Hanging over this 12 months’s Sundance Film Festival is the query of the place the occasion will transfer for the 2027 version. Sundance Institute officers are anticipated to make an announcement on their new host metropolis in early spring, selecting from the ultimate three prospects of Boulder, Colo., Cincinnati or a mixed Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.
However, the choice shakes, this 12 months marks the start of the tip for Sundance because it has been identified for greater than 40 years, as filmmakers stuffed with hope and an industrial starvation for one thing new heads to a distant ski city of mountain to find and be found.
The problem for the competition might be methods to meet the calls for of change whereas sustaining that sure indescribable one thing that makes the competition so particular.
“The Sundance Film Festival has been in a interval of evolution for five years, because the pandemic uprooted establishments and viewers habits in 2020,” competition director Eugene Hernandez stated through e mail. “Each 12 months felt particular, distinctive and singular and we’ll see that proceed to transition to a brand new dwelling in 2027.
“Whether the competition anchors in Boulder, Cincinnati or Salt Lake in 2027, Sundance might be Sundance wherever we go,” Hernandez added. “This 12 months might be particular within the wake of the latest tragedies in Los Angeles and as our group seems ahead, and I do know that subsequent 12 months’s competition, final 12 months’s HQ in Park City might be one to recollect. Not to be missed. “
The three finalists had been whittled down from six after Atlanta, Louisville, Ky. And Santa Fe, NM, had been dropped from the race.
Sundance might be Sundance wherever we go.
– Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Film Festival
According to a press launch when the three finalist cities had been introduced, the qualities considered embrace “Ethos and Equity Values, Infrastructure and Capabilities of internet hosting the competition, in addition to demonstrating the methods during which they may proceed to foster the varied group of Sundance and Inspire the subsequent era of unbiased filmmakers.”
While assuming an occasion as logistically difficult as Sundance might look like nothing greater than a headache, one can recognize why it could be thought-about of worth to those potential host cities when it comes to cultural status and income.
The Sundance Institute’s financial influence report for the 2024 competition said that greater than 141,000 tickets had been bought, which, mixed with on-line viewers, got here to a complete of greater than 361,000. The competition attracted 72,840 distinctive in-person attendees with roughly 24,200 coming from out of state. Those out-of-state guests spent about $106.4 million in Utah through the competition. And 1,730 jobs had been generated for Utah residents, contributing $69.7 million in wages and producing $13.8 million in state and native taxes.
Checking in with every metropolis’s bid representatives, listed below are some insights into Sundance’s doable future.
Boulder
Boulder, Colo., one of many cities vying to be the long run dwelling of the Sundance Film Festival, already hosts a world movie competition.
(Sundance Institute)
Home to the University of Colorado Boulder and the Boulder International Film Festival, the town has a vibrant arts group, with the third-highest focus {of professional} artists per capita within the nation, in keeping with the National Endowment for the Arts.
A Sundance in Boulder may characteristic the Art Deco Boulder Theater, initially opened in 1936, in addition to the Macky auditorium on the college’s campus and quite a few different venues in and across the metropolis. As for the place folks would keep, there are already loads of motels, with new development underway. Boulder can also be comparatively near Denver.
“I feel we carry to the desk an surroundings that’s most likely nearer to what the unique founders meant Sundance to be,” stated Bruce Borowsky, movie commissioner for Boulder County. “In different phrases, one thing near nature. Something that has the type of politics that enables folks to inform tales that may not be mainstream. We are very lucky to have a group right here that may be very progressive and accepting. And I feel these are two of the nice beliefs that Sundance is about. “
Boulder has an extended historical past of social actions and issued the primary same-sex marriage license granted within the United States in 1975.
“When we discuss politics,” Borowsky stated, “I really feel just like the politics of Boulder and usually the state of Colorado are way more in step with the politics that the founders of Sundance had in thoughts after they began the competition. Being inclusive can be the primary phrase I’d use.”
Borowsky acknowledged that, at the very least initially, there might be folks skeptical of a Sundance wherever however its longtime dwelling.
“I do know there are going to be some people who find themselves most likely going to be dissatisfied that he is leaving Park City,” Borowsky stated of the doable response had been Boulder to win his bid. “But I feel as soon as they arrive to Boulder, in the event that they’ve by no means been right here earlier than, they’re going to be extraordinarily excited to return to our metropolis.”
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City already hosts a number of Sundance Film Festival occasions.
(Sundance Institute)
Salt Lake City already hosts quite a few Sundance occasions through the competition. The metropolis has additionally been nominated to host the 2034 Winter Olympics, promising additional funding in native infrastructure.
Bringing collectively stakeholders from Salt Lake City, Park City, Salt Lake County, Summit County and the State of Utah, the mixed providing of Salt Lake City and Park City makes an attempt to capitalize on having already hosted the competition for greater than 40 years whereas Finding additionally methods to enhance the expertise.
