Sundance Picks Boulder, Colo., as Its New Home

The Sundance Film Festival is venturing into a new ski city.

After a year of resolutions, copious visits to the site and dozens of rides by plane, the Sundance Institute Council has chosen Boulder, Collo., To host its film festival starting from January 2027.

“Boulder is a technological city, a university city, is a truly creative city,” said Eugene Hernandez, director of the Festival. “It is only a truly creative place. And the integration of the artistic community with the university side of everything is truly dynamic.”

It is also 10 times bigger than Park City, Nello Utah, where the festival has been held since the actor and director Robert Redford started it in 1981. While the festival continued to grow, Park City began to burst into seams.

EBS Burnough, president of the Sundance Institute, said that the transfer to another mountain city would help the Sunday to maintain its link with the natural world. “It is easy to be attracted to that surprising thing in which Robert Redford really believed, that it was that municipality between the artist and nature, and to be actually able to move away from the verticality of the cities.”

To attend Sundance visitors, the transfer to Boulder is likely to be less shocking than to move the position to Cincinnati, one of the other two finalist cities. Salt Lake City was also in the running and the loss of the festival will be significant for the state of the Utah. The Festival generated $ 132 million revenue for the state in 2024, according to a report published by the Festival.

Sunday announced Last April who was exploring the possibility of a new home. Park City did not have enough cinema and accommodation prices had become exorbitant. A good part of the locals were also ready to go. While Sundance added 1,730 jobs, according to the Festival, he also kept distant skiers During a privileged month of winter snow.

“Words cannot express the sincere gratitude that I have for Park City, the state of the Utah and all those of the Utah community who helped build the organization,” said Redford in a note.

Boulder, about 30 miles from Denver, has about 100,000 residents compared to 8,200 in Park City. The Festival intends to hit its activities in the city center and in its nearby theaters, offices and Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian street with restaurants and coffee. The Festival will also collaborate with the University of Colorado Boulder.

Initially, over 100 US locations offered to host the Festival. Sundance has the winners of 67 who could satisfy a variety of requirements, including adequate screening and accommodation offices and closeness to a considerable international airport. The Sundance selection committee therefore invited 13 of those cities to present a proposal. You are from them – Atlanta; Boulder; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky., Salt Lake City; and Santa Fe, NM – were subsequently selected for visits to the site.

Sundance will not be the only significant film festival held in Colorado. The Telluride Film Festival operated during the Labor Day weekend in Telluride, a mountain city in the south -western part of the state, for over 50 years.