Sundance Film Festival Posts Largest-Ever Audience With Virtual 2021 Edition

The inaugural Red Sea Film Festival — which was due to launch March 12, 2020 in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah and became one of the first festival casualties of the coronavirus — has finally been rescheduled. Almost a year to the day that the festival was canceled as the kingdom reported its first cases of COVID-19 and much of the world was beginning to feel the devastating effects of the pandemic, organizers have revealed that the festival will now take place Nov.

coronavirus concerns.Though featuring a shortened list of 72 films, the festival garnered a viewership 2.7 times larger than the regular festival, which is held in Utah, according to the Sundance Institute.

Jordan Moreau Despite taking place virtually and over a shorter duration, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival nabbed its largest audience ever this year, the Sundance Institute announced Monday.The 2021 festival took place from Jan. 28-Feb.

Park City, Utah may not have been flooded with out-of-towners this year for the Sundance Film Festival due to the pandemic, however, the annual prestige film event can celebrate that its online edition and 20 city theatrical extension drew a total audience that was 2.7 times larger than the typical 11-day Utah edition. This year’s Sundance ran from Thursday, Jan. 28 through Wednesday, Feb. 3.

As she explained to us in an interview of the Deep Focus podcast, Rebecca Hall has been working a long time bringing her directorial debut, “Passing,” to life. Even though the debut was delayed due to the pandemic, the period drama finally premiered as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

When the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the city’s largest film festival, gets underway February 17, it will look a little different from previous seasons. It’s a virtual event, save for some drive-in screenings, but the LGBTQ content is still abundant.

No fuzzy snow boots. No standing in lines that rival the queue for the rollercoasters at Disney World.

For the first time in recent memory, the Sundance Film Festival recruited just three members each for its competition juries. Even in the context of a virtual festival, that might have been a mistake after one film dominated the Dramatic category winning four awards.

Also Read: 'Summer of Soul' Film Review: Questlove's Vibrant Concert Film Captures a Pivotal Harlem MomentOther audience awards went to the international films “Hive” and “Writing With Fire.”“Hive” won two additional awards in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, taking the Grand Jury Prize and the directing award for Blerta Basholli.Clifton Collins Jr.

Refresh for updates: The 2021 Sundance Film Festival awards are happening right now and you can watch them below, with this year’s virtual edition hosted by Patton Oswalt, or as he called himself tonight “Discount Giamatti”.

Soko stars in the upcoming fantastical feminist war film Mayday, which just premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Normally, this takes place in Park City, Utah, but the French singer/actress made numerous virtual appearances to promote the movie. Seven outfit changes for all of her interviews, in fact!

Alice Glass If the Sundance Film Festival loves a success story, the fest is likely to fall head over heels for director Kate Tsang.Her coming-of-age adventure “Marvelous and the Black Hole,” which premieres Jan.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentSony Pictures Classics has acquired all worldwide rights to the film “Jockey,” which will premiere on Sunday in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival.Directed by Clint Bentley and written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the film stars Clifton Collins, Jr., Molly Parker, Moises Arias, Logan Cormier and Colleen Hartnett.

EXCLUSIVE: In the first big deal of the 2021 virtual Sundance Film Festival, Apple has landed worldwide rights to CODA, for a number just north of $25 million. That sets a new a Sundance acquisitions record — above the $22.5 million that Palm Springs received last year from Hulu/Neon. But this time, all the premiere watching and all night auctioning was done far from the slopes of Park City. It came down to a pitched battle between Apple and Amazon.

Angelique Jackson For more than two decades, Gareth Jones had spent late January and early February in snowy Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival. But on Thursday night, Jones didn’t have to get on a plane to attend the annual film festival.

CODA was the right film to start this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. Writer-director Siân Heder’s coming-of-age drama about a girl who is the only hearing person in her deaf family premiered last night in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The pic was well received among buyers, and we hear there have been multiple offers already.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterThe Oscar-winning studio behind “Parasite” broke the ice at the 2021 virtual Sundance Film Festival sales market.The indie company has acquired the documentary “Flee,” also an official selection of Cannes 2020, in a competitive situation after the movie’s Thursday premiere.  The doc went for roughly $1 million, individuals familiar with the deal said.

As the Sundance Film Festival kicked off virtually amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, founder Robert Redford made a brief appearance during the opening night welcome ceremony from Park City, Utah. Redford, who skipped for the second year running the opening press conference earlier in the day, was not personally featured on screen.