never make another one, I've done this. For the first time, I feel I've done a complete work on film." An original 35 mm print of Desert Hearts was donated to the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Deitch's personal 35 mm print was screened at The Museum of Modern Art in December 2016. Desert Hearts was digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Criterion Collection/Janus Films in conjunction with the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project and the Sundance Institute. In April 2016, Donna Deitch announced that she was fundraising to produce a sequel to Desert Hearts, to be set in New York City during the women's liberation movement. Release Desert Hearts made its North American debut at the 1985 Telluride Film Festival in September 1985. It had its world premiere at the 1985 Toronto International Film Festival in September 1985. The film screened at the 1985 Chicago International Film Festival on November 15, 1985, and the 1986 Sundance Film Festival in January 1986. Desert Hearts was the only lesbian film out of nine films selected for screening at the first London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1986. It was wide released in the U.S. by The Samuel Goldwyn Company on March 7, 1986, and in the U.K. by Mainline Pictures Ltd. on June 6, 1986. The 4K restoration made its debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2017 (followed by a Q&A with director Donna Deitch, cinematographer Robert Elswit, and production designer Jeannine Oppewall). It was screened in Los Angeles by the UCLA Film & Television Archive on February 4, 2017; and in San Francisco at the Frameline Film Festival on June 18, 2017. The new digital version was released in theaters by Janus Films in July 2017. Critical reception The reaction by film critics was mixed. In his scathing review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby criticized the screenplay as "unimaginative", described its characters as having "so little life", and the film as lacking a "voice or style of its own", but did add that it "is so earnest and sincere that it deserves an A for deportment". In comparison, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3-1/2 stars out of 4 and wrote that it was "elegant, traditional story-telling" with "complete characterizations