“It was an unimaginable alternative to reimagine the way forward for what Sundance seems like right here,” stated Lindsey Nikola, deputy chief of employees to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. “There’s a whole lot of potential and we have been so impressed by what the years forward appear to be. We actually got here collectively to place collectively our greatest assets and all our greatest concepts to indicate Sundance how a lot they imply to us and the way a lot we would like them to remain. “
While some might even see Utah state politics, together with controversial restrictions on public loos for transgender folks, as being in battle with these married by Sundance, Nikola means that the competition can and has formed the state as a lot as the opposite method round.
“I feel one of many best powers of artwork is its potential to affect progress via new concepts,” Nikola stated. “But progress languishes in an echo chamber. We want the steadiness of concepts and progress that Sundance brings to Utah. One of the competition’s most necessary roles in our group is a showcase of expression. And the influence that 40 years of the competition has had on our tradition in Utah is simple. The tales that Sundance filmmakers share and discover are really significant to this state and its residents. “
Along with a “two cities, one expertise” idea for the mixed Salt Lake City/Park City providing is the “Main Street to Main Street” idea, connecting the 2 cities via frequent shuttles and highlighting how Salt Lake City may replicate Park City’s Main Street Fooprint walkable path.
The theater capital in downtown Salt Lake City can be a key location, as would its Eccles Theater (to not be confused with the Eccles Theater already utilized in Park City) and Abravanel Hall (dwelling of the Utah Symphony), Salt Lake’s Grand Theater Community College and a number of the native venues already utilized by the competition, such because the Rose Wagner Center.
“Sundance has grown exponentially from this smaller movie competition into what it’s right this moment, which is likely one of the largest movie festivals on the earth,” Nikola stated. “And, after all, as he grew, his wants grew. Maybe what occurred is that they regarded on the wants of the competition and thought, “Okay, let’s begin serious about how we are able to do a few of this.” And we’re joyful to be on the desk working with them to reimagine what it seems like proper right here. We know that this historical past of the competition right here in Utah is one in every of our best strengths, however linked to that’s the innovation we’re doing with this providing. “
Cincinnati
A view of Cincinnati, which has lengthy been an energetic movie manufacturing hub.
(Ben Wright / Film Cincinnati)
Choosing Cincinnati because the host metropolis would doubtless be essentially the most disruptive to the Sundance expertise as they now realize it. And an argument definitely may very well be made to do one thing fully new and totally different, with a change in local weather, topography and even time zone.
But that does not imply Ohio would not share something in widespread with Park City. Much of the Cincinnati competition expertise can be in a historic neighborhood often called Over-the-Rhine.
“You may think Cincinnati to be an enormous metropolis, however whenever you’re over-the-rhine, it may possibly really feel smaller and extra connective and shut like a Park metropolis,” stated Kristen Schlotman, president and CEO of the native nonprofit Cincinnati. Schlotman additionally famous how the retailers and eating places alongside Cincinnati’s run may very well be an analog for Park City’s Main Street expertise.
Cincinnati has been an energetic manufacturing hub for years, with movies like Todd Haynes’ “Carol,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino’s “The Bikeriders” and Jeff Nichols’ “The Mastermind.” space.
“When I learn in April Sundance was wanting externally for a brand new host metropolis, I instantly favored in my head, ‘God, Over-the-Rhine may very well be such an incredible dwelling for this,’” Schlotman stated. “And you could have a metropolis that has a thriving movie group however not a serious competition. It simply looks like what an incredible alternative to marry the 2.”
Among the venues that may very well be used for the competition are the historic Cincinnati Music Hall, the Emory Theater (presently beneath renovation), Memorial Hall, restored in 2016, and an area circuit of artwork homes.
Schlotman herself has been at Sundance on and off for almost 30 years and is aware of the way it works — and what may stand some enchancment, she thinks.
“If you have been to the competition, you know the way the mechanics work and the format and the constraints,” Schlotman stated. “Considering these issues, that is why I used to be excited to bid for Cincinnati, as a result of in case you participated and also you perceive it, then you may visualize and current what you suppose can be useful.”
As for the way native Ohio politics would align with these in Sundance, Schlotman was optimistic.
“I’ll let you know, even the governor sees the cultural significance of a competition like this transferring right here and what it does for the state of Ohio,” Schlotman stated. “Cincinnati is a blue metropolis and makes Ohio a purple state. The emphasis everybody positioned on the humanities was one of many issues that stored politics at bay. It’s simply one thing that we’re so happy with and one thing that we put money into as each a metropolis and a state. The politics of it or the priority of interference has by no means been a consider Cincinnati. “
