The Sundance Film Festival is getting on its horse and moving to Boulder.
After months of multimillion-dollar funding appeals from cities across the country, the nonprofit film festival board announced Thursday that the famed event will move from its longtime home in Park City, Utah, to Colorado beginning in 2027.
Boulder beat out a combined bid from Park City and Salt Lake City, as well as one from Cincinnati, which revealed earlier that it was no longer in the running.
The city is set to host the event from 2027 through 2036, according to Colorado film commissioner Donald Zuckerman, with a potential 86,000 and $132 million in economic activity, as Park City reported in 2024.
The news means that Hollywood will now turn its focus toward the Front Range, which should benefit financially in January and February, when the trend-setting festival is held, an otherwise sluggish time of year for hotels and restaurants here. Contrast that with the promise of hundreds of Hollywood elite in limousines, dozens of red carpets and worldwide media attention.
Sundance sees the heart of the festival as centered in downtown Boulder, according to a Thursday statement, “utilizing a wide array of theaters and venues, and incorporating spaces around the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street.”
“January is a traditionally slow time for tourism in Denver and Boulder, and (Boulder) has the capacity to serve the people that would participate,” Gov. Jared Polis has told The Denver Post, touting the mountain backdrop, hotel capacity and Denver International Airport — not to mention festival founder Robert Redford’s ties to the University of Colorado, having attended college there.
Polis and state legislators have been working since last year to shore up incentives for the event, with a potential $34 million state tax credit for Sundance. The incentives would be doled out over the next decade, or about $3 to $5 million per year. The revised bill — which would also leverage $500,000 annually to support “small or existing local film festivals entities,” as sponsors put it — is due on the State Senate floor Friday morning.
While most legislators have supported the drive, State Rep. Bob Marshall (R) of House District 43, called it a “taxpayer bribe” in a letter to The Denver Post.”
However, the decision reinforces Boulder as an international draw, with an attractive, walkable downtown, sophisticated cultural scene, and the capacity to host tens of thousands of visitors during Sundance’s annual event, boosters said.
“This decision was informed by a detailed evaluation of the key components essential to creating our Festival,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board Chair, 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.”
Boulder is “an art town, tech town, mountain town, and college town,” added Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO.
Choosing Boulder cements Colorado’s reputation as a global film destination, joining prestigious events such as the Telluride Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Boulder International Film Festival and Denver Film Festival, said Kathy and Robin Beeck, co-founders of the Boulder International Film Festival.
“We and Sundance both think there’s not only room for both festivals, but for collaboration,” Robin Beeck told The Denver Post this month, noting that she and Kathy met with Sundance officials last summer during Sundance’s fact-finding trip.
John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, which represents 1,300 businesses, has told The Denver Post he’s confident the city is ready for its close-up.
“… Boulder is accessible by an international airport,” he said. “We have incredibly convenient transportation, and all the amenities and theaters and services that you need are within walking distance of each other.”
Now that it’s decided, Sundance, state and local officials will spend the next two years shoring up theaters, meeting and party spaces, and lodging options in a remarkable cross-collaborative effort. It will include not only the state incentives but work from Boulder’s business boosters to meet Sundance’s high expectations for hosting, as well as the University of Colorado — where some events are expected to be held — and other Front Range film industry types.
Like the 2025 Sundance event, which ran Jan. 23-Feb. 2 in the resort town of Park City, Boulder’s will be programmed during the same time period.
“All three finalists were assessed on ethos and equity values, infrastructure, and capabilities to host the Festival, in addition to demonstrating ways in which they will continue to foster the diverse Sundance community and inspire the next generation of independent filmmakers,” according to a Sundance statement.