Sundance Director Eugene Hernandez Contends With AI Storytelling, In-Person-Only Screenings At 2024 Festival
variety.comMatt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Eugene Hernandez has reached the top of the mountain. The journalist turned nonprofit executive has spent decades rising through the ranks of the American independent film scene.
This January he assumes his seat at its apex: as the director of the Sundance Film Festival. Hernandez, the co-founder of IndieWire and longtime leader of Film at Lincoln Center, got the coveted job in late 2022.
But his official duties begin with this year’s festival, the 40th edition of the annual celebration of film that kicks off Jan.
18. He still remembers his first time in the luxury ski town of Park City, Utah, watching Robert Rodriguez’s “El Mariachi” in 1993. “It all feels full circle,” Hernandez tells Variety, adding that he shed tears when Sundance CEO Joana Vicente called to offer the job.
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