Celebrating its 40th edition, Sundance Film Festival is back with a full slate of in-person programming in the resort town of Park City with a full slate of screenings in Salt Lake City. Once again film lovers, journalists, and critics are flocking to the mountain ski area to kick the year off with a huge array of new feature films from a diverse set of veteran filmmakers and emerging directors.

Can’t make it out of town but still want to catch the hype? The pandemic marked a major shift for couch-watchers, with Sundance at the vanguard of bringing the festival online. This year all of the various competition films will also be available to stream, although online viewing will be shifted to the back half of the program. This privileges the buzz on the ground, but gives everyone a decent shot to catch-up from home. Like theatrical screenings, tickets for online viewing are limited.

So even if you don’t have time to navigate chilly weather, flights, and lodging, the pandemic experience’s democratization of one of the biggest annual film events has made it so that anyone in the US can relatively easily get themselves online, see what looks good, grab a ticket, and experience the bustling world of independent film.  The whole program is online, sortable, and filterable by venue, competition/section, and online vs. in person (with sub-tabs for Park City vs. SLC). Finally, most passes are sold out, but individual tickets are still available for a lot of films (including some high profile premieres). Ticket availability is in a constant state of flux, so if there’s something you’re desperate to see keep hitting refresh or sign-up for the waitlist a couple hours ahead of time and brave the rush line. Tickets run $25 for online and $30 for in person and guarantee that you’ll have a “spot” at that film’s showing. 

Opening night is tonight in Utah with online feature films beginning on January 25th. I’m going to be doing a bit of each this year, leaving tomorrow with a suitcase full of sweaters and snow gear. At the moment, I have handful of picks from the premieres section at the top of my list:

• Freaky Tales: seemingly the hottest ticket in town, Ryan Fleck’s latest features Pedro Pascal, eighties nostalgia, and a series of interconnected stories about a mysterious force in Oakland.
• I Saw the TV Glow: Jane Schoenbraun’s follow-up to Sundance sensation We’re All Going to the World’s Fair finds a mysterious late-night show warping a teenager’s reality. Produced by Emma Stone and with a cast that includes Fred Durst (yes, that Fred Durst) and Phoebe Bridgers, the A24 horror flick is primed to be another break-out.
• Sue Bird: In the Clutch: Last year’s Sundance spotlighted the exceptional career of Steph Curry; this time around we another basketball documentary in the form of Sarah Dowland’s look at Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird on the precipice of retirement from her trailblazing career in the WNBA.
• Love Me: Kristin Stewart is being celebrated at this year’s Sundance. This mysterious film, starring her and Steven Yeun, concerns and satellite and a buoy who fall in love over the course of a billion years. Stewart will also appear in Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass’s Saint Maud follow-up), about a gym manager who falls in love with a bodybuilder and into a deep web of criminal violence.
• Sasquatch Sunset: like its title cryptozooid, this Zellner brothers film in shrouded in mystery. Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough are said to “eschew traditional appearances” in their portrait of the daily existence of sasquatches. It’s a double-feature for Eisenberg who directs himself alongside Kieran Culkin in a road movie about cousins driving through Poland in A Real Pain.
• Presence: Genre-flexible do-it-all filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at horror with an otherworldly single-setting story featuring Lucy Lio and Julia Fox.
• The American Society of Magical Negroes: Justin Smith stars in Kobi Libii’s directorial debut, a satire skewering the trope of Black supporting characters who exist only to serve a white protagonist’s storyline.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg (or rather, the ice cold festival). There’s also a special presentation of a Christopher Reeve doc; a hot-off-the-presses documentary about the making of “We Are the World”; and a Will Farrell road trip. As always, the festival is certainly packed with all sorts of surprises, discoveries, and head-scratchers. We’ll update as the festival unfolds with news and quick reviews, but please feel free to send tips (or party invites!).