Scene one, take one: Getting ready for Sundance 2021

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival will be like no other.

For starters, none of it will happen in the physical space of Park City, Utah — the festival’s home location since the early 1980s (and, in fact, before the Sundance Institute took over the event in 1985).

In early December, the festival’s new director, Tabitha Jackson, laid out the general plan for the mostly online festival. All the feature films and shorts, as well as New Frontier offerings and live Q&As, will be shown online.

At the time, Jackson held out hope that some events could be held in person, at The Ray in Park City — as well as at more than 30 “satellite screen” partners across the country, including drive-in shows in Los Angeles.

On Dec. 30, though, Sundance announced the plans for The Ray were canceled, because of the continued threat of COVID-19. Some cities may still get to do satellite programs, but that’s on a case-by-case basis, depending on health and safety conditions in those cities.

The slate of 72 films — well, 71 now, after a cancellation — looks fascinating, and shows that even when everything else is different about Sundance, the quality of the movies should remain the same.

(While you’re poking around, look at the slate that Sundance’s kid brother, the Slamdance Film Festival, is planning to show. Slamdance also is abandoning the physical space of Park City this year, going online only.)