Here at IndieWire HQ we take Sundance quite personally – after all, Many of the earliest seeds of this publication sown on and around the festival and one of our own beloved co -founders, Eugene Hernandez, Currently serving as Sundance Film Festival Director and Head of Public Programming.
So when Sundance announced in April 2024 That it was in the process of leaving their long home in Park City, Utah, it was difficult to imagine a greater story for IndieWire-Trophast. Since the festival has navigated months and months of knowing new possible homes, we have been to the front lines to track both Personal views and professional problemsAt the same time as we analyze our own feelings about where the festival can land.
Almost a year into that process we have finally received our answer: From 2027 the Sundance Film Festival will be based in Boulder, CO. For the Native American staff, this choice offered a chance to look forward and back, to consider what Sundance means now and can mean 2027 and thereafter.
“Sundance will be good and it will not be the same. It is a function, not a mistake: the chances of reinforcing at this level are rare,” said IndieWire’s editor-in-chief and SVP Dana Harris-Bridson. “Over the past 35 years, Sundance became mythical – a condition to be alternately rejoiced and annoyed its principals and in the end became unsustainable. Boulder provides an environment that is not radically different from its original home, but that physical restart is a simple opportunity for Sundance to change the story. Independence. filmAnd the culture around it has changed. You do not have to draw up efforts to represent that shift, but the festival’s historical romance also made it very difficult to change that course. “
She added, “With Boulder, Sundance has knowledge of a small town at high altitude, at lower prices. I hope the festival benefits from that comfort zone and puts its energies in exploring how this new chapter can represent the best of independent film as it is, not as it was.”
With Biz on the brain, our own publisher and SVP (and a Sundance participant for over two decades) James Israel, “After participating in the Sundance Film Festival every year since 2002, I am excited for this new chapter for Sundance. Boulder will be a nice new home to continue to celebrate the creative spirit partners in Colorado. ”
Chieffilm critic David Ehrlich, who I personally returned to Park City 2025 for the first time since the start of the Covid-19-Pandemic, was characteristic of his early time. “Sundance moves from Utah to Colorado, which is basically the same condition but with better politics. It is cold, people skis, there are direct flights from New York … Maybe the lower height will result in some more grounded premiere reactions, but other than that, I am not sure how moving will affect a festival that already experiences something of an identity crisis,” he “he.
He added, “I hope it is a blessing for the local economy (my feeling, and my hope, is that the people in Park City will show up unscathed), and I hope that the film industry shows up and revitalizes an event that can use a new spark, but my immediate feeling is that the sundance would be.
Editor of the big Anne Thompson (who first started attending the festival in 1987, only lacked a handful of editions in the meantime) was more effective. “Boulder is a strong choice for Sundance,” she told me. “It holds the western mountain’s ethos and landscapes and does not move into a red or purple city but rather a blue university city. There are ski resorts within driving distance for those who are looking for them! And it is near an airport NAV, Denver. Boulder retains some of the exotic, which would not have been true for the more prose salt or cinnati.
Our digital director Christian Blauveelt, constantly an example of cooler heads prevailing, offered a smooth assessment. “A colleague in the broader entertainment industry who has been in Sundance several times expressed me last year the danger to change the cornerstone of a brand’s identity,” he wrote to me. “He suggested look at the British monarchy – How much has its lust, its reputation, its impact, its status as an eternal fetish object diminished since the queen died in 2022? A lot. Sundance Had Not Chosen Another Cozy Western Town in the Mountains to Sub In for Park City. ”
In essence, he claimed, “Boulder is both a bold choice and a safe choice, which probably makes it the perfect choice. In fact, Sundance’s luster is already reduced – being infinitely expensive can do it. Boulder can polish it to shine back up to glittering fashion, without everyone feeling that they have to share with an armful gold.” “
Price editor Marcus Jones turned to others Festivals As inspiration for this next chapter. He Told Me, “As Meaningful as it was to get a chance to experience sundance in its original home of park city, utah, in think boulder is a move that provides so much opportunity. Attending Other festivals like scad savannah movie festival or virginia festiv Towns, I have Seen Filmmakers Be Much Keener on Engaging with the Audience Knowing That The Location Provides an Inherent Educational Lean to Q & AS, and Student’s Honestly Ask the best questions.
He added, “Given how the rest of the year the Sundance Institute is focused on its development programs for future filmmakers, is a focus on utilizing the next generation of Cinephiles is already part of the festival’s DNA. Hopefully, the part of the work that the festival is marked more, now that the price is probably lowered.
Our VP of Features strategy, Chris O’falt, beat the most thought -provoking tone and wondered how the relative magic in Park City will translate. “The excluded and specialty in that environment is crucial and is now needed more than ever,” he wrote me. “It is in the snowy, sunny, high -raised buzz that port guards of all stripes dream,” Can this movie find an audience? “Or” Is this a new talent I want to work with? “The Sundance audience who actively wants to see what is the next and rooting to see something special (why else make the trip?) Springs platform.”
He Continued, “What we don’t know Yet, is what boulder offer that assured sundance they can carve out a festival with that same Small-Town Sense you are Rubbing Shoulders with Tight-Knit Indie Movies Community, While Also AcCommode It would take 2027-28 just for that to get situated. We are going to have to have patient. But in Trust the People Who Built Sundance to have made that evaluation if they found the right mouncement and could beat the right business.
When it comes to me? If you have ever been exposed to my thoughts on Sundance, you know that they can be a little emotional. Sundance was the first city festival I ever participated in, way Back in 2010, before I even worked at IndieWire (I was a low freelancer at that time, I paid my own way and used my own PTO from my then day job; I do not regret a dollar or a day). It has always had an extremely special place in my heart, enough because I have made it for my company to go every year since 2010 (except, of course, for 2021 and 2022, when I enthusiastically participated from home). It is 14 years of my life spent on the ground in Park City, mathematics out to about 110 total days.
I know how to navigate Sundance, but since the years have cruised, it has become clear that even the hard well -known knowledge and affection could not mask reality, mostly it is too damn expensive and too damn little to accommodate the people, projects and ideas that it is intended to be. No indie could really afford the kind of Sundance trip that I personally funded in 2010. I know that from first.
In short: things have To change, and while a wholesale migration is about as much change as you can imagine, I have spent the past year and changed to adapt myself to this idea. I’m comfortable with that now.
Is Sundance more than a place? Is sundance really one Life view? And one that can move to another city? I hope so. I would like to think so. And then I will approach 2027 in Colorado with optimism. That’s what inspired this trait, right? The belief that Sundance can not only survive without being happy? Let’s see.
You can read more about the other two finalists who was in the mix to play home to Sundance here. 2026 Sundance Film Festival, The last edition to take place in Park City, UtahWill be developed January 22 – February 1, 2026.
