Let’s set the scene: On a brisk January day, CU Boulder’s campus is buzzing with excitement. Locals, students and tourists alike line up toe-to-toe with <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/11/12/filmmakers-connect-creativity-through-shared-roots/” title=”Filmmakers connect creativity through shared roots”>filmmakers and producers to catch the next indie screening, chatting about the snow-covered Flatirons views and industry gossip as they file into the theater and take their seats. Then the magic happens: The lights dim, voices hush and the regular world slips away.
This is the iconic Sundance Film Festival.
A Campus Glow-Up
Although this is the Festival’s first year in Boulder— it has taken place in Park City, Utah, since 1981— its local roots run deep. The iconic annual independent film showcase was the brainchild of the late actor and director Robert Redford (A&S ex’58, HonDoc Hum’87), who is also memorialized at The Sink on University Hill, where he worked as a janitorduring his time at CU Boulder.
Now, the origin story comes full circle. Starting on Jan. 21, 2027, roughly 85,000 festivalgoers are set to descend on the CU Boulder campus, navigating Macky Auditorium, the Roe Green Theatre, Muenzinger Auditorium and the Old Main Chapel theater. For 10 days, from sunup till the wee hours, attendees will walk, scooter, bus and catch rides to the university and beyond to watch films by up-and-comers, get a sneak peak at a celebrity or two or make their own industry connections.
“The arts have always been part of CU Boulder’s DNA, from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Grammy-winning musiciansto the museums and performances that fill our campus year-round,” Chancellor Justin Schwartz said. “With the Sundance Film Festival, we’re welcoming our next act — bringing one of the world’s most influential celebrations of independent film to Boulder, which creates new opportunities for our students, our campus and the broader community to learn, explore and imagine together.”
And for the first time, film enthusiasts will experience world premiere screenings on campus with astoundingly high-quality, immersive sound and visual detail in three campus film venues, thanks to cutting-edge updates.
Take Macky Auditorium: The campus’s magnificent Gothic centerpiece has been outfitted with a Dolby Live sound system for immersive, large-format cinema sound.
Kelly Sears, associate professor in the university’s Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts and director of The Brakhage Center for Media Arts, said CU Boulder is a perfect partner for the storied Festival.
“There are some incredible venues on the CU campus,” said Sears, whose own films screened at the Festivalfive times between 2009 and 2024. “I’m especially excited to see a screening in Macky Auditorium. Imagine 2,000 moviegoers watching a film there together.”
In addition, Sears said she believes the walkability on campus (and in Boulder in general) will make the 2027 Sundance Film Festival easier to navigate. Plus, CU has decades of experience staging major events, from football games under Coach Primeto rock concerts at Folsom Fieldto visits by dignitaries and sitting U.S. presidents.
Students Get First Festival Cut
When it comes to students, the Sundance Institute and CU Boulder have set forth a bold, collaborative vision.
As the Festival’s official university partner, a designation announced in August, CU Boulder is offering an array of exclusive opportunities to students, including discounted film tickets; panels featuring directors and film industry pros open only to students; an internship program; 40 academic engagement opportunities, including potential first-year courses and capstone projects; and guaranteed slots in the coveted Sundance Film Festival volunteer program.
To maximize the effectiveness of student engagement, a student advisory board is currently guiding the Festival on how best to engage students through panels and other types of programming. Some students have also had the opportunity to engage with Festival programmers who select the films to be shown out of thousands submitted each year — the same process that has brought acclaimed films such as Reservoir Dogs(1992), Memento (2000), Little Miss Sunshine(2006), Whiplash(2014) and Get Out(2017) to Festival audiences.
Student advisory board members also will serve as campus ambassadors to help their peers navigate the whirlwind as it unfolds in January.
Kate Yezzi(Engl, FilmSt’28), a 20-year-old junior with aspirations to work as a screenwriter or director, is one of the 39 student board members. For as long as she can remember, she’s been fascinated by the power of film and enamored by the visual connection between screen and viewer.
“I’ve always had a camera in my hand, trying to recreate that same magic ever since,” said Yezzi, a student ambassador for Give Us The F-ing Camera(GUT-C), a popular CU Boulder student group. “I have not attended the Sundance Film Festival before, yet I’m incredibly excited for the chance to attend this year and get involved through volunteering opportunities.”
