Sundance's new home is Boulder, Colorado

Having outgrown its original Park City, Utah home after over forty years, the Sundance Film Festival is moving to Boulder, Colorado from 2027.

After what it says was a thoughtful and thorough process to identify the future location of the Sundance Film Festival, today the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s Board of Trustees has announced that Boulder, Colorado, will become the Festival’s home beginning in 2027.

The Sundance Institute’s year-long process included a request for information on locations, RFPs, meetings and site visits of finalists. The process included a comprehensive evaluation of finalists’ infrastructure, ethos and equity values, event capabilities, and how each finalist could sustainably serve and support the Festival’s ever-growing community of independent artists and audiences. Each finalist demonstrated how they would welcome and continue to foster the diverse Festival community and culture of independent creativity. 

At the end of the process, Boulder has beaten out more than a few candidate cities to be the new home of the festival, including Cincinnati, Ohio, and long-standing front-runner, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

"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," the organisation said in a statement.

Together with the Boulder host committee, the Institute envisions the heart of the Festival will be centered in downtown Boulder utilizing a wide array of theaters and venues, and incorporating spaces around the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street. Nearby spaces will offer dedicated locations for our community to gather, including select spots on the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder campus.

“The Sundance Film Festival is a catalyst for innovation, creative expression, and the discovery of groundbreaking independent films that inspire and shape the future of storytelling. This process provided the opportunity to imagine how we design the Festival while staying true to our programming and mission. We extend our appreciation to the staff, artists, partners, volunteers, and audiences who have and continue to support that mission,” said Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO. “Boulder is an art town, tech town, mountain town, and college town. It is a place where the Festival can build and flourish. 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.”