Sundance Film Festival is officially relocating to Boulder from Utah
Boulder beat out proposals from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky and Santa Fe
admin
The Sundance Film Festival is officially coming to Boulder.
The Sundance Institute announced Thursday that it had selected Boulder to host the famous 10-day film festival starting in 2027.
A slow-burn competition for the festival began in earnest last April, when the Sundance Institute, which owns the festival and runs a dozen workshops for filmmakers, put out a request for information. Boulder responded, and submitted a formal proposal in June.
Boulder’s request included a one-time, $1.5 million grant, $250,000 from the Colorado Office of Film, TV and Media over five years, and one-time contributions of $50,000 from the Colorado Tourism Office and $25,000 from Colorado Creative Industries.
House Bill 1005, which is still being considered by lawmakers, would add $34 million in tax incentives to the large pile of grants.
In comparison, Utah allocated somewhere between $1.3 million and $2 million per year to keep the festival in Park City.
Boulder beat out proposals from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, and Santa Fe, and a combined proposal from Park City and Salt Lake City to start hosting the festival in 2027.
“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,” Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute’s acting CEO, said in an emailed statement. “This is the beginning of a bold, new journey as we invite everyone to be part of our community and to be entertained and inspired. We can’t imagine a better fit than Boulder.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
