Boulder is one of the final three cities in the running to host the Sundance Film Festival starting in 2027.
The Sundance Institute in July identified Boulder as one of six potential hosts for the 10-day festival that could bring as many as 50,000 visitors spending as much as $50 million a year from 2027 through 2036. A coalition of Boulder champions — including Visit Boulder, the University of Colorado and the yet-to-be-built StanleyFilm Center at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park — secured a $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Economic Development Commission in June to help woo festival organizers.
On Thursday, the Sundance Institute selected three finalists for the final phase of review: Boulder, Cincinnati and a joint bid from the festival’s 39-year host Park City and Salt Lake City in Utah.
“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,” reads a statement from the Sundance Institute, which expects to announce its host decision by next spring.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement on Thursday that Boulder “is the next natural home for the Sundance Film Festival.”
“Here in Colorado we cherish our creative communities, the jobs they create, and the economic contributions they make to our entire state, and the Sundance Film Festival would perfectly complement the work and creative activity already happening here in Colorado,” Polis said in the statement.
Applications from Atlanta, Louisville, Kentucky, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, did not advance to the final review.
The Sundance Film Festival was first held in Park City in 1985 and has since grown into one of the world’s premier film festivals. But the 10-day festival in late January has crowded Park City, which is home to the largest ski area in the U.S. The festival sold 138,050 tickets to 86,824 attendees in 2023, with events spread between Park City and Salt Lake City. About 21,400 of those attendees were from out of state and spent $97 million, according to a 2023 economic impact report.
Park City businesses have been grumbling about the festival crowds for the last few years as movie-watching attendees squeeze out skiers. And festival goers have groused about the costs of an event in a ski town in the height of winter.
Earlier this summer the Sundance Institute hosted roughly 120 participants at its Directors Lab at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
One of the filmmakers who attended the lab plans is producing a movie with scenes filmed in the San Luis Valley, Montezuma County and eastern Colorado. The filmmaker plans to spend $839,000 in Colorado, including $410,000 in payroll and $429,000 with local vendors. The Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media helped the filmmaker secure a tax credit of $185,000 for the project, which will be filming in October and November.
Those tax incentives are designed to entice film crews to Colorado but the state is losing ground in the national fight to land movie-makers. The hope is that landing the Sundance Film Festival will help lure more film production to the state. Polis in June signed legislation that expands funding for film, television and commercial productions in the state. But the $5 million a year in refundable tax credits from Colorado pales in comparison to massive incentives dangled by neighboring states.
“It’s been unfortunate to watch over the years other states like New Mexico, Georgia and several other states develop incentives and really work hard to entice the film industry to come shoot in their states while Colorado has done very little,” said Kent Harvey, a 30-year cinematographer based in Denver who goes to New Mexico and Georgia to work on big-budget Hollywood films like “Logan” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
When Harvey tells high-profile actors and producers that he lives in Colorado, they always ask him, “Why don’t we make these films in Colorado? I would much rather be doing this in Colorado,” he said in an interview with The Sun in July. “We could actually enjoy our time off in the mountains and be able to get back to L.A. in less time.”
Harvey said he is frustrated to see tax incentives and credits given to other industries that do not accurately reflect Colorado. He points to the Colorado Economic Development Commission’s approval in July of $4.6 million in tax incentives for tobacco company Philip Morris International to open a $600 million facility in Aurora that makes nicotine pouches.
“Is this in the best interest of Coloradans and especially our youth?” Harvey said. “Let’s bring an industry that will employ thousands of film crew members, generate billions in tax revenue dollars just as Georgia and New Mexico have done over the last several years and help continue to drive tourism to the state.”