The Sundance Movie Competition is packing up after over 40 years in Park Metropolis, Utah, however sticking to the mountains. The enduring occasion shall be transferring only one state over to Boulder, Colorado for the 2027 competition and past. The 2026 competition will nonetheless happen in Park Metropolis.
The choice adopted an intensive seek for a brand new location that started in 2024, with the candidate cities finally narrowed all the way down to Cincinnati, Ohio, Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, and Boulder. In response to the official launch from the competition, “the Institute envisions the guts of the Competition centered in downtown Boulder using a big selection of theaters and venues, and incorporating areas across the Pearl Avenue Mall, a pedestrian-only avenue. Close by areas will supply devoted places for our neighborhood to collect, together with choose spots on the College of Colorado (CU) Boulder campus. The majestic Rocky Mountains will body the horizon for competition goers.”
The explanations for the shift are many, however maybe finest encapsulated by this insider remark reported by Deadline in April 2024: “One thing needed to change, the competition is outgrowing Park Metropolis, the stretch marks are displaying. The established order wanted a kick and a restart, and that is the easiest way to do it, even when it places a couple of individuals’s noses out of joint.”
Associated Video
Competition founder Robert Redford mentioned in a press release that “I based the Sundance Institute with a dedication to discovering and growing unbiased artists, with the Sundance Movie Competition serving because the platform for tales to assist broaden audiences and broaden the panorama. That mission stays much more essential right this moment and can proceed to be our core precept. Phrases can’t specific the honest gratitude I’ve for Park Metropolis, the state of Utah, and all these within the Utah neighborhood which have helped to construct the group. What we’ve created is remarkably particular and defining. As change is inevitable, we should all the time evolve and develop, which has been on the core of our survival. This transfer will be sure that the Competition continues its work of threat taking, supporting revolutionary storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences. I’m grateful to the Boulder neighborhood for its assist, and I look ahead to seeing what the long run holds for the Competition there.”
Whereas it is a seismic change for the competition, Sundance itself has developed dramatically through the years from its indie roots, changing into a possible launching pad for Oscar-winning movies like CODA and A Actual Ache in recent times in addition to a multi-million-dollar movie market. One factor that doubtless gained’t change, even when the placement does: It stays one of the prestigious alternatives for unbiased filmmakers to get their work seen by the world.
For extra, take a look at Consequence‘s assessment roundup of all the flicks we noticed in the course of the 2025 competition. The 2026 version will run from January twenty second to February 1st, 2026 in Park Metropolis.