With less than six months before the Sundance Film Festival cuts the ribbon on its new home, Boulder, Colorado, the event is hard at work, working with city and local officials, revitalizing cinema venues and bracing for the arrival of what typically attracts 85,000-plus attendees.
“It’s a more contained festival,” explained Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez to Deadline. The festival in Utah had screenings in Park City, Kimbal Junction (near the highway) and Salt Lake City, a 40-mile radius. “In Boulder, it’s all within two-plus square mile central proximity.”
Similar to Park City’s Dolby-equipped Eccles Theatre at the Park City High School, the new premiere venue in Boulder will be the historic Macky Auditorium located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. Essentially the city’s Carnegie Hall, the theater was recently retrofitted with 240 speakers by Dolby and it will have a movie screen that’s the biggest ever for the Sundance Film Festival.
It’s one of a suite of cinemas in Boulder that’s getting a state-of-the-art makeover including the Roe Green Theatre at University of Colorado Boulder, the Boulder Theater downtown, the Canyon Theater, the Chautauqua Auditorium (which is getting winterized) as well as the Cinemark Century which will serve as the fest’s press and industry screening venue. When it comes to these enhancements, some of these are being fully funded by Sundance, while others are co-shared, i.e. the Macky which is owned by the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Will all these upgrades be ready in time for January? “Yes, we’ll be ready as we’ve been scheduling this work for well over a year and half,” says Hernandez.
Of the program expansions occurring for Sundance 2027, each of the four central competition categories — U.S. Dramatic, World Cinema Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, and World Cinema Documentary — will grow to 12 films each. Other sections, including Premieres, NEXT, Midnight, Family Matinee, and more, will also expand. In addition, the Offscreen (formerly known as Beyond Film) programming slate — Cinema Café, The Big Conversation, Power of Story — will also grow its signature talks and events with artists and colleagues.
“More seats, more theaters, allows us this flexibility,” says Hernandez about expanding the programming lineup.
The New Frontier section which is the crossroads between tech creativity and independent filmmaking will return to 2027 as New Frontier FLUX to showcase new works which are pushing boundaries in a biodigital world.
Additionally, in the awards section of the fest, they’re welcoming the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) which will establish their own jury who will select winners for Best Debut Narrative in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and Best Debut Documentary within the World Cinema Documentary Competition. FIPRESCI will present these awards during our awards ceremony. The org has had a long running presence at Cannes.
Also, similar to other film festivals, read TIFF and Cannes, Sundance will now be a place where its World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winners will automatically qualify in the International Feature Film Category for the Oscars.
There’s been some cloudy buzz out there by some that it’s hard to fly into Boulder, that there isn’t enough lodging to accommodate the masses that are about to descend in January. Hernandez is clearing up the air. “That’s a perfect example of where we heard the feedback of what we’ve gotten and are being responsive,” said the Programming Director.
Boulder has developed a home-rental program for the upcoming fest. The Air B & B rules are a bit more restrictive in Boulder, so anyone looking to rent their home will need a festival license. The new rule has allowed thousands of rentals to come on the market per the festival.
Hernandez also emphasized today that there’s over 30 direct international flight routes to Denver International Airport in January, including flights from London, Mexico City, Tokyo, Toronto, and more.
