Weeks after the Sundance Movie Pageant introduced that’s was opening up exploratory conversations about leaving its longtime dwelling of Park Metropolis, the Slamdance Movie Pageant has introduced that its 2025 fest won’t be going down within the Utah resort city.
Subsequent 12 months’s Slamdance — the extra indie cousin of Sundance — will happen in Los Angeles, from Feb. 20 to 26. “The competition goals to be financially accessible,” mentioned as we speak’s announcement, addressing an oft cited concern that the competition’s Park Metropolis location has too excessive of a worth level for the indie filmmaking neighborhood.
The fest will happen in venues in and surrounding Hollywood, together with the Landmark Theatres and the DGA Theater Advanced, with in-person passes beginning at $50.00 and lots of applications free to the general public. Panasonic LUMIX would be the official sponsor of the 2025 fest; extra trade companions embrace the DGA, Landmark Theatres, and Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO.
“Our journey within the movie trade started at Slamdance, and our dedication to the competition and the alternatives it gives filmmakers has remained unwavering,” mentioned the Russos, who famously parlayed early work in indie filmmaking and comedic tv right into a directing profession within the highest echelons of the studio system. “Over time, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with quite a few filmmakers via our fellowship program and varied initiatives at our studio. We stay up for witnessing the continued development and influence of Slamdance in its new dwelling.”
Movie festivals have had a tough time taking root in Los Angeles regardless of being the middle of the leisure trade. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass endorsed the Slamdance transfer, saying, “To know the historical past and panorama of unbiased storytelling is to know that Los Angeles has at all times been a house and a supply of inspiration for artists, because the artistic capital of the world. As we welcome filmmakers, artists, and cinema fanatics from all over the world, the Slamdance Movie Pageant will function a dynamic hub for creativity, connection, and job alternatives for Angelenos.”
Slamdance has been held in Park Metropolis since its founding in 1995. Lately, however particularly because the return to town because the pandemic, each contributors and attendees of Sundance and Slamdance have complained about affordability, from journey to the restricted lodging on the resort mountain city.
“Constructing upon our success in Utah, we’ll develop the competition with better accessibility in Los Angeles and proceed our work in launching new movies, new careers, and new concepts in filmmaking”, mentioned Slamdance President and founder Peter Baxter.
For its half, Sundance can be held in Park Metropolis via 2026. In April, the Sundance Institute introduced it has launched a course of to discover potential host cities for Sundance in 2027 and past. A last location is predicted to be introduced by 12 months’s finish or through the first quarter of 2025.
“We’re in a singular second for our competition and our international movie neighborhood, and with the contract up for renewal, this exploration permits us to responsibly take into account how we finest proceed sustainably serving our neighborhood whereas sustaining the essence of the competition expertise,” provided Sundance fest director Eugene Hernandez on the time.