Sundance film festival moving to Boulder, Colorado

Sundance, the highly influential US film festival co-founded by Robert Redford, is moving to a new home in Colorado, organizers said Thursday.

For the past four decades, Sundance has been held each winter in Utah's Park City, launching the year's hottest independent movies in the swanky Rocky Mountain ski town amid freezing temperatures at an altitude of 7,000 feet (2,150 meters).

But as the festival has grown in scale and importance, many attendees have complained it has become prohibitively expensive to attend. Many locals also dread the annual influx of Hollywood bigwigs and the accompanying gridlock caused by fleets of luxury SUVs.

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Talks about a new destination have been ongoing for years, with more than 100 locations initially expressing interest in hosting Sundance. From a final shortlist of three candidates, Boulder in Colorado beat out rival bids from Utah's Salt Lake City and Ohio's Cincinnati.

Boulder, a small city of 100,000 people, a short drive from Colorado's sprawling state capital Denver, will host the Sundance Film Festival beginning in 2027.

"Boulder is an art town, tech town, mountain town, and college town. It is a place where the Festival can build and flourish," said Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO, in a statement.

"Change is inevitable," Redford said in the statement.

"This move will ensure that the Festival continues its work of risk taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences.

"I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the Festival there," he added.

Boulder had widely been viewed as the favorite from the final shortlist.

Unlike Salt Lake City, it is located in a liberal, Democratic state. And unlike Ohio, Colorado borders Utah and shares its dramatic mountain skylines.

Sundance is a key launching pad for the careers of many of the industry's leading filmmakers. Over the years, roughly 4,000 feature films have been presented in Park City.

These are mainly independent movies from upcoming directors, though over time the festival has drawn more Hollywood A-listers and studios too.

Beloved films that first launched at Sundance include Quentin Tarantino's debut movie "Reservoir Dogs," Jordan Peele's "Get Out" and Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash."

Other famous Sundance premieres have included Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" and "Before Sunrise," and Steven Soderbergh's debut "sex, lies and videotape."

This coming January's Sundance festival, due to take place January 22 to Feb 1, will be the final edition held in the original host city.