For nearly 50 years, the Sundance Film Festival has been showcasing excellence in independent filmmaking and crafting transformative experiences for filmmakers and audiences alike. This year, it finds a new home right here in Colorado.
After the festival was founded and held annually in Park City, Utah, festival leadership chose Boulder, Colorado, as its new host city. Director of the Sundance Film Festival Eugene Hernandez and Managing Director of Festival and Institute Operations Paula DuPré Pesmen joined FoxTalk alongside student journalists across the state in a press conference to discuss the future of the festival and what this relocation means for both the event and the state.
I hope people around our state know that they’re invited and welcome. We’re going to experience something we’ve never had here,” DuPré said. “This is a statewide event. This is for all of Colorado. I hope people find ways to spend some time and really be part of it.”
The festival will take place Jan. 21-31, with events spanning multiple venues across the city of Boulder.
Since its founding in 1978 by American actor and director Robert Redford, the Sundance Film Festival has evolved over the decades and built a rich history around independent cinema from across the globe.The committee behind the festival is reviewing nearly 15,000 submissions to create this year’s program. This year, the festival will feature more than 150 films spanning 13 different categories.
“We’re looking for needles in haystacks. We’re saying to artists around the world that Sundance remains a place of opportunity to bring new work,” Hernandez said.
Categories range from competitive to curated, all with the purpose of showcasing innovative films of the highest distinction. After creating an illustrious history in Utah, the festival is ready to start a new chapter here in Colorado. The decision to relocate was made to bring the festival into a new era while supporting its history and purpose.
“What moves with us is the vision, values, history and legacy of the Institute and the principles established by our founder, Robert Redford,” Hernandez said. “We carry that mission, those values and those principles wherever we go.”
The festival is not just honoring its own history; it is tapping into the history of its new home. Boulder is a city that has a significant cultural impact on the state as a whole, and the Sundance Institute is embracing it in its entirety.
“Sundance is tapping into that existing community of arts organizations, nonprofit organizations, the university population, students, music, technology and other creative work happening in Boulder,” Hernandez said.
Working alongside organizations, businesses and Boulder city officials, 2027 Sundance Festival leadership aims to reshape what festival attendance looks like for both in-state festival goers and travelers alike.
“The Festival was spread between three locations in the past. Now it’s all much more consolidated,” DuPré said. “…the venues are almost all within a walkable distance. I imagine it as scooping the whole festival into one location.”
The idea behind centralizing the festival stems from its one driving purpose: community.
“When Eugene and I first met, he talked about his vision for the festival around community and people leaving with a sense that they were part of something. That has really been the intention in what we’re building,” DuPré said. “All of the venues are places rooted in our community. They are places we go for film, arts, dance, music and theater. It feels authentic to how the festival has been shaping this footprint around the experience for people coming here and people who already live here.”
For residents, filmmakers, students, journalists, tourists and aspiring media professionals, the 2027 Sundance Film Festival presents a unique opportunity for learning and connection.
For more information about the festival, visit the Sundance Film Festival website.
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