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Attendees of this year’s Sundance Film Festival will hear a common question as they wait in line, board the shuttle bus, or walk into the green room: “Will you go to the festival when it moves to Boulder?”
Butch Ward has been a regular at the Sundance Film Festival since the early ’90s, but like many longtime festivalgoers, they fell in love with their charming mountain hometown park cityhe says he won’t follow Sundance to its new set colorado next year.
The media professional from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, believes this is the last year for the festival in its true form “because Sundance Film Festival outside of Utah is no Sundance Film Festival at all.”
Many attendees who found their happy place at the Utah Music Festival felt the same way.
A group of women walked down the street on Saturday wearing yellow scarves that read “Our Last Sundance Film Festival 2026.” Another festival-goer with a film reel on his head held up a sign calling it “The Last Sundance.”
“It’s not just resistance to change,” said actor Suzie Taylor, who has been coming to Sundance on and off since 1997.robert redfordvision is rooted here. Isn’t it poetic that he passed before the last one? “
For Julie Nunis, the joy of Sundance is rooted in the tradition Redford created in Park City more than four decades ago. The Los Angeles-based actor has attended the festival nearly every year since 2001 and said she wouldn’t want to experience the event any other way.
Redford, who died in September at age 89, established film festivals and development programs for filmmakers in the Utah mountains as a haven for independent storytelling away from the pressures of Hollywood. Redford attended the University of Colorado before his death bouldersend blessings for the holiday relocation.
After a year-long competition between cities across the United States to host the nation’s premier independent film festival, Boulder emerged victorious. Sundance organizers decided to look for a new location because they said the festival had outgrown the ski town it was helping and had developed an atmosphere of exclusivity that distracted from the films.
Some film professionals and volunteers say they are willing to give the Boulder Film Festival a try but worry that Sundance could lose its identity outside of its longtime home.
Lauren Garcia, who has come to Sundance from Seattle for the past six years to volunteer, said curiosity may lead her to Boulder for a future festival. She described lingering sadness at the final Utah festival and wondered whether Redford’s death meant it was time for Sundance to close this chapter.
“How will the festival express itself and continue his legacy in new places? That’s a big question mark,” said anthropologist Garcia. “The truth is, with him gone, nothing will ever be the same again.”
Redford’s daughter, Amy Redford, a Sundance Institute board member, said she is excited about the transition, even though it will come with a steep learning curve.
Actor and filmmaker Nik Dodani, who is passionate about telling LGBTQ+ stories, said he was excited to experience the festival in a new state that embraced diversity, but he was concerned that leaving would create a “vacuum” for these stories in Utah.
Amy Redford promises that won’t be the case.
She said the most important part of her father’s legacy to him — the institute’s lab program for emerging screenwriters and directors — will remain in Utah, at the resort he founded, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Park City. Filmmakers will continue to “create the civil discourse that we really need in this state,” she said.
“Boulder, Colorado is going to be a new adventure. It feels like the beginning of our journey as we try to solve problems that will have important implications for what we do,” she told The Associated Press. “But the way we meet artists where they need to be, well, evolved from the heartbeat here in Utah.”
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For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival