End Of An Indie Era? Sundance Could Leave Park City As Festival Opens Bids For New Location; Utah Resort Town Vows Fight To Keep It
17.04.2024 - 19:45
/ deadline.com
After nearly 40 years in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival may be pulling up stakes.
With its current contract expiring after the 2026 festival, organizers of the iconic Robert Redford-founded indie film shindig in the Utah mountain town said Wednesday that they have opened a bid process for a possible move to a new city. As Deadline exclusively reported last summer, Sundance has quietly been considering a change for a while.
At the same time, with the 2025 and 2026 festivals still set for Park City, we hear the incumbent location remains in the mix. To that end, Sundance is also exploring a renewal of its latest 13-year-old deal with the pricey resort town if a strong enough local offer is placed on the table.
The verdict to open the process now, with more than six months to go before any renewal with Park City had to be decided upon, was signed off on by founder and board president Redford himself, we hear.
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Starting today and running until May 1, Sundance is putting out a Request for Information for interested U.S. hamlets and venues to put their toe(s) in the snow, so to speak. Once the candidates are whittled down to the most viable, that RFI will be followed by a Request for Proposal process from May 7-June 21 to assess other host locations, with an emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability.
After that, a SFF RFI/RFP task force will offer its recommendations to the Ebs Burnough-led Sundance Institute board for a final decision.
“We look forward to reviewing each proposal and working together with all of our potential collaborators to determine how we can collectively meet the needs of the independent film ecosystem and broader creative community,” Burnough said