I knew it was bound to happen eventually… in the future the masses won’t have to travel to the snow-filled mountain town of PArk City Utah to attend the Sundance Film Festival. Eventually the festival will offer digital streaming of some of the independent feature film premieres the movie theaters across the country. While that day is still a few years off, Sundance announced yesterday that they will be launching a new expansion this year called Sundance Film Festival USA, a new program which will screen films from the festival in eight cities across the country as the festival coems to a close in Park City. Details after the jump.

Sundance Film Festival runs January 21st to the 31st in Park City Utah. At the very tail end of the festival, Sundance, on Thursday, January 28th to be exact, Sundance will dispatch eight filmmakers with their films from Park City to eight cities across the country to screen and discuss direct-from-Festival films with audiences. Tickets will be available through each theatre’s individual box office. All films will be selected from the official Sundance Film Festival program, which will be announced in December.

An introductory video featuring Robert Redford will precede the screenings, and is also expected to include “festival highlights”. And the screenings will be followed with a live conversation with the filmmakers. The only question is what level of films will Sundance be including in this national tour?

The events will take place in Los Angeles, CA (Downtown Independent), San Francisco, CA (Sundance Kabuki Cinemas), Chicago, IL (Music Box Theater), Brooklyn, NY (BAM), Nashville, TN (Belcourt Theater) plus Ann Arbor, MI. (Michigan Theater); Brookline, MA. (Coolidge Corner Theater); and Madison, WI. (Sundance Cinemas Madison).