The Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday it’s officially moving to Boulder, Colorado after 40 years in Park 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 organization said in a statement.
The festival’s first year in its new home will be 2027 and held at venues around the city’s pedestrian-only Pearl Street Mall, as well as on the University of Colorado campus.
The festival first began in 1985 after Oscar winner Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute to promote independent film and “create the space for other voices in film to get their stories told and be seen.”
In announcing the change, Redford — who attended the University of Colorado for several semesters — said the move will “ensure that the festival continues its work of risk taking [and] supporting innovative storytellers,” while thanking the Boulder community for its support.
“Boulder is a tech town, it’s a college town, it’s an arts town, and it’s a mountain town,” Amanda Kelso, acting chief executive of the Sundance Institute, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “At 100,000 people, a larger town than Park City, it gives us the space to expand.”
The festival announced last year it was moving and whittled the list of finalists down to Boulder, Cincinnati and nearby Salt Lake City — with some showings still happening in Park City — before choosing the Colorado burg after months of rumors.
The local government offered the festival a $34 million tax credit to move.
