EXCLUSIVE: Like an applause crammed debut at Park Metropolis’s Eccles Theatre, the Sundance Movie Pageant’s potential transfer in 2027 to a brand new location is attracting lots of massive bidders, in addition to a big swing from the hometown crowd.
San Francisco, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, and Atlanta, the house of Hollywood South, are among the many jurisdictions which have notified SFF organizers they’re elevating their paddles for an opportunity to have the competition primarily based of their city. Chicago has additionally allegedly made a transfer to carry Sundance to the already movie competition wealthy Windy Metropolis, I hear. A few places in Upstate New York are in play too.
Final 12 months, with Santa Fe champing on the bit, Deadline solely reported that Sundance was contemplating a transfer as its present over a decade outdated contract with Park Metropolis winds down. Bursting with infrastructure, manufacturing, tax incentives, accommodations and screens, the capital of the more and more purple Peach State could possibly be the one to beat at this very early stage, insiders inform me.
Having mentioned that, with Sundance nonetheless in Park Metropolis subsequent 12 months and in 2026, there’s lots of street to go but earlier than any last choices are made.
On Wednesday the deadline expired on the Robert Redford-founded gathering’s April 17 introduced Request for Data submission interval. A flurry of functions got here in just below the wire, I’m instructed, which is fairly commonplace in conditions like this. The subsequent stage will see a Sundance Institute process pressure, together with founder scion and board member Amy Redford, over the subsequent few days carve up the RFI candidates into the intense gamers.
As soon as that core group of contenders is established and notified, Sundance will open up a Request for Proposal course of that may from Could 7-June 21. That complete endeavor will see Sundance leaders drilling into the numbers and touring the potential host candidates, with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability, earlier than choosing a winner later this 12 months.
The brand new house of the Sundance Movie Pageant, which has been in Utah because the early Eighties, is prone to be unveiled on the finish of the 2025 shindig subsequent January.
Or not.
Regardless of the metropolis’ aiming to get their identify within the hat and Slamdance’s current revelation that they’re shifting to LA subsequent 12 months, Park Metropolis isn’t ready to bid adieu to the competition that introduced tens of hundreds of holiday makers, over $118 million to the state’s economic system, and the world’s media to Utah in 2023.
“The Sundance Movie Pageant ought to stay in Utah,” Park Metropolis Mayor Nann Worel instructed Deadline this morning.
““We have now an skilled, modern, and unified staff in place to make sure this occurs,” the primary girl chief government of the more and more expensive and seven,000 ft above sea degree resort city added. “Park Metropolis isn’t alone on this course of. Our regional partnerships are robust, and we’re dedicated to a renewed, forward-looking effort to re-imagine the competition collectively. Ultimately, we imagine our 40 years of expertise and powerful partnerships shall be key to our success and we thank the Sundance Institute for this chance.”
Trustworthy in regards to the progress points that each the municipality and the competition have skilled previously decade and the grumbling of some locals in regards to the PiBs (Folks in Black) who trudge up and down Predominant Road each January, snowy Park Metropolis is taking a look at “an aggressive package deal” to place forth to Sundance to make sure the competition stays the place it’s, a neighborhood supply says.
To that finish, a part of the re-imagining entails increasing Sundance’s footprint within the Beehive State, actually and figuratively.
With 40 years of demonstrated success internet hosting the Sundance Movie Pageant, we really perceive the competition’s distinctive wants and challenges,” Utah Movie Fee Director, Virginia Pearce mentioned Thursday to Deadline. “We have now coordinated a response to the RFI with Park Metropolis and Salt Lake Metropolis. Sundance is necessary to key companions all around the state, and we are going to proceed to work collectively to collaborate on the RFP and reimagine the way forward for this competition in Utah. We’re excited in regards to the future and are dedicated to creating the competition extra accessible for artists, workers, volunteers, and audiences.”
Acknowledging the rocky path out of the pandemic that Sundance has had and the general shifts to streaming and tentpoles within the business and the competition itself, that Made in Utah collaboration might see a proposal to pivot in the direction of SLC. “There’s a brand-new airport, monetary flexibility, venues and a historical past in Salt Lake,” a insider states. “This may permit Sundance to each keep in Park Metropolis and develop in Salt Lake.”
As for Sundance themselves …it’s radio silence, in the meanwhile.
Specializing in “finishing a good and complete assessment of all potential companions” by the RFI and RFP processes, a Sundance Institute spokesperson mentioned they “won’t be commenting in any respect on curiosity expressed or communities that submitted requests for data or people who bid.”
Beginning labs in Chicago, Santa Fe and elsewhere over the subsequent few months, Sundance will see its subsequent full-on competition run from January 23 to February 2, 2025, in Park Metropolis and SLC.