The Sundance Film Festival is taking on a new town.
After deliberations, abundant site visits and airplane ride scores, the Sundance Institute's board of directors chose Boulder, Colorado, to host the film festival from January 2027.
“Boulder is a high-tech town, a university town, and a truly creative town,” said Eugene Hernandez, director of the festival. “It's a really creative place. And the integration of the artistic community and the university side is all really dynamic.”
It is also 10 times larger than Park City, Utah, and has been holding a festival since actor and director Robert Redford began in 1981. As the festival continued to grow, Park City began to burst through the seams.
Sundance Institute Chair EBS Burnough said the move to the town at the foot of the mountains will help Sundance maintain its connection to the natural world. “It's easy to be drawn into the amazing things that Robert Redford really believed in. It's a commune between an artist and nature, and it really helps to escape the verticality of the city.”
For frequent Sundance participants, the move to Boulder may be less harsh than shifting the place to Cincinnati, one of the other two finalist cities. Salt Lake City is also running, and festival losses will be important for Utah. According to a report released by the festival, the festival generated $132 million in state revenue in 2024.
Sundance announced last April that it was exploring the possibilities of a new home. Park City doesn't have enough cinemas, and accommodation prices have become outrageous. A considerable portion of the locals were also ready to go. Sundance added 1,730 jobs, but skiers also stayed away in winter snow, according to the festival.
“The words cannot express sincere gratitude to all Utah and all of the Utah community who helped build the organization,” Redford said in a statement.
About 30 miles from Denver, Boulder has around 100,000 residents compared to 8,200 in Park City. The festival focuses on activities in downtown the city and in Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian street with nearby theatres and venues, as well as restaurants and cafes. The festival will also collaborate with the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Initially, over 100 US locations were provided to host the festival. Sundance dodged them to 67, which can meet a variety of requirements, including proper screening and accommodation, and considerable international airport proximity. The Sundance Select Committee subsequently invited 13 of these cities to submit proposals. Six of them – Atlanta. Boulder; Cincinnati; Louisville, Kentucky. Salt Lake City; Santa Fe, New Mexico – was later chosen for a visit to the site.
Sundance is not the only important film festival held in Colorado. The Telluride Film Festival is Telluride, a mountain town in the southwestern part of the state, and has been running on Labor Day weekends for more than 50 years.
