Atlanta theaters take part in this year’s Sundance Film Festival

For more than 40 years, the Sundance Film Festival has been a prestigious showcase for independent feature films and documentaries, launching the careers of such talents as Quentin Tarantino and Ava DuVernay. For this year’s event, which takes place Jan. 28-Feb. 3, concerns over COVID-19 has forced Sundance’s world premiere screenings to shift from Park City, Utah, to a digital platform.

But if the audience can’t go to Sundance’s 44th festival, why not send Sundance to the audience? In addition to making virtual tickets and passes available to the general public, the festival has launched a new, concurrent satellite screens initiative offering in-person screenings of select films in 30 U.S. cities, including Atlanta.

Sundance Institute, the nonprofit founded by actor Robert Redford, announced last month that the seven-day event will be offered digitally this year in partnership with drive-ins, independent arthouses and a group of local community partnerships.