{"id":1193751,"date":"2022-01-06T11:34:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T16:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1193751"},"modified":"2022-01-06T11:34:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T16:34:20","slug":"sundance-cancels-in-person-film-festival-due-to-coronavirus-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sundance-cancels-in-person-film-festival-due-to-coronavirus-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundance Cancels In-Person Film Festival Due to Coronavirus Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsundance-cancels-in-person-film-festival-due-to-coronavirus-surge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1193751&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/robert-redford-sundance-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Just two weeks before it was to be held in Park City, Utah,&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/festival.sundance.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">the Sundance Film Festival<\/a>&nbsp;is canceling its in-person festival and reverting to an entirely virtual edition due to the current coronavirus surge.<\/p>\n<p>Festival organizers announced Wednesday that the festival will start as scheduled on Jan. 20 but will shift online. The festival had been planned as a hybrid, with screenings both in Park City and online. Last year\u2019s Sundance&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sundance-film-festival-virtual-2021-8ac2b49ce07677f8f659a9e2964781a4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">was also held virtually because of the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis was a difficult decision to make,\u201d the festival said in a statement. \u201cAs a nonprofit, our Sundance spirit is in making something work against the odds. But with case numbers forecasted to peak in our host community the week of the festival we cannot knowingly put our staff and community at risk. The undue stress to Summit County\u2019s health services and our more than 1,500 staff and volunteers would be irresponsible in this climate.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The cancellation of an in-person Sundance is a huge blow to an independent film industry that has struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. Last year\u2019s virtual Sundance,&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sundance-film-festival-questlove-movies-sian-heder-film-festivals-66e572e6b66012c2c0b8e84cc86e0582\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">where films like \u201cSummer of Soul (or The Revolution Will Not Be Televised)\u201d and \u201cCODA\u201d made a splash<\/a>, proved that a digital festival can still foster breakout hits. But filmmakers, executives, audiences and journalists had held out hope that Sundance \u2014 the premier American film festival and a launchpad for young filmmakers \u2014 could again kick off a new movie year with packed premieres in the Utah mountains.<\/p>\n<p>The Sundance Institute, which puts on the festival, held out as long as it could in making the decision. In late December, when the highly infectious omicron variant of COVID-19 was driving cases up nationwide, the festival announced that vaccination boosters would be required for attendees, audience capacity would be slimmed down and no food or drink would be allowed in theaters. That was on top of previous protocols that mandated vaccination proof, masking indoors and other requirements.<\/p>\n<p>But with&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-anthony-fauci-9444d63b650b98e235ed2595b0ebe844\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">omicron sending case counts to record highs<\/a>, organizers ultimately pulled the plug on bringing crowds back to Park City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not believe it is safe nor feasible to gather thousands of artists, audiences, employees, volunteers, and partners from around the world for an 11-day festival while overwhelmed communities are already struggling to provide essential services,\u201d said the festival.<\/p>\n<p>Sundance, which runs Jan. 20-30,&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/coronavirus-pandemic-bill-cosby-entertainment-health-film-festivals-705120009afd956b5f71cccafdbba790\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">earlier announced a slate of 82 feature-length films<\/a>&nbsp;selected from more than 3,700 submissions. Kim Yutani, Sundance\u2019s director of programming said at the time that \u201cthis year\u2019s program reflects the unsettling and uncertain times we\u2019ve been living in for the past year and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Just two weeks before it was to be held in Park City, Utah,\u00a0the Sundance Film Festival\u00a0is canceling its in-person festival and reverting to an entirely virtual &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}