As Sundance ready to starts its 2025 edition in Park City, Utah on Thursday, one question is sure to be on everyone’s lips: So, where will we be in two years? For which the festival continues to weigh options possible new host cities — including Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Boulder — starting in 2027, everyone is curious to see where the venerable festival will be in just 24 months.
And yes, Sundance brass are well aware of the interest in the new home base. At a press event held Wednesday night in Park City, festival director Eugene Hernandez — who was joined by director of programming Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival director Amanda Kelso and senior programmer John Nein – even joked about it, while outlining the current timeline for choosing and announcing a new host city.
“I used to be a journalist,” Hernandez, IndieWire’s own co-founder, said during prepared remarks, “and, of course, I know there’s at least one specific, burning question that you probably want to ask me, or that you asked in the other room . And I’ll tell you the answer to that question, and the answer is: ‘No, not yet.’”
After some big laughs from the assembled group, he continued, “Almost a year ago, we announced the launch of an RFP process to find a new home for the Sundance Film Festival. Our work continues, and we still have two more years anchored here in Park City. Later this winter or early spring, once we have completed our work on this RFP, we will announce the new home of the Sundance Film Festival. But before that, we’ll be announcing the dates for next year’s festival, so now, let’s dig in, let’s enjoy Sundance 2025 together, here in Park City and down the mountain in Salt Lake.
After notifying a group of six finalists already in Julya selection committee within the Sundance Institute conducted site visits to all six sites and sat down three finalists in September“based on the ethos, equity values, infrastructure and ability to host Sundance, as well as how they hope to foster a community of indie filmmakers in the future.”
This year’s Sundance Film Festival runs 23 January – 2 February.
