Asked Thursday if Utah’s conservative political climate factored into the decision to move the Sundance Film Festival to adjacent blue state Colorado after four decades in the Wasatch Mountains, Ebs Burnough, the chair of the Sundance Institute’s board, said, “The short answer is no.”
“We’ve been in Utah for 40 years. We are not unaccustomed to the politics,” Burnough said in an interview. “We’ve dealt with all manner of politics before, so that’s not something that we’ve ever been afraid of or run away from. And it was not a major part of how we addressed this process.”
But Park City Mayor Nann Worel was not convinced that politics didn’t help tip the scales in favor of relocation.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever know what the impact was, but words matter, and the rhetoric that was going around wasn’t helpful,” she said in an interview.
In her State of the City address this week, the mayor referenced a bill passed by the Legislature and remarks by certain lawmakers as “not helpful” in retaining the festival.
“I stand by that,” she said Thursday. “I think that it’s important to choose your words carefully as you’re discussing different aspects of things, especially some entity like Sundance that’s been a friend of Park City and of the state of Utah for 40 years.”
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Of the three states Sundance was considering as finalists — Ohio, Colorado and Utah — Boulder stands out as one of the most liberal areas in a progressive state, while Utah is the most conservative politically.
“I founded the Sundance Institute with a commitment to discovering and developing independent artists, with the Sundance Film Festival serving as the platform for stories to help expand audiences and broaden the landscape,” Robert Redford, who also serves as the institute’s president, said in a statement Thursday. “That mission remains even more critical today and will continue to be our core principle.”
The actor, whose award-winning roles include the Sundance Kid in the 1969 “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” added, “This move will ensure that the Festival continues its work of risk taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences.”
And as Sundance closes the door on Utah, public officials say they are discussing bringing a new festival to the state.
[Related: Sundance Film Festival is leaving Utah. Here’s why, and what Utah offered it to stay.]
[Related: ‘Betrayal’: Utah film lovers mourn the loss of Sundance Film Festival]
‘Money talks’
The Thursday decision to move the festival comes after a Deadline report earlier this month in which a “Sundance insider” suggested that a recent bill that would ban pride flags at schools and government buildings was among the reasons for considering a move, but Sundance officials did not confirm the report.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has not yet taken any action on the bill, HB77, and has until midnight Thursday to do so. In a news conference on the last night of the legislative session, Cox said he was leaning toward signing the bill: “I don’t know if I’m going to sign that one. I’ll probably sign that one. I need to look at it.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox conducts a news conference in Salt Lake City, Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Like Burnough, Utah officials have also so far asserted that politics was not a factor in Sundance’s decision. In his monthly news conference on PBS Utah last week, Cox said, “We’ve been told by the board very clearly that political issues have nothing to do with their decision, and so I’m going to take the board at their word.”
In a play to try to keep Sundance in Utah, Utah lawmakers this session upped their support for the Sundance Institute from $1.4 million to $3.5 million — contingent on the festival staying in the state. Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters earlier this month that the larger figure is the amount the film festival asked for.
Colorado is considering legislation that would give a similar amount in tax credits, $34 million over 10 years, but the money would be front-loaded with $13 million coming in the first three years after relocating to the state.
Vicki Varela, who was the director of the Utah State Office of Tourism, Film and Global Branding until last year, said in an interview that the stability of Colorado’s 10-year commitment to Sundance makes it attractive compared to Utah’s year-to-year offer.
“Money talks. That’s inevitably a huge part of it,” she said.
“We also have these public policy debates that become symbolic of who we are, and what’s a more powerful symbol of who we are than what we put on our flags?” Varela said. “The fact that discussion about that public symbol happened at the time it did is very unfortunate, and I’m sure there was a lot of discussion [about it].”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Park City’s Main Street is closed to traffic for Sundance visitors on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.
The Sundance Institute’s announcement said among the criteria it considered in the selection process was “ethos and equity values.” Each finalist was asked to demonstrate “how they would welcome and continue to foster the diverse Festival community and culture of independent creativity.”
‘There’s always been tension’
Questions about how Sundance might react to Utah’s politics have increasingly come up over the last few years as the state has, alongside a number of other Republican-led states, passed more and more restrictions on the LGBTQ+ community — especially transgender Utahns.
Utah has limited transgender girls from playing sports on teams that align with their gender identity, barred transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care and prohibited transgender people from using locker rooms and restrooms in line with their gender in government-owned buildings.
And this year, the governor signed a bill passed by the Legislature limiting incarcerated transgender people from accessing gender transition care.
In a statement following the festival’s announcement, LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Utah said the group felt a “profound sense of loss that Sundance will no longer call Utah home,” and added that the departure “leaves a void in our cultural souls, particularly for LGBTQ Utahns, who found our struggles and triumphs mirrored in the festival’s courageous storytelling.”
Last week, Cox criticized the possibility of the festival moving over the state’s restrictions on the LGBTQ+ community, saying if the institute’s board wanted to make a difference in such policies, it would remain and keep “a seat at the table.”
“[Leaving] doesn’t change any hearts and minds,” Cox said. “So if that’s an issue you really care about, you’d think you’d want to stay and fight for that issue.”
When asked by a Deseret News reporter in September about how he would respond to “Utahns who are concerned about the state subsidizing an event that has lots of explicit sexual content,” Cox said, “That’s obviously something that I’ve been concerned about as well — it’s a fairly small piece of that, and the economic returns for our state are off the charts.”
Some politicians to the right of the governor, like Republican state Sen. Dan McCay, of Riverton, have expressed disdain toward the festival and cheered the possibility of its departure.
“Bye Felicia …,” McCay wrote in a post responding to Deadline’s reports of the festival possibly leaving over a pride flag ban. “Sundance promotes porn. Sundance promotes alternative lifestyles. Sundance promotes anti-lds themes,” referring to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah’s largest faith.
“Sundance does not fit in Utah anymore,” McCay concluded.
In 2017, the Outdoor Retailer trade show left Utah for Colorado because of political differences, but after five years, it returned to Salt Lake City.
Varela said Outdoor Retailer felt different, because Sundance was created and grew in Utah.
“I think there’s a deeper attachment in many ways for all of us that this remarkable thing came out of Utah and it reflected our openness to new ideas and innovative filmmaking,” she said. “You look at how much our film industry has grown over those years … there’s almost a deeper attachment that makes it more poignant.”
Adam Brown, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, said there “has always been a little bit of a mismatch” between Sundance and Utah’s conservative political allegiance.
“There’s always been tension. It’s not the first time they’ve talked about this,” he said.
The festival has been a major economic driver for Utah. According to a 2024 report compiled by Y2 Analytics, the 2024 festival contributed $132 million to the state’s gross domestic product that year, created more than 1,700 jobs, represented more than $69 million in wages and created nearly $14 million in tax revenue.
In a statement immediately following the announcement, Cox wrote, “As I’ve said from the beginning, we wanted Sundance to stay. We made that clear to their leadership and put together a highly competitive package. Ultimately, this decision is theirs to make — but I believe it’s a mistake, and that one day, they’ll realize they left behind not just a place, but their heritage.”
Utah has “begun meeting with partners, stakeholders, and creative voices to create a new festival — one that honors our legacy and writes the next chapter of independent film in Utah,” he added.
Legislative leaders echoed those plans in a separate statement, saying, “We firmly believe that as one door closes, another one opens. We will work to create a new opportunity that enhances Utah’s identity as a hub for arts, culture and film, driven by the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels our growth, innovation and cultural vitality.”
Salt Lake Tribune deputy enterprise editor Sean P. Means contributed to this story.
This story is developing and may be updated.
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