Sundance Film Festival may ski away from its Park City, Utah home

Jordan Hoffman
·4 min read
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Big changes could be coming to the Sundance Film Festival, an incubator of (mostly) American independent film for decades, and the launchpad for Oscar-winning movies like “CODA,” “Manchester By The Sea,” “Whiplash,” “Winter’s Bone,” “The Usual Suspects” and many more. (The number of movies to debut at Sundance that were Oscar-nominated in some category or another is too long to list.) Long associated with the upscale ski resort of Park City, Utah, it looks like the annual event may be thinking of moving elsewhere.

The primary reason cited is that the event is simply “too big” for the small community. 

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The festival has opened itself up for bidding from hosts, eyeing 2027 as a potential new start date. As per Deadline, other locations can put forth their proposals now through May 1, and a second round will continue through late June. The evaluation will be based in part on “sustainability and inclusivity.” If all goes as planned, the new home for the festival will be unveiled at the end of next year’s event. There is talk of a movement within Park City to keep things as they are, or perhaps to maintain the resort community as a satellite venue with nearby Salt Lake City as the primary spot. (This would certainly save on cab fare for most out-of-town visitors.)

Though the image of Sundance, which became a cultural powerhouse in the early 1990s, is inexorably linked with images of our favorite stars photographed in snow boots and wool hats while taking a spin in a low-budget movie for credibility, the festival was not always held in the picturesque-though-oxygen-deprived mountain town. It began in Salt Lake City in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival, and one of the founders was Sterling Van Wagenen, a film producer who worked at Robert Redford’s company. (In 2019, he was convicted on child molestation charges.) 

In 1981, the US Film and Video Festival moved the roughly 45-minute drive up the mountain to Park City (it was director Sydney Pollack among others who made the suggestion that if fest-goers could also get in some quality skiing in, they’d be more likely to show up) and, in 1985, the festival was officially “presented” by Redford’s non-profit Sundance Institute. In 1991, it officially became the Sundance Film Festival, and, as many have joked over the years, if Redford and Paul Newman had swapped roles years ago, we’d all be slipping on the ice at Butchdance. 

While Park City has great skiing, as my Gentile friends have assured me, it is absolutely idiotic to hold a festival on the top of a mountain in January. And the 7,000 feet of elevation causes more headaches than the line for the opening night gala. 

While many love the luxury condos and unbookable high-end restaurant tables of Park City, many rank-and-file members of the press (i.e. me) would be thrilled to say good riddance to Park City. It’s got a few glamorous spots on Main Street (the Egyptian Theatre is nice) but the rest is an icy mess. The premieres are held in a suburban school auditorium, the press screenings are at a strip mall, everything is covered in slush, the shuttles are unreliable, the Ubers are insanely priced, and the only place to get a quick meal is at a supermarket. It’s a miracle I haven’t injured myself on the ice in the 11 times I’ve visited, though it hasn’t been for lack of trying. One time, exiting The Library venue (awful seats with no legroom) I began to skate away on black ice and bashed into a parked car, leaving a dent. (Sorry.) Another colleague fell on her back outside the Marriott and was nearly hit by a bus. If I never went back to Park City, it would be too soon (though the magpies that gather on trees there are quite lovely).

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