For 26 years, debuting filmmakers have traversed the wintry landscape of Park City to screen their films at the Slamdance Film Festival, and this year’s crop of selections promises to showcase significant talent. Taking place January 24-30, this celebration of cinema continues to be, as co-founder and president Peter Baxter calls it, “the premiere film festival by filmmakers and for filmmakers,” with an emphasis on creating a community for emerging independent artists. “We’re an artist-led festival where everyone nurtures each other’s visions, while always looking for new ways to explore and evolve as storytellers.”

The 2020 feature competition boasts 16 premieres, with projects originating from Belarus, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Africa and the United States. As always, all films are feature length directorial debuts with budgets of less than one million, and which lack U.S. distribution. “We’ve been working behind the scenes year round to ensure that we have another fantastic festival. We’re always looking for strong and distinct storytelling voices,” says festival manager Alina Solodnikova.