Like the mission of GUT-C — lifting up underrepresented filmmakers’ voices — the Sundance Film Festival also aims to elevate independent filmmakers and showcase new and diverse points of view.
Erin Espelie, chair of the department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts, shares the goal of promoting independent voices in film and sees the Festival’s arrival on campus as a huge opportunity.
I’m especially excited to see a screening in Macky Auditorium. Imagine 2,000 movie-goers watching a film there together.
Espelie is working with Hope Saska, CU Boulder Art Museumdirector, Maya Livio (PhDIntMedArt’21), an assistant professor at American University in Washington D.C., and Shari Frilot, Sundance Film Festival programmer, on a moving-image arts exhibit that will run concurrently with the Festival.
“With this exhibit — ‘The Longest Traveling Shot in the History of the World’ — we’re looking to create a place for students, faculty and others in the community to engage with the history of the Sundance Film Festival and its ongoing mission to support artists who are working in the margins and outside of the industry, rather than seeking commercial distribution,” Espelie said.
Sustainability in the Spotlight
The partnership between the Sundance Festival and CU Boulder also taps into the campus’s world-class research enterprise with its focus on sustainability.
CU’s Masters of the Environmentstudents are working with the Sundance Institute to develop a framework that measures greenhouse gas emissions associated with the Festival, and advances sustainable event practices globally.
Amy Dunbar-Wallis(PhDEBio’25), program manager for sustainability initiatives in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, explained that the students are focused on engagement, transportation, waste and facilities. In the first year, one focus area will be the study of waste streams to calculate the waste diversion rate.
“Folks in Boulder are already familiar with reusables, like bring-your-own bags or bottles, and single-use reduction, like CU’s elimination of single-use plasticsin vending machines or no plastic bags from grocery stores,” said Dunbar-Wallis. “We hope that festivalgoers will want to adopt these practices in their cities, not just while in Boulder.”
The team — made up of four graduate students and one faculty advisor — is supported by a CU sustainability working group, which includes staff experts in zero waste, transportation, operations, buildings, education and communications.
“I was ecstatic to be selected as a member of this graduate student team,” said Kaila Hood (MEnv’27), who has worked on federal climate policy but is shifting her focus to urban resilience, adaptation and mitigationat the state and local levels. “This project is an amazing opportunity.”
CU Boulder is prioritizing sustainability efforts that can span the globe. Large-scale events like this help bring them to the masses.
“Our partnership with Sundance shows how sustainability can be woven directly into a major collaboration — and how that, in turn, helps us extend sustainability understanding and action directly into the student experience and the broader community,” said Andrew Mayock, CU Boulder’s vice chancellor for sustainability.
Building on a Rich Film History
While the arrival of the Sundance Film Festival is the current talk of the town, CU Boulder has a well-documented and colorful history in film.
Take the late Stan Brakhage, one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film and a distinguished professor at CU Boulder until 2002, or CU’s International Film Series, which has been screening arthouse films on campus since the 1940s.
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Take a chance on a film you may never have another chance to see.
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Take in the electric experience of a world premiere as it unfolds.
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Catch a film after the opening weekend when the crowds thin out.
— Kelly Sears, associate professor in the Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts and director of the Brakhage Center
Nick Houy (FilmSt’04), a New York-based film editor known for his work on Lady Bird(2017), Little Women(2019) andBarbie(2023), explained it was a rite of passage for generations of CU students to watch Brakhage’s 1963 film Mothlight.
Created without a camera, Brackhage made the roughly four-minute silent filmby pressing moth wings, flower petals and blades of grass between two strips of 16mm splicing tape. The film strips were then contact-printed to allow for cinematic projection. Brakhage reportedly got the idea for the film by watching moths fly into candle flames, apparently connecting the moth’s frantic act of self-destruction to his life as an artist.
“Mothlightblew my mind. You really have to see it projected, as it’s meant to be seen,” said Houy. “I’d say I felt as if I were sinking into it, completely lost and mesmerized in a way I had never felt before.”
Houy also has attended the Sundance Festival and worked for the International Film Series as a student.
“I remember Spike Lee and Godfrey Reggio visiting to talk, and of course Roger Ebert every year at his ‘Cinema Interruptus’ during the Conference on World Affairs,” Houy said. “I think CU Boulder has always had a rich connection with cinema of all kinds. I was not surprised to hear Boulder would be hosting Sundance.”
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Illustrations by Alex Eben Meyer
