After greater than 4 many years of calling Park Metropolis house, the Sundance Movie Pageant is formally shifting to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027.
The choice is a serious shift for the world-renowned pageant, which has been synonymous with the Utah ski city since its inception. Whereas it might come as a shock to some, for these following the pageant’s trajectory lately, the transfer appeared inevitable.
I’m kinda unhappy that Sundance is shifting to Colorado. I’ve had an superior time attending the occasion in Park Metropolis over the previous 18 years. I even have household within the space that I can stick with without spending a dime in the course of the occasion. I don’t have that in CO, so subsequent 12 months would be the final 12 months I attend.
Boulder beat out Cincinnati, Ohio, and Utah’s last-ditch effort to maintain Sundance in its birthplace, finally profitable the bid with a powerful monetary proposal and a imaginative and prescient for the pageant’s future.
The street to Boulder was paved by an ideal storm of business shifts, logistical frustrations, and a post-pandemic reset. Sundance has struggled with Park Metropolis’s limitations, overcrowded venues, excessive prices, and accessibility challenges, all of which have made the pageant expertise more and more troublesome for each business insiders and indie filmmakers scraping collectively journey budgets.
“A part of the decision-making course of was round alternative for progress,” mentioned Performing Sundance Institute CEO Amanda Kelso. “That can also be an essential issue for us. Figuring out that we might be in a city that has 100,000 individuals signifies that it has extra venues, extra areas, and extra alternatives in how we might be expansive of the pageant shifting ahead.”
The seek for a brand new house was set in movement final 12 months when the Sundance Institute formally opened up bidding to different cities. Boulder shortly emerged as a frontrunner, due to its arts scene, robust native help, and a profitable $34 million tax incentive unfold over a decade.
Past the monetary incentives, Boulder provided one thing Park Metropolis may now not compete with… accessibility and sustainability. With a inhabitants of round 100,000, Boulder has extra infrastructure to help the pageant’s evolving wants.
It’s a vibrant school city with a powerful arts and tech presence, which aligns with Sundance’s push for a broader, extra inclusive viewers.
“From a way of area perspective, it’s this actually vibrant city that’s surrounded by nature,” Kelso added. “You possibly can think about strolling from venue to venue, metabolizing the movie you simply watched and communing with nature, which is one thing Robert Redford felt so strongly about.
“When you concentrate on a way of place perspective, Boulder is a cool city, it’s an arts city. There are poets, musicians, and filmmakers who stay right here. It’s a tech city. It’s additionally a school city—38,000 college students attend the College of Colorado Boulder, and that creates a possibility for us to consider viewers improvement in a extra expansive method.”
The success of Sundance’s Administrators Lab in Boulder in Might 2024 additionally helped solidify the transfer. Logistically, Boulder is nearer to Los Angeles than Park Metropolis, making it simpler for business professionals to attend with out coping with the high-altitude struggles that Park Metropolis introduced.
Whereas Boulder could lack the ski-town attraction of Park Metropolis, it sits at 5,420 toes above sea stage, which is considerably decrease than Park Metropolis’s 7,000-10,000 toes—making the pageant expertise somewhat simpler to navigate.
Utah didn’t let Sundance go with out a battle. Governor Spencer Cox and state officers scrambled within the closing months to drag collectively a proposal to maintain the pageant in Park Metropolis. However ultimately, Boulder’s bid was just too robust to beat.
“Colorado is thrilled to welcome the Sundance Movie Pageant to its new house in Boulder beginning in 2027,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis mentioned. “Right here in our state, we have a good time the humanities and movie business as a key financial driver, job creator, and essential contributor to our thriving tradition.
“Now, with the addition of the long-lasting Sundance Movie Pageant, we will anticipate much more jobs, an enormous profit for our small companies together with shops and eating places.”
With Boulder locked in as the longer term house of Sundance, the countdown begins for Park Metropolis’s closing pageant, set to happen from January 22 – February 1, 2026. The final hurrah is anticipated to be a serious sendoff, with organizers already planning a pageant that can honor its lengthy historical past in Utah.
“We’re already arduous at work on the subsequent Sundance Movie Pageant,” mentioned pageant director Eugene Hernandez. “Will probably be actually significant and particular for us.”
The transfer is bittersweet for lots of people. Park Metropolis and Sundance have been intertwined for many years, however with business calls for evolving, the pageant needed to adapt.
Boulder represents a contemporary begin and an opportunity to redefine Sundance for a brand new era of filmmakers and audiences.
