Cincinnati is in the running to be the new home of the Sundance Film Festival. The world famous event might leave Park City, Utah, and is searching for a possible replacement. Louisville, Atlanta, Santa Fe, and Boulder Colo., are also contenders. The current contract with Park City expires at the end of 2026, and the film festival could renew it, or choose someplace else for 2027 and beyond.
Film Cincinnati President and CEO Kristen Schlotman says once it was announced Sundance was looking at other cities, they started working on an application.
She says Cincinnati has what is necessary, including enough screens and spaces. "You don't get through the rounds if you don't have enough spaces to provide for capacity. Those things are things they ask in the very initial rounds, so you have to identify those things up front," she says. "If you've ever been to Sundance you'd know that they will purpose any size theaters. Stage theaters, event spaces. So it's not necessarily a traditional movie theater, but where you can screen movies."
Schlotman says beyond space, the city should look attractive to the judges.
"Much like Sundance's thematic elements are leaning into supporting the individual artist, we've been doing that here forever. One example is we have the largest entity for fundraising for the arts of anywhere in the country. We believe that that speaks to them," she says. "We've been making movies for a long time, but that's certainly been burgeoning lately. We feel like it's the just the perfect time and perfect marriage for both."
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The festival is world renowned for presenting a stage for independent filmmakers, attracting thousands of people to Park City every January. The Sundance Institute was founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Redford shot one of his last movies in the Cincinnati area, in 2018: "The Old Man and the Gun."
Schlotman isn't sure that gives Cincinnati a leg up on the competition. "I think he's shot in many cities and states, and I'm not sure that that has anything to do with it," she says. "But what an honor for us, to say that his last film was in Cincinnati."
Members of the Institute will visit each of the finalist cities in the coming weeks to see what each has to offer.
