America’s largest and most renowned independent film festival is looking for a new home, and Cincinnati might be the place. The Sundance Film Festival is considered the biggest gathering of independent filmmakers in the United States, hosting over 400,000 viewers in 2023 alone. The festival has become a marquee event in the film industry, with many of its entrants like Little Miss Sunshine and The Unusual Suspects winning Oscars and being showcased in theaters across the globe. After 46 years of hosting the event in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as at Sundance Resort, the Sundance Film Festival is on the move.
What later would become Sundance Film Festival was founded in 1978 as The Utah/U.S. Film Festival. The founders of the festival, Sterling Van Wagenen and John Earle, came up with the idea in an effort to bring more attention to Utah as a place for filmmakers and their projects. Aside from that, the founders had also hoped to create something that could showcase American-made films that didn’t come out of the traditional Hollywood setting. After going through some rebranding over the years, the Sundance Institute took over managing the festival in 1984. The iconic Sundance Film Festival name would come shortly after.
Since its inception, Sundance has featured hundreds of films. Notably, 86% of the films featured in the festival are making their original debuts, including hits like Get Out, American Psycho and Reservoir Dogs. This makes Sundance a premiere jumping-off point for many film projects. Sundance has also been a place where various directors, actors and producers have been able to flex their creative muscles without the need to have big studios backing them. The idea of supporting independent film has created many successful careers for independent filmmakers outside of the traditional Hollywood model.
If Sundance is such a hit, then why is it leaving Park City? And why would Cincinnati want to be its new host? There’s plenty of rationale and reason for both questions. To get to the heart of it all, remembering why Sundance was established in Utah is vital.
Sundance’s current home of Park City, Utah, is a ski town. A lot of the city is dominated by wealthy vacationers looking to hit the slopes for a few days and then return to their normal lives. Although having an affluent audience isn’t entirely bad, the festival recognizes they are meant to cater more toward those working in the film industry than anyone else since the event encapsulates the whole of filmmaking for ten days. Forbes writes that the event is seen as an “acquisition festival” — a way to mine for new films to showcase — and that’s what the core of the festival has been for a long time.
According to Variety, money is also a factor in Sundance’s decision to explore potential new locations for the festival. Sundance is currently profitable, but Park City is banking on marketing itself as a ski town. Why would they continue to invest in a festival when they can simply make money off luxury vacations? With the current contract between the festival and the city ending in 2026, it just makes sense for each party to reevaluate the relationship between the two.
Sundance Institute held a call for cities interested in hosting the festival that closed on June 21. The call for host cities included criteria that essentially spelled out what a potential host city would need to host the festival. The Queen City is now one of three finalists; organizers of the festival have narrowed it down to Cincinnati, Salt Lake City (with Park City playing as a satellite location) and Boulder, Colorado. Other cities, like Santa Fe, Louisville and Atlanta had thrown their names out there to play host — and for good reason.
According to ABC4 Utah, in 2023 alone, out-of-state visitors linked to the festival contributed an estimated $96 million to the local economy. It also brought in $63 million in wages to the local economy. This economic stimulation can be felt in places like local venues, restaurants and hotels. The surge in money coming into Cincinnati would be felt immediately if they were to play host to Sundance. This could be something that helps both local business owners and the city as a whole, not to mention the possible temporary and long-term job opportunities this could bring to Cincinnati.
Hosting Sundance would also further establish Cincinnati as a filmmaking destination. Much like what happened in Salt Lake City and Park City, holding the country’s premier indie film festival can show filmmakers and producers all of the filmmaking opportunities in Cincinnati. Hosting the festival could also open the door for Cincinnati filmmakers, as it could inspire financial backers to invest in the local filmmaking community more often. Chase Crawford, a Cincinnati-based actor and filmmaker who was in a Sundance feature in 2016, Goat, shared his thoughts about what the festival could mean to Cincinnati.
“I attended the festival in 2016 and was able to meet producers, agents, managers and even some of the stars themselves. Top-notch networking. Sundance has made a huge local impact in the Utah market via the Utah Film Center and programs like Catalyst and Local Lens. I expect they could make the same local impact here.”
Another big perk to hosting Sundance in Cincinnati is accessibility to the festival. Being more local allows Cincy filmmakers a chance to rub elbows with other talented creators from across the country. It also opens the door to possibly being featured in the festival itself. Many filmmakers have to be strategic with what festivals they submit their work to, as each one is an investment in the hopes that more people will see your film. By making Sundance a local event, the investment wouldn’t be as vast and could present possible opportunities to be featured on an iconic stage. Claudia Carlson, a University of Cincinnati film student, gave us an idea of what these opportunities could mean to those starting in the industry.
“I believe this big of a film festival could help students here actually make it in the film world — may that be either via scholarship opportunities or actual job opportunities. I also think it would help us as film students find connections early.”
Granted, it won’t be easy for local filmmakers. Less than 1% of films submitted to Sundance make the final cut. This might seem dire, but there’s also a major upside if you get accepted as well. According to nofilmschool, it’s estimated that 80% of films that are showcased at Sundance end up with distribution deals. This just shows the power Sundance has, as it’s this pull with studios that have created careers for famous filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and James Wan.
The combination of creative and economic opportunities has made Sundance Film Festival a desirable event to play host to. Currently, local organizations like Film Cincinnati are doing everything they can to showcase the city and why Cincinnati would be a great fit for Sundance. While they can’t say much during the current selection process, Film Cincinnati posted on Sept. 30 that they would be postponing their Backlot 2024 event to focus more on the opportunity to bring Sundance to the city. The ramifications of this could change Cincinnati for generations to come. Sundance is expected to announce the new host city in February 2025, shortly after the next scheduled event.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Nov. 27 print edition.
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This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.