Sundance 2018 is set to feature a star-studded rally for ‘respect’ as well as tighter security measures as the #MeToo movement impacts the event.

The festival will also feature a spate of films on sexual abuse and gender equality.

Actors Laura Dern and Isabel Nelissestar in The Tale, a film premiering at this year’s Sundance film festival.

The #MeToo movement will hit Park City, Utah, as the festival kicks off with a planned rally for “respect” and a schedule filled with female-fronted narratives.

The agenda this year follows a slew of allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein.

Gloria Allred, a festival headliner, said: “I’m so proud of all of the women who have had the courage to speak out,” Allred says in the film, to be released by Netflix in February. “Rich, famous, powerful men have to understand there are rules, there are boundaries. They must respect those boundaries. This has got to end and it needs to end right now.”

Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organisation that provides and preserves a space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to ‘create and thrive’. It takes place 19-29 January.