The Sundance Institute has whittled down the list of cities vying to host the Sundance Film Festival to six, which will move into the next phase as the institute decides who will host the festival starting in 2027.
The finalists are:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Boulder, Colorado
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
As part of a thorough evaluation of each potential location, the Sundance Institute assessed each city’s infrastructure, ethos and equity values, event capabilities to host the Festival, and how each finalist could sustainably serve and support the ever-growing Sundance Film Festival community of independent artists and audiences. Each finalist was required to demonstrate how they would welcome and continue to foster the diverse Sundance community and culture of independent creativity that is an integral part of the Institute and Festival experience.
The Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah in 2025 and 2026. The location decision will apply to the Festival in 2027 and subsequent years.
According to the official release, members of the Sundance Institute selection committee will visit each of the finalist cities in the coming weeks to further explore the possibilities of hosting the Festival.
“For over 40 years, Sundance has supported, sustained, and helped shine an essential spotlight on independent filmmakers and their work. As we very carefully consider this important decision for our Festival, we believe these six finalists allow us the best opportunity to not only secure a sustainable future for our Festival, but also to build upon its legacy while continuing to support the next generation of storytellers and highlight bold new works of art,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board Chair, and Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO, in an official statement.”We are grateful to all the communities who have expressed interest and been a part of the process, and we have valued the opportunity to learn about the uniqueness of each location. We look forward to the site visits in each of the finalist cities.”
“Throughout this process, we engaged in thoughtful, lively, creative, and supportive conversations with Governors, Mayors, arts advocates, film commissioners, and other local leaders from locations across the country. We’ve been buoyed by the tremendous enthusiasm and submissions from cities around the country and deeply appreciate the energy that went into each proposal,” said Eugene Hernandez, Festival Director and Director of Public Programming, in a statement. “Getting to six finalists was a difficult decision. Each of these cities has a vibrant creative ecosystem, either expanding or established, and has enabled creativity to flourish in their cities through their support of the arts. These cities understand our ethos, are aligned with our key values, and have shown us interesting possibilities for partnership with our Festival — for our artists, audiences, and all who want to be a part of the Sundance Film Festival — and that makes us want to see more.”
The Institute will continue “to focus on completing a fair and comprehensive review of the six possible partners and will not be providing comments while the review process is taking place. Sundance Institute will provide more information once the location for the 2027 Festival has been selected,” according to the official release.
With the Festival’s current contract with Park City up for renewal starting in 2027, the RFP process is providing the Sundance Institute a responsible way to evaluate, consider, and build on its foundation of serving a growing global independent creative community.
A Sundance Film Festival potentially divorced from the snowy setting that the festival has made iconic, is an interesting proposition. It’ll be fascinating to see how the process shakes out and what city ends up with the celebrated festival.
