It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Despite the success of an almost entirely virtual event last year, the organizers of the Sundance Film Festival had been eagerly prepping a hybrid fest for 2022 that would have allowed filmmakers, buyers, critics and entertainment lovers to safely rendezvous in person once again — in their natural late-January habitat of Park City, Utah — to celebrate the best in indie cinema.
Then came omicron. Two weeks ago, the festival’s powers-that-be announced that out of an abundance of caution, Sundance 2022 (which runs Thursday through Jan. 30) would again go mostly virtual. It was bad news for industry insiders who had been planning on a Park City reunion, but good news for the wider film-viewing public, who will now have more chances to see some of the latest, best and most cutting-edge filmmaking on the planet — including many queer-themed titles — without having to wait months for things to work their way through the usual pre-pandemic distribution channels.
