According to Jackson: “We also have two years of digital exhibition and participation under our collective belt, and are returning to the excitement and immediacy of live events while retaining a powerful online offering.”
The programme in 2023, including world-premiere feature films, short films, episodic work and a full New Frontier program, will be larger than those presented digitally in the prior two years.
Pass and package information for both online and in-person participation will be shared closer to the Festival, as will detailed health safety and vaccination guidance.
The past two Festivals saw audiences coming together online to experience new independent storytelling as it premiered on the Festival’s proprietary digital platform, including such award-winning and -nominated films from the 2021 edition as CODA, Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Mass, Flee, and Passing, among others, and reached larger audiences and was more accessible than past in-person Festivals.
A film by a Nigerian filmmaker, CJ Obasi, titled, Mami Water, is on the official selection list of the festival. The film which features talented actors such as Kelechi Udegbe, Rita Edochie, Evelyne Ily and Uzoamaka Aniunoh will have its world premiere at the festival that is regarded as one of the top five film festivals in the world (Berlinale, Cannes, Toronto and Venice). Produced by Oge Obasi, Mami Water will be competing with 11 other films in the world cinema dramatic competition section.
This will be the third time since 2018 that a film by a Nigeria-born director will premiere at Sundance.
In 2021, Lizard, a short film by Akinola Davies Jr, and Wale, his brother, won the prestigious short film Grand Jury Prize, while Nigeria-born but US based filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu was awarded Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for her film, Clemency, in 2018, making her the first black woman to win a Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
The 2023 Sundance film festival ends on January 29, 2023.
