A one-time grant of $1.5 million was delivered to a coalition in Boulder working to bring the Sundance Film Festival to the city for 10 years beginning in 2027.
Sundance Film Festival has been hosted in Park City, Utah, since 1985, but in recent years locals and festival goers alike have been grumbling about the cost and accessibility of visiting a high-end mountain town in the middle of winter.
In April, the Sundance Institute began considering a new home for the world renown festival beginning in 2027. Boulder responded to a request for information in May and was invited to submit a host-city proposal.
The city submitted its proposal on Thursday, on behalf of the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Boulder) and a regional coalition of partners, including the City of Boulder, the Boulder Chamber, the University of Colorado Boulder and the Stanley Film Center.
Late last year, Colorado put up $300,000 to lure the Sundance Institute Directors Lab to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park for two years, with $200,000 from the state Strategic Fund, $50,000 from the Colorado Tourism Office and $50,000 from the state’s film office.
At the time, the Colorado film office declined to comment on whether this move was part of a broader strategy to lure Sundance to Colorado, but the potential impact of hosting the festival was not lost on the state or its film champions. The film office noted that they hope the lab’s successful first year in Colorado will also act as an incentive for the Institute to continue its relationship with the state.
The request submitted Thursday included a one-time, $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Economic Development Commission that will come from the Strategic Fund Reserve.
The Economic Development Commission receives an annual $5 million allocation to their strategic fund from the state’s general fund. Within the strategic fund, the commission has built up a strategic reserve, which enables them to quickly tap into big sums of money for “transformative” projects like bringing Sundance to Colorado, according to Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The fund was last tapped in 2021 to help CDOT secure the Burnham Yard property.
An additional $250,000 will be contributed by 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 were also added to Boulder’s proposal.
The money is part of the incentive package to convince Sundance to move to Colorado. In comparison, Utah allocates somewhere between $1.3 million and $2 million per year to keep the festival in Park City. Lieberman said they do not know how many cities Boulder is competing with for the festival. “What we’re really stressing is a strong cultural fit between mountain destinations. The evolution from Park City to Boulder is a logical one,” Gov. Jared Polis said in an interview. “We have greater capacity in Boulder with the beautiful backdrop of the Flatirons, we have historical ties with the Redford family — Robert Redford attended CU — and we have a partnership with the University of Colorado.”
Commissioners at the meeting were assured that matching funds are also available from “an ever-growing list of philanthropic contributions, as well as substantial in-kind commitments from a number of different entities.” However, details about the matching funds were not disclosed.
At an Economic Development Commission meeting Thursday morning, Donald Zuckerman, head of the Colorado film office, noted that they expect $5 million in annual net sales tax revenue should the festival land in Boulder. It is also projected to bring around 40,000 to 50,000 visitors to the Front Range in the middle of January, a time of relatively low occupancy and visitorship, according to the Colorado Tourism Office.
CTO estimated spillover benefits of $30 million to $50 million annually, as festival goers extend their trips to visit the mountains, Colorado Springs, Loveland and Estes Park. The Office of Economic Development and International Trade said that number is closer to $100 million, based on Utah’s economic activity.
The bid for a bigger film industry
Recently the state has been pushing to attract more movie-industry activity. In May, Polis signed a tax incentive credit for film and TV productions. House Bill 1358 lengthened the amount of time that an existing $5 million annual tax credit is available to four years from one, with the hope of securing more episodic series and bigger movies, and building a stable film infrastructure in the state.
It also got rid of a stipulation that made the money contingent on a $50 million state budget surplus. The bill was a follow-up to a $5 million tax credit offered in 2023, a meager chunk of what was recommended by the 2022 Film Incentive Task Force of $15 million for five years.
Colorado doesn’t offer anything close to New Mexico’s $110 million in tax incentive payouts, but the expansion makes the state competitive with other neighboring states, including Wyoming and Utah. It’s worth noting that all four states currently host some part of the Sundance Institute’s expansive programming — with the Directors Lab in Estes Park, the Native Lab in New Mexico, the Producers Lab in Wyoming and, of course, the festival in Park City.
The state is also deeply involved in a new nonprofit film center housed at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. In 2015 the center was awarded $46 million in sales tax rebate incentives for 30 years through the Regional Tourism Act.
In January, Polis and his film office announced that Blumhouse, the producer of horror movies like “Halloween,” “Paranormal Activity” and “Get Out,” will curate 10,000 feet of exhibit space at the new center.
Originally the Stanley Film Center was part of a complex deal between the Grand Heritage Hotel Group, which bought the Stanley out of bankruptcy in the 1990s and operates the hotel, the Arizona-based Community Finance Corp., and the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority. When the deal with the Arizona group did not materialize, CECFA stepped in with the plan to acquire the hotel, which required legislation to adjust its mission and allow the purchase and management of a property. In May the governor signed the legislation that makes it easier for the CECFA to own and manage the film center and hotel.