After barely a year of speculation, Sundance Film Festival has named Boulder, Colorado for its new host city, from 2027. People will undoubtedly be disappointed that it leaves Park City, where it has been called home for over 40 years, but Hollywood is already warming (is Colorado every warmer than Utah in January?) To the idea of SundanceNew home, although there is Some naysayers Who would have wanted to see it somewhere else.
“Sundance made the right choice,” Sony Pictures Classics co -manager Tom Bernard told IndieWire in response to the news. He celebrated the idea that with Sundance now located in a university city, it will attract a new audience of passionate young film Lovers every year. “In order for the festival to be able to challenge itself again and try to come up with some different, unique types of films that they can program for the new audience who are looking for new ideas and actually change the culture.”
Bernard has traveled to Sundance in Park City when Robert Redford first formulated the idea and gave feedback on what it needed, including a lab for independent creators to have his film made outside the Hollywood system. Bernard hopes that the festival will collaborate with the University of Colorado’s Film School to offer student film competitions to reach the younger audience. And with classrooms that can all be converted to arenas, he believes that the festival is prepared to increase the number and what kind of films it can show.
“It may be an incubator to engage the university in the festival,” Bernard said. “There are so many new opportunities that I look forward to, such as Sundance that give up their programming to become much more wild than they have been before and may have more conversations within the selection group. There will be things there that you would normally not have looked up in Park City.”
A large part of Sundance is Vibe, and the feeling is that Boulder, with its own mountain view and viable spaces, still got it.
“Everything but Park City would always be a bit of a mute and hard to get their heads around it. Sundance and Park City are joining as Cannes and Cannes,” said producer William Rosenfeld from such “That’s what’s inside” for $ 17 million on Sundance 2024. “Maybe it’s just because it’s in the mountains, close to other ski resorts, but I think compared to the alternative alternatives, Boulder feels like the best place to go if not Park City. I’m glad to see what they do with it. Sundance evokes such fond of a snowy mountain town and traipsing along the main street, and boulders have.”
While Sundance finally grew out Park City after all these years, the downside was that some speculated on whether Colorado would be big enough to host two large American movies FestivalsSundance in January and also Telluride Film Festival in the fall. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem. In a statement exclusive to IndieWire, Telluride Film Festival welcomed Director Julie Huntsinger Sundance to Colorado and was excited to share the state with the festival.
“On behalf of Telluride Film Festival, we expand a warm and heartfelt welcome to the Sundance Film Festival when it begins its exciting new chapter in Boulder, Colorado. This transition is proof of Audien’s resilience and spirit, which continues to thrive and develop, and gives powerful and deep original stories to Audier far and wider. “Sundance has long been a lighthouse for innovative story and an important platform for new voices in cinema. We are pleased to see such a dynamic festival in a new home, where the creative energy from filmmakers and artists will undoubtedly flourish in light of Boulder’s fantastic landscapes and lively cultural society.
She continued: “We have always shared a deep admiration for the incredible work that Sundance has promoted over the years, and we look forward to seeing how this new chapter will inspire new collaborations and bring the audience closer to the art for cinema. To the film world.”
Another festival, a series party, which is also in Colorado, similarly welcomed the festival to its home state, even naming Sundance festival manager Eugene Hernandez for his ties to a series party.
“We are pleased to see the Sundance Film Festival make Colorado its new home! This trait not only raises our state’s creative landscape, but also strengthens the film community that we have been passionate about growing,” Servorsfest founder and CEO Randi Kleiner told Indiewire. “We founded Seriesfest 2015 for Champion Emerging Voices in Episodic Storytelling, which provides a platform for bold, versatile and innovative creators to be discovered, which is consistent with Sundance’s mission. Eugene has been an advisory board member in the series party since we launched, so this is a one, so this is one of this is one of this.
When Sundance conducted its search in the past year, which included 67 different cities that were submitted as part of the first request for information steps, the festival wanted to know about the city’s ethos, event ability, transport, hospitality, inclusion and accessibility, financial sustainability and host partner support. One of their most important questions was whether the city had at least six screening spaces in the vicinity and at least one of these places with a capacity of 1,300.
Boulder and the University of Colorado Boulder called home to filmmakers as Stan Brakhage and has a robust art scene, so it easily checked all these boxes and for many seemed as a safe choice for the industry.
“Sundance could have found ways to survive in Salt Lake City or reinvented its appeal in Cincinnati, but Boulder was always the safest choice,” said Eric Kohn, head of Southhampton Playhouse Theater and former Indifire employees in a statement. “It will not promote the industry’s Stalwarts – including some who have votes on the board – and it gives a sufficient degree of knowledge of keeping the brand intact. While it is fun to imagine a complete restart, this institution needs stability more than anything else right now. And there is still less vip than park city. than Park City. With places like the Brakhage Center, a Boulder Fixture as Celebrates experimental.
The locals also know that it is special. Ray Nutt, CEO of Denver-based Fathom events, life and does not work far from Boulder and said that many of the students and even industry people who have moved to Boulder tend not to leave. He also pointed out Sundance’s intention to make Pearl Street Mall a large central hub for the festival.
“Pearl Street Mall, it’s something no one else,” Nutt said. “There are restaurants, there are entertainment, there are street artists; people will have a wonderful experience and many memories. You will still get all the skiing and recreation. I can be biased because I live here, but it is a wonderful, wonderful place.”
Further reporting of Anne Thompson and Ben Travers.
