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Sundance Bids Farewell to Park City as Festival Prepares for Boulder Move
PARK CITY, Utah – Get ready for some bittersweet goodbyes, film fanatics! This year marks the final Sundance Film Festival to grace the charming, albeit sometimes-too-small, streets of Park City, Utah. After decades of nurturing independent cinema, the festival is packing its bags and heading to Boulder, Colorado, next year.
The move comes as the once-intimate event, founded by the late Robert Redford in the 1980s, has simply outgrown its cozy ski village home. Filmmakers like Gregg Araki, who’s premiering his 10th film, the buzzy comedy “I Want Your Sex,” at this year’s festival, can attest to the Main Street madness.
“I’ve been at Sundance where you’re late to your screening and you literally can’t drive down Main Street the traffic is so bad,” Araki quipped. “So you get out of your car and run.”
This year’s festival, which kicks off Thursday, holds a particularly poignant significance. It’s the first Sundance since Redford’s passing in September at 89, and organizers have planned a thoughtful mix of programming to honor his legacy and the festival’s rich history in Utah.
“There is a poignant aspect to this year because of the change that’s about to come,” said festival Director Eugene Hernandez, as his team busily transformed a Park City sporting goods store into a 500-seat theater. “We knew that it was going to be this culmination in Utah, and we wanted to acknowledge and celebrate that.”
Redford’s vision for Sundance was always about opening doors for aspiring filmmakers, a belief his daughter, Amy Redford, shared on NBC’s “TODAY” show. He saw the festival and its nonprofit Sundance Institute as a powerful platform to “change the world.” And change it he did, launching the early careers of cinematic heavyweights like Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Ryan Coogler, and Chloé Zhao.
The festival’s impact is undeniable, with over 85,000 attendees last year alone. This year, expect a star-studded tribute, including a gala launching an award in Redford’s name, a screening of his 1969 independent film “Downhill Racer,” and nostalgic reunion events for past festival favorites such as “Little Miss Sunshine,” “House Party,” and “Saw.”
While honoring its past, Sundance is also showcasing the future of film. The lineup includes exciting newcomers like singer-songwriter Charli XCX, who will premiere her A24 concert mockumentary “The Moment” and appears in two other films: Araki’s “I Want Your Sex” and “The Gallerist,” an art world satire starring Natalie Portman and Zach Galifianakis.
Olivia Wilde also returns as a director with her new film “The Invite,” featuring Seth Rogen. Other notable screenings include “Wicker” with Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, “Josephine” with Gemma Chan and Channing Tatum, and “The Weight” starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe.
Documentaries, a long-standing cornerstone of Sundance, will also take center stage, exploring the lives of influential figures like Salman Rushdie, Nelson Mandela, Courtney Love, Brittney Griner, Billie Jean King, and comedian Maria Bamford.
As the American film industry grapples with significant shifts, including the future of Warner Bros. Discovery and the rise of artificial intelligence, Sundance offers a crucial forum for discussion. With two documentaries on AI, “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” and “Ghost in the Machine,” and tech giants like Adobe and Luma AI present to engage filmmakers, AI is sure to be a hot topic.
Longtime festivalgoers believe Sundance is the ideal place to tackle these industry challenges. Ava DuVernay, a 2012 Sundance best director winner for “Middle of Nowhere” and a former board member, will be in Park City for a conversation with documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. “In this time when our industry feels like it’s collapsing onto itself, with corporatization, consolidation, AI, all the things that artists fear,” DuVernay stated, “there’s an opportunity for Sundance to be the place that plants a flag for independence.”
So, while we say a fond farewell to Sundance in Park City, the spirit of independent filmmaking and vital conversations will undoubtedly continue in its new Boulder home.