Just weeks after the Sundance Film Festival announced it will explore options for hosting the festival outside of Utah starting in 2027, another Park City-based film festival has announced it’s leaving.
The Slamdance Film Festival, which marked its 30th edition in Park City this past January, announced Tuesday that it will be moving to Los Angeles starting in 2025.
The 2025 festival will take place Feb. 20-26 at such Hollywood venues as the Landmark Theatres and the DGA Theater Complex. The timing will put the festival in southern California during the height of the Academy Award season.
“The move to Los Angeles, the heart of the entertainment industry, will allow for the continued growth of Slamdance’s year-round mission to provide an accessible and dynamic community for truly independent, visionary filmmakers and creators,” the nonprofit festival said in a news release.
The release also shares that the festival “aims to be financially accessible with in-person passes starting at $50, and many programs free to the public.”
Accessibility for attendees, the release stated, was a top priority. It has also been a criticism that has been heard with hosting Sundance in the small, snowy mountain town.
Slamdance was started in 1995 “by a wild bunch of filmmakers who were tired of relying on a large, oblique system to showcase their work,” as the release puts it. It was founded by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn, Peter Baxter and Paul Rachman after they had unsuccessful submissions to Sundance.
Notable alumni and supporters of the festival include brothers Anthony and Joe Russo — who went on to direct several installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — husband-and-wife filmmakers Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas (”Oppenheimer”), and Korean director Bong Joon-ho (”Parasite”).
“Building upon our success in Utah, we will grow the festival with greater accessibility in Los Angeles and continue our work in launching new films, new careers, and new ideas in filmmaking,” said Baxter, who is the president of Slamdance.
In 2024, Slamdance’s lineup featured 113 films. Of those films, 17 of them were world premieres. The festival said 43% were from BIPOC creators, and 43% by female or nonbinary filmmakers. Those films came from 20 different countries, including Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Palestinian territories, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Films with Utah connections have been featured at Slamdance over the years — for example, in 2023, a documentary about downwinders premiered there. In 2024, an aspiring filmmaker from Utah curated a new program for the festival.
The larger Sundance Film Festival, which has called Park City home since 1981, announced on April 17 that it is accepting proposals for host cities, starting in 2027 — after the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s contract with the city ends after the 2026 festival.
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