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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is still in the running to host the Sundance Film Festival beyond 2026, but it's also at the highest risk of losing the annual winter event since it started over 40 years ago.
The Sundance Institute announced last week that it has narrowed its feature film festival location options to Salt Lake City/Park City; Boulder, Colorado; and Cincinnati, Ohio. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday that he believes the organization should remain in Utah and is confident in the state's pitch to retain the festival.
"I think it would be a huge mistake ... and I think it would hurt Sundance to leave this state and leave the place where their identity is so much a part of the fabric of our state," he said during his monthly news conference with state reporters.
Sundance officials said in April they had started a process to "explore viable locations in the United States" to host the Sundance Film Festival beginning in 2027, signaling a possible split from Park City. The festival originated as the Utah/United States Film Festival in Salt Lake City 46 years ago before it was moved to Park City, and the Sundance Institute took over in the 1980s.
Cox was part of a group backing Utah's bid that met with the Sundance Film Festival Selection Committee last month as Utah seeks to retain the annual festival. The two sides met at the media education nonprofit Spy Hop in Salt Lake City on Aug. 25, according to the governor's weekly calendar.
While he didn't explain the exact details of the meeting, he described it as "incredibly positive." The group did talk about expanding options into Salt Lake City to help deal with how much the festival has grown in Park City, a small mountain community of 8,300 residents.
They also talked about the proximity to the Salt Lake City International Airport, the festival's history and financial terms. Cox said he offered his pitch to keep the festival in Utah during that meeting along with other state and local leaders.
His message was that outsiders will likely offer more money in their pursuit of the festival, but Utah and Sundance are connected in a way that moving out of the state would "devastate both of us."
What once struggled to generate an audience now brings in tens of thousands of people every year. There's also stiff competition from filmmakers vying for a spot in the lineup. Sundance reported a record-setting 17,000 film submissions for this year's event, which was eventually whittled down to 91 selections.
It has also become one of the top non-outdoor tourism draws in Utah.
The 2023 festival, for example, attracted over 85,000 attendees, a quarter of whom weren't from the area, according to a tourism analysis published by the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute earlier this year. The report added that nonresidents spent about $97 million during the 10-day event, while the festival also supported about 1,600 jobs. It ultimately generated $118.3 million toward the state's gross domestic product.
"We're very fortunate to have that economic piece, that cultural piece here in the state of Utah," Cox said.
The governor added he's sympathetic to the Sundance Institute's concerns, and he hopes the state's offer is enough to keep it around. He explained that these types of situations often happen, where other states try to pry businesses or events.
He likened it to Outdoor Retailer. The owners of the trade show announced in 2017 that they would move future semiannual events to Denver amid differences in public land use policy, but if they opted to move back to Salt Lake City beginning in 2023 after organizers said they were unable to find "the change we had hoped for" in Colorado.
He believed the state's pitch was "very well received." Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall also walked away from the meeting feeling good about the state's chances.
She explained last week that Spy Hop and places like the Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center Black Box Theater were some of the possible new venues that could host events should the film festival stay in Utah beyond 2026. Utah's proposal would create a system allowing the event to be held in both Salt Lake City and Park City.
"The place for Sundance is the state of Utah," Mendenhall said. "What we're offering is a new friendship, a new friendship between Salt Lake City and Sundance that hasn't quite existed in the past — in a bigger way."
However, the final decision is in the Sundance Institute's hands. The organization said it plans to make a final decision in early 2025.
Utah leaders will have to wait until then.
"I'm optimistic; I'm very hopeful," Cox said. "For the past 40 years, this has been (their home), and we look forward to hosting Sundance for the next 40 years."
