Friday, April 4 • Updated with comment from Sundance Institute.
Salt Lake County Council members said they don’t want to reinvest in something that won’t reinvest in Utah.
So on Tuesday, the council voted 6-1 to rescind the county’s annual $150,000 general fund contribution to the Sundance Film Festival. The funding was earmarked to go toward the 2026 event, which will be the final time Sundance will be held in Park City and some Salt Lake City venues before the festival moves to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.
Council chair Dea Theodore said council members planned last fall to reconsider the funding if and when the film festival chose to relocate.
“I’m really sad about their announcement of leaving; I’ve enjoyed their film festivals for years,” Theodore said. “They’ve been here for a long time, and I feel like their roots are here in Utah, so it’s actually really sad to see them go.”
Council member Suzanne Harrison said this year’s budget was particularly tight, and especially when the county has limited funds, it is important to her that the county invests its money into organizations with a “long-term commitment to our community and our residents.”
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson added that she instituted the annual contribution back in 2006 when she was still a council member, but said she “doesn’t have any heartburn about pulling that back today,” and added the film festival can “regroup as they move to our neighboring state.”
Sundance Institute responded to the county commission’s move in a statement Friday: “As a nonprofit based in Utah, Sundance Institute is appreciative of the funding over the years from Salt Lake County which supported our free public screenings for Utahns during the Sundance Film Festival, as well as year-round programming for the local community. We have valued offering this programming and consistently looked forward to engaging with the community as part of it. We hope to be in a position to continue offering this as part of the Institute’s year-round work.”
Sundance will still receive funding from the county’s Zoos, Arts and Parks (ZAP) tax revenue, Wilson added, since the county could not limit that contribution “even if we wanted to.” Sundance received $130,000 from 2023′s ZAP tax revenue.
Salt Lake County operates one of Sundance’s longtime Salt Lake City venues: The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. The decision to pull some of the county’s funding won’t affect the contract for Sundance to use the Rose, a county spokesperson said.
The county will backfill the festival’s economic impact by getting more conventions, Wilson said, just as it did when the Outdoor Retailer trade show relocated to Denver in 2018 before returning to Salt Lake City in 2023.
And despite the pain of the move, Wilson said she will miss the film festival. She added that some have pushed a narrative that Sundance is “all edgy, not appropriate film,” which she vehemently disagrees with.
“That is not true,” Wilson said. “There are stories that have really inspired young people to give back as teachers. There are opportunities to learn about what’s going on, even in the United States, in unique situations that we may not have exposure to every day. International incidents, or conditions, that are expressed by film. … I really do believe in the art of storytelling.”
Council member Natalie Pinkney was the lone vote against rescinding the funding, and council member Ross Romero was absent from the meeting.
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