While we await the results, this year’s drastically reduced New Frontier program promised a “return to roots,” a claim made good on with a slim but rich lineup of three features made by a quartet of artists spanning multiple generations of the avant-garde. While disheartening at a glance, the decision may prove beneficial for the program, which as it turns out isn’t being scrapped, but instead reimagined-a potentially promising development for a section that over time had essentially become a platform for VR projects and emerging technologies rather than a haven for more artisanal filmmaking practices as it was originally conceived. Citing the need to “reflect upon the rich learnings of the last two years,” which were presented online due to COVID-19, and “evaluate the shifting media landscape,” the festival seemed to be cutting ties with its sole section dedicated to noncommercial, nonindustrial forms of filmmaking. In October, the Sundance Film Festival announced that it was canceling its New Frontier program for experimental and artists’ cinema at its 2023 edition.

Wild west: new frontier fox