On the Sundance Film Festival’s last opening night in Utah, another of the state’s icons will be featured on a Park City screen: The Great Salt Lake.
The documentary “The Lake” is one of 90 feature-length movies chosen for the festival’s slate, the Sundance Institute announced Wednesday.
“An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah,” the festival’s announcement reads, describing the movie. “Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe.”
The film will screen in the U.S. Documentary competition — both for in-person screenings and, during the festival’s final four days, its online streaming portal. The world premiere is scheduled for Jan. 22; further details are to be announced.
The film is directed by Abby Ellis, a Utah-based filmmaker who has received Emmy nominations and a Peabody Award.
(Sundance Institute) Abby Ellis, director of "The Lake," an official selection in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Ellis has directed two investigative documentaries for the PBS series “Frontline”: “Flint’s Deadly Water,” about a disease outbreak in Flint, Michigan, caused by officials’ neglect of the city’s water supply; and “Shots Fired,” which partnered with The Salt Lake Tribune to examine police shootings in Utah.
Ellis declined The Tribune’s request for an interview this week, opting to wait until closer to the movie’s festival premiere.
[Read more: Here’s a list of all the movies that will screen at Sundance’s last Utah festival]
Kim Yutani, the festival’s programming director, said “The Lake” was a film her team had been tracking for a while. Last year, the film received support from the Sundance Institute’s Sandbox Fund, which awards $500,000 a year to 15 documentary projects.
“This is one that struck us deeply — it is so closely tied to our location in Utah,” Yutani said. “It was one that moved us all, and is one that we’re excited for audiences to see, and to discuss further once they see the film.”
Festival director Eugene Hernandez said “The Lake” has attracted some big names as executive producers, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and filmmaker Jimmy Chin, who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo.”
Yutani said “The Lake” fits in with Sundance’s legacy of programming documentaries about the environment, including Davis Guggenheim’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Jeff Orlowski-Yang’s “Chasing Ice.”
Screening such movies at the festival, Yutani said, “is so deeply rooted in [institute founder Robert] Redford’s vision.”
Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.