So long, Park City. Sundance Film Festival to relocate to Boulder,
Colorado, in 2027
[March 28, 2025]
By JAKE COYLE
After a yearlong search, the Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday
that its new home will be Boulder, Colorado, keeping Sundance in the
mountains but moving it out of Park City, the Utah ski town that had for
decades provided the premier independent film gathering its picturesque
snowy backdrop.
Organizers said that after 40 years in the mountains, the festival had
outgrown Park City, and lacked the necessary theaters or affordable
housing to continue hosting what has become one of North America’s most
sprawling movie events. Sundance had narrowed down the options to Salt
Lake City (with a smaller presence in Park City), Cincinnati and
Boulder.
Boulder emerged as their choice due to its close proximity to nature,
its small-town charm and an engaged community that, organizer said,
provides Sundance the ideal setting for its future.
“Boulder is a tech town, it’s a college town, it’s an arts town, and
it’s a mountain town,” Amanda Kelso, acting chief executive of the
Sundance Institute, said in an interview Thursday from Boulder. “At
100,000 people, a larger town than Park City, it gives us the space to
expand.”
Kelso, Sundance Institute board chair Ebs Burnough and Eugene Hernandez,
director of the festival and head of programming, spoke shortly before
announcing the festival’s move. Local officials, who helped lure
Sundance with $34 million in tax credits over 10 years, applauded the
decision.
“Here in our state we celebrate the arts and film industry as a key
economic driver, job creator and important contributor to our thriving
culture,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said Thursday that Sundance will
come to regret leaving Utah.
"As I’ve said from the beginning, we wanted Sundance to stay,” Cox said
in a statement. “We made that clear to their leadership and put together
a highly competitive package. Ultimately, this decision is theirs to
make, but I believe it’s a mistake and that, one day, they’ll realize
they left behind not just a place, but their heritage.”
A change endorsed by Sundance founder Robert Redford
A shift from Park City to Boulder means Sundance stays in the mountains
but trades a luxury ski resort enclave for a growing, outdoorsy small
city. The mile-high Colorado city set in the foothills of the Rockies
also maintains a sense of surrounding nature — something organizers
stressed as a major factor in their decision.
Boulder’s four-block pedestrian mall on Pearl Street, with nearby
theaters, could provide a similar sense of central hub like Park City’s
Main Street. The Macky Auditorium, on the University of Colorado campus,
is expected to be a central stage for Sundance.
The Sundance Institute was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, who sought
a location far from Hollywood to foster independent voices in film. In
1984, the institute took over the Sundance Film Festival, but the
nonprofit’s mission of helping young filmmakers grow through labs and
workshops — Redford’s real passion — continued year-round away from the
festival.
The 88-year-old Redford, who attended the University of Colorado in
Boulder in his youth, gave the move his blessing.
“Words cannot express the sincere gratitude I have for Park City, the
state of Utah, and all those in the Utah community that have helped to
build the organization,” Redford said in a statement. “What we’ve
created is remarkably special and defining. As change is inevitable, we
must always evolve and grow, which has been at the core of our
survival.”
How Sundance chose its new home
The festival made “ethos and equity values” one of its criteria,
prompting many to wonder how much local politics would influence the
choice by Sundance, which emphasizes inclusivity.
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Snow coats the intermountain West, the Flatirons, on Feb. 12, 2022,
in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
 Later Thursday, Cox said he was
allowing a first-in-the-nation policy banning certain flag displays
at schools and government buildings, including the LGBTQ pride flag,
to become law without his signature. The bill's Republican sponsor,
state Sen. Trevor Lee, said in response to the Sundance news that it
“promoted filth” and “would not be missed.”
Organizers said Boulder’s “welcoming environment aligns with the
ethos" of Sundance.
“This process started 18 months ago and we’ve been in Utah for 40
years. So politics really didn’t guide the process,” Burnough said
Thursday. “It was really and truly about evolution. That’s where it
landed. We didn’t constantly spend time examining what bill was
going forward or may or may not be signed.”
With its current contract expiration date looming, the hunt for a
new host city began in earnest in April 2024. The initial group of
six contenders also included Atlanta, Louisville, Kentucky, and
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
What Sundance has meant for Park City, and the film world
Before packing up, Sundance will have one last edition in Park City
in January 2026.
“The Sundance Film Festival will be the Sundance Film Festival
wherever we go. What’s consistent is our mission,” said Hernandez.
“This is a festival of global discovery. What’s exciting about
Boulder is this is a place we can build.”
Over the years, Sundance in Park City swelled into a premier
marketplace for American film, drawing studio executives and
parka-wearing celebrities into the Wasatch mountains every January.
It helped launch countless filmmakers over the years, from Steven
Soderbergh (“Sex, Lies and Videotape”) to Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale
Station”). Sundance scored its first best picture winner with “CODA”
in 2022.
Sundance meant big business for Utah and Park City. In 2024, the
festival had some 72,840 in-person attendees, 24,200 of whom were
coming from out of state. According to the festival’s economic
impact report, out-of-state visitors spent an estimated $106.4
million in Utah during the festival. Its total economic impact was
estimated to be $132 million, with 1,730 jobs for Utah residents.
But the festival had also sparred with local ski resorts — Park
City’s other major money maker — as festivalgoers filled the hotels
and left the slopes virtually empty for two weeks during peak ski
season. The festival was a boon to some local businesses, but a
hindrance to others. For visitors flying into the 10-day festival,
ballooning rental costs increasingly factored into attending.
Debbie Gold, a festivalgoer from Florida who “got bit by the
Sundance bug” 20 years ago, said she’s not yet sure whether she will
continue attending at the new location.
“It’s the end of an era, for me anyway, in Park City,” said Gold,
whose experiences at Sundance inspired her to get involved with her
local Miami Film Festival and some independent film productions. “I
don’t think it’ll be quite the same in a new place. But between
Boulder and Cincinnati, Boulder at least sounds a little enticing
because it’s a cute mountain town.”
Sundance's relocation puts two of the top U.S. film festivals in
Colorado. The Telluride Film Festival, held further west in the
state, runs in late August.
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Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum and Film Writer Lindsey
Bahr contributed to this report.
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