, artists, volunteers, and audiences remains of the utmost importance to the Institute. The Institute is continuing to work with its COVID-19 safety team and are following all CDC guidelines. All staff and volunteers working the Festival will be required to mask and test weekly. It requests that attendees wear masks in all Sundance Film Festival spaces to keep themselves and other Festival community members safe. We encourage all attendees to test before attending and during the Festival and to be up to date on all COVID-19 vaccinations.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival will be led by Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente. The Festival is programmed by a year-round team headed by Director of Programming Kim Yutani, along with Senior Programmers: Shari Frilot (also Chief Curator of New Frontier), John Nein (also Director of Strategic Initiatives), Mike Plante (Shorts), Charlie Sextro, Basil Tsiokos, Heidi Zwicker; Programmers: Ash Hoyle, Adam Montgomery, Sudeep Sharma, Ana Souza, Ania Trzebiatowska, and Stephanie Owens, who joins the team. The shorts programming team includes Emily Doe, Lisa Ogdie, Adam Piron, Mike Plante, DaManuel Richardson, Saidah Russell, Amanda Salazar, Irene Suico Soriano, Landon Zakheim, and Heidi Zwicker. Coordinators supporting the team include Cameron Asharian, Kat Hazelton, and Kelly Young. The full programming team is supported by programming associates and screeners.

“We can’t wait for our 2023 Festival to give a bold start to the year, with the help of our inspiring storytellers, ingenious creators, and engaged audiences,” said Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival director of programming. “For 39 years, the Sundance Film Festival has been a stalwart in the independent film community, and we’re thrilled to continue to be such an exciting annual gathering for artists and audiences.”

Program Submissions are currently open. They close on the following dates: Feature film submissions close 5 September (official) and 26 September (late), 2022. Short film submissions close 5 September (late), 2022. New Frontier submissions close 9 September (late), 2022. Episodic content submissions close 26 August (official) and 12 September (late), 2022. Details on applications, including frequently asked questions, are available on Sundance’s website.