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 for 10 years beginning 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.
More than 100 locations showed interest in hosting the festival, according to Sundance. By July the list was narrowed to six.
Boulder beat out proposals from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Santa Fe, Louisville, Kentucky and a combined proposal from Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah.
“We began this process with an open mind, only driven by our mission of serving artists, the independent film community and engaging audiences,” Ebs Burnough, board chair of the Sundance Institute, said Thursday at a news conference outside the Boulder Theater. Across the street there was an active film set on the lawn of the Boulder County Courthouse. “But there was something about Boulder.”
That “something” 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.
The Sundance committee took multiple trips to Boulder last year to evaluate theater availability, accommodations, public safety, event venues and transportation, among other things, according to John Tayer, CEO of the Boulder Chamber.
“The competitors were awesome. I’m sure they would have done a great job,” Colorado Film Commissioner Donald Zuckerman said. “But we will do a better job.”
The festival will be anchored in downtown Boulder and films will be screened in theaters and venues around the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. Venues at the University of Colorado and the Dairy Center are also being discussed.
It’s the vibe
There were also qualitative elements about Boulder that Sundance officials repeatedly nodded to — things like its “open-mindedness” and “natural spaces that promote free thinking,” Amanda Kelso, CEO of Sundance Institute, said during the news conference.
The festival was founded by Robert Redford in Salt Lake City in 1978, as a yearly gathering where celebrities, artists and dedicated moviegoers gathered to watch independent films ahead of awards season.
Redford, who attended CU in the 1950s and received an honorary degree in 1988, supported the move to Boulder. In an emailed statement, the acclaimed actor and director expressed his gratitude for Salt Lake City, and for Park City, which hosted the festival for almost 50 years.
“As change is inevitable, we must always evolve and grow, which has been at the core of our survival,” Redford said. “This move will ensure that the Festival continues its work of risk-taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences.”
Recent reports by KPCW, an NPR affiliate in Park City, suggested that Sundance insiders have been upset by legislation passed by Utah’s state legislature, including bills that ban pride flags in school and on government property.
In March, Utah state Sen. Daniel McCay posted on X that Sundance should leave the state because it promotes porn, alternative lifestyles and anti-(Latter Day Saints) themes.
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In a statement after the move was announced, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the state put together a competitive package hoping to convince Sundance to stay. “Ultimately, this decision is theirs to make, but I believe it’s a mistake and that, one day, they’ll realize they left behind not just a place, but their heritage.”
At Thursday’s news conference, Polis focused on what Boulder has to offer the festival.
“Sundance Film Festival is a place for storytelling, and that means that people of different persuasions and ideas can all feel comfortable about telling their stories. Whatever their ideologies are, whatever their values are,” Polis said. “There are so many stories to be told and so many perspectives, and I think part of what won the day for Boulder and for Colorado is that people feel comfortable telling those stories.”
Colorado goes all in
Colorado has been vying for the festival for years.
In 2023 the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park landed the Sundance Institute Director’s Lab, an invitation-only program where screenwriters and directors hash out their big ideas — digging into scripts, rehearsing, shooting and editing scenes.
At the time, officials were tight-lipped about whether this was a way to lure the film festival to the Rockies from the Wasatch. But the speculation gained traction when then-Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente said on a podcast that there are challenges with hosting more than 100,000 visitors at the festival in a busy ski town in January.
January in Boulder, on the other hand, is a time of relatively low occupancy and visitorship, according to the Colorado Tourism Office. The festival is projected to bring around 40,000 to 50,000 visitors to the Front Range.
The tax incentive bill in the legislature creates a new tax credit “only if at least one qualified film festival with a multi-decade operating history and a verifiable track record of attracting 100,000 or more in-person ticket sales and over 10,000 out-of-state and international attendees (global film festival) commences the relocation of the festival to Colorado by January 1, 2026.”
Few other film festivals qualify, and none besides Sundance were eyeing a new home in Colorado.
A homegrown Hollywood
Colorado has spent the past few years building up a film industry that can compete with neighboring states. And that’s exactly what Hollywood wants.
Tax incentives changed the way that movie and TV productions picked out their filming locations beginning in 2002, when Louisiana ramped up its credit program and started pulling in movie productions from the East and West coasts. That comparative — and competitive — angle has been used by the film industry to pit nearby states against one another: Texas versus Oklahoma, New York versus New Jersey, Utah versus Colorado.
The idea is that movies and TV shows require a lot of people, and people spend money on places to stay, to eat, to shop. Locals might be contracted for construction or catering. Aspiring filmmakers can rub shoulders with industry elite. In short, it’s an industry known for creating new worlds — and that potential extends beyond the set.
Last year — around the same time that Boulder submitted its Sundance proposal — the state expanded its tax incentive credit for film, TV and commercial productions to $5 million per year for four years to try to lure more filmmakers to work in Colorado.
Though the incentive is nowhere near the $118 million New Mexico expects to pay out this year in tax incentives, the boost to Colorado’s program makes the state competitive with Wyoming and Utah. 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.
While film tax incentives are different from the millions that an annual festival stands to generate — especially one with, say, a multi-decade operating history and a verifiable track record of attracting over 10,000 out-of-state and international attendees — the underlying economic idea is the same: attract a bunch of people to spend a bunch of money.
And they will.
To the tune of $13.8 million in state and local tax revenue and $69.7 million in local wages annually, according to the Sundance Institute’s 2024 economic impact report. The report also estimated that money spent directly by attendees came in around $138 million. Out-of-state visitors, about one-third of the festival attendees, spent an average of $735 per day.
“Today’s announcement is a tremendous win for Colorado small businesses. We welcome the Sundance Film Festival making its new home in Boulder,” said state Sen. Mark Baisley in an emailed statement. Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, co-sponsored the Sundance tax incentive bill. “This will boost sales at restaurants, retailers and other small businesses throughout the region that rely on tourism, bringing much needed revenue to Colorado communities during a quiet time of year.”
Tayer, from the Boulder Chamber, said now the real work begins.
“We’re at this spot now of like, OK, that was a lot of work and it’s great to celebrate,” Tayer said. “And now it’s like, oh gosh, we’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m confident we can do it.”