The future of festivals is online

Sundance Film Festival announced its largest audience ever this year. Despite being hosted online and in-person in 20 cities across the US over a shorter period, one of the year’s main independent storytelling events reached a total audience 2.7 times larger than at the typical 11 day Utah edition. The Festival presented 73 feature films instead of the usual 120, 50 short films, 4 Indie Series, 23 talks and events. This year’s Sundance Film Festival edition gathered audience across all 50 states of the US and 120 countries and territories around the world.

“We talked about this year’s festival as a grand experiment,” said Festival Director Tabitha Jackson “and now we are in the process of analysing the results -- a vital part of informing the expression of Festival in 2022. There is a lot still to learn, but we are delighted that a combination of online and in-person participation, innovative social spaces, hard work, and a lot of crossed fingers came together to expand and connect audiences for the incredible slate of work we were lucky enough to program this year.’