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A who's who of celebrities and independent film junkies descended on Park City, Utah, this week for the 42nd Sundance Film Festival. This year’s festival will be the last in its longtime home of Park City, as it’s set to move to Boulder, Colorado, next year. It’s also the first Sundance since the passing of legendary actor and director Robert Redford, who founded the Sundance Institute in 1981.  

For its last ride in Park City, this year’s festival did not disappoint, with 90 buzzy feature films premiering over the 11-day event.  

“It’s a broad, eclectic, and bold program,” Sundance public programming director Eugene Hernandez told The Associated Press. He said the program “really honors that well with this mixture of new, exciting voices paired with some really, really great familiar faces from Sundance's past that I think will create a great alchemy for this really unique edition in Utah.” 

This year’s slate also featured 60 percent of its showings from first- or second-time directors, maintaining Sundance’s legacy as a launchpad for little-known filmmakers and actors.  

Over its 40-plus year history, Sundance has helped launch the likes of Ethan Hawke, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderberg, and countless others to fame. Its reputation as the premiere showcase for new films has only ever grown, as all five of this year’s Academy Award nominees for documentary feature premiered at Sundance last year.  

This year, the stacked lineup featured timely documentaries, dramas, and a healthy dose of comedy and satire.

In the documentary category, films like “Knife” followed the 2022 assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie in upstate New York and documented his recovery. Others like “When a Witness Recants” featured author Ta-Nehisi Coates on a journey to bring truth and justice to a 1983 Baltimore murder case.

Fitting for Sundance’s last run in Utah, “The Lake” captured the decline of the Great Salt Lake and inspired hope for its revival through advocacy, research, and coordination. Governor Spencer Cox made an appearance at the film’s screening on opening night and reiterated his bold pledge to have the lake full by the time the Winter Olympics return to Utah in 2034.

Comedies seemed to find their place this year among Sundance’s usual heavy-hitting indie films. In one of the festival’s most competitive bidding wars, A24 won the rights to “The Invite” for more than $10 million. The film, directed by Olivia Wilde, follows Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Ed Norton through an awkward and hilarious dinner party.

In between films, stars and celebrities spilled out onto the streets of Park City. Everyone from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Brittney Griner, Charlie XCX, Ethan Hawke, and Natalie Portman took part in this year’s send-off to Park City. The event also served as a tribute to Robert Redford, who built Sundance into the indie film hotbed that it is today.  

Utah critical minerals plan: last week, Utah Governor Spencer Cox rolled out Mission Critical – a strategic framework for Utah to help the country meet 25 percent its demand for critical minerals. The framework aims to cut permitting timelines by 50 percent for critical minerals processing and seeks to approve five critical minerals operations in the next 18 months.  

“I’m working ... on significantly lowering the time frame that it takes for permitting, in both the mining area and the processing of critical minerals,” Governor Cox told the Deseret News. “(And) still keeping people safe. We can do both of those things.” 

Governor Cox is also hoping to create a new research center that will ultimately become a federally recognized National Laboratory within six years.  

Building is bipartisan: in Arizona, the Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona recently held their first Red and Blue Build event, which brought together state legislators from both sides of the aisle to volunteer on the construction site for a pair of affordable homes.  

Legislators worked side-by-side while discussing important housing legislation coming up in this year’s legislative session.  

Housing is a top priority for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who stressed the importance of meaningful housing legislation in her recent State of the State address.  

For more on Western Governors’ bipartisan policy on housing, read the BRAND West report from New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s term as WGA Chair. 

Building greener data centers: as data center construction booms, significant carbon emissions are released before the facilities even power on. By 2030, new data centers are expected to use as much as 2 million metric tons of carbon-intensive cement.  

In an effort to reduce emissions from cement use, major tech firms are looking into using low-carbon concrete in new data centers, which can cut emissions by as much as 70 percent in some cases.  

Guam high schoolers win NASA competition: students at JFK High School on Guam were recently selected as winners of NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, which inspires students to design experiments that autonomously collect data during NASA test flights.  

The students’ device will fly on a NASA high-altitude balloon this summer, reaching altitudes of 70,000 to 95,000 feet. It will study atmospheric phenomena like radiation, electricity and magnetism, particle behavior, and more.  

Rare plant thrives at solar site: in Nevada, researchers recently studied a rare desert plant known as threecorner milkvetch and analyzed its response to a new solar development. Surprisingly, they found that the plant thrived in conjunction with the site.  

Before construction, the team only found about a dozen plants in the area. Two years after the site was built, there were upwards of 90 plants in the area. The findings show that careful development of solar that avoids heavy grading and preserves topsoil can actually have positive impacts on certain species.