The Sundance Film Festival is bidding adieu to Park City, Utah, its home for the last 40 years. On Thursday, organizers revealed that the festival will relocate to Boulder, Colorado in 2027, and continue there for the foreseeable future.
“Boulder offers small-town charm with an engaged community, distinctive natural beauty, and a vibrant arts scene, making it the ideal location for the festival to grow,” the Sundance Institute announced in a press release.
The announcement ends more than a year of speculation about the festival’s new home. In April, 2024, the Sundance Institute announced it was looking for a new host city for the festival. The festival’s 13-year contract with Park City is up at the end of 2026, and the festival said at the time that it was looking for a bigger community as a host. The announcement marked a turning point in the festival’s history.
Originally called the U.S. Film Festival, it was launched in August, 1978 in Salt Lake City, and then moved to Park City in 1981. In 1985 the Sundance Institute—the independent film group founded by actor Robert Redford—took over creative control and officially renamed it Sundance Film Festival in 1991. The name was in reference to Redford’s iconic character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Over the years, the festival became a launchpad for independent films and directors. In 1989, Steven Soderbergh debuted his pivotal film Sex, Lies, and Videotape at the festival. In subsequent years, a host of independent films made their debuts at Sundance: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Blair Witch Project, American Psycho, The Virgin Suicides, and Dogtown and Z-Boys, among others.
Outdoor films have also featured prominently at the festival. In 2013 the climbing film The Summit debuted at the festival, and in 2015 the Jimmy Chin documentary Meru won the festival’s Audience Award.
Boulder is already home to its own film festival, the Boulder International Film Festival, which debuted in 2005.
Ebs Burnough, the board chair of the Sundance Institute, said that Boulder was among three cities to submitted proposals to take over hosting duties of the festival. The other cities were Cincinnati, Ohio, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
“This decision was informed by a detailed evaluation of the key components essential to creating our festival,” Burnough said in a statement. “During the process, it became clear that Boulder is the ideal location in which to build our festival’s future, marking a key strategic step in its natural evolution.”
Amanda Kelso, the acting chief executive for Sundance, told the Associated Press that Boulder has the right blend of space and energy for the festival to grow.
“Boulder is a tech town, it’s a college town, it’s an arts town, and it’s a mountain town,” she said. “At 100,000 people, a larger town than Park City, it gives us the space to expand.”
In statement, Redford thanked Park City for hosting the festival for four decades, and praised the move as a crucial one for Sundance’s future success.
“This move will ensure that the Festival continues its work of risk taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences. I am grateful to the Boulder community for its support, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the festival there.”
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