It has been one week since the announcement of Sundance CEO Joana Vicente stepping down from her role at the Sundance Institute. While it might have been pre-planned for her and some insiders there, it came as a shock for others in the film world.

According to an article from The Hollywood Reporter, it looked as though Vicente was thinking of Sundance’s future in the independent film sphere, especially since she held a “think tank” with some of the top executives in talent, sales, and studios on what is affecting their industry in January. 

Throughout her time with the institute, one of her main focuses was showing the enjoyment of indie films during the COVID-19 pandemic. She would land on moving the festival to completely online, which in turn brought three times the engagement than when the festival is in Utah, like it typically is. 

However, in 2022 and 2023, Vicente would have to deal with the world starting to open its doors to public events once again and planned to bring back the festival in a hybrid format, allowing people to visit the festival in-person or watch the films online to enjoy at home. 

While the attendance for 2023 was about 30,000 people less than there 2020 festival before the pandemic, critics and viewers hailed the hybrid format as more affordable and available to viewers. 

Even with this affordability, Sundance has altered their hybrid design during the 2024 Sundance Festival, as films were not streaming online until the final five days of the festival.

Amanda Kelso will now be taking over the reins at the Sundance Institute and will have to focus on other problems besides getting the films into people’s hands. Some of these problems include continued labor unknowns following both the writer and actor strikes, fewer productions being made, and not knowing how the box office will fare.

Vicente will be at the company to help Kelso until June, but it will be a while until we see what Kelso is capable of with Sundance.