Park City, host of the Sundance Film Festival for four decades, has an excellent chance of continuing in that role after 2026, Deputy City Manager Sarah Pearce said Monday.
The Sundance Institute is considering whether to relocate the festival beginning in 2027, when the current contract with Park City expires. The Utah Film Commission announced last week that the state was among the locations picked to proceed to the request-for-proposals part of the bidding process for the contract.
“We believe our history with the festival, strong partnerships across the region, and world-class natural assets give us an excellent chance to be selected,” Pearce said in an email to The Park Record.
Pearce, who worked for the Sundance Institute for 19 years in several positions, including managing director, added a unified bid team and “our willingness to reimagine future Festivals together put us in a great position going forward.”
The Utah Sundance Film Festival Host Committee is working to keep the event, and Pearce said the broad coalition that makes up the committee shows there is a lot of community support for keeping Sundance.
The elected officials on the committee are Nann Worel, Summit County Council Chair Malena Stevens, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Speaker of the House Mike Schultz and Utah Senate President Stuart Adams.
Community leaders, organizations and businesses also are part of the effort. They are Visit Park City, Jennifer Wesselhoff; Visit Salt Lake, Kaitlin Eskelson; Utah Film Commission, Virginia Pearce; Utah Office of Tourism, Natalie Randall; Zions Bank, CEO Scott Anderson; Larry H. Miller Company, CEO Steve Starks; University of Utah, President Taylor Randall; Department of Cultural and Community Engagement, Donna Law; Downtown Alliance, Dee Brewer; Salt Lake Chamber, Derek Miller; Salt Lake Area Restaurant Association, Michele Corigliano; Visit Heber Valley, Dallin Koecher; Utah Tourism Industry Association, Celina Sinclair; Historic Park City Alliance; Park City Lodging and Restaurant Association, Ginger Wicks; Deer Valley Resort, Todd Bennett; and Park City Mountain Resort, Deirdra Walsh.
The terms of the bid and negotiations appear sensitive enough that officials so far have been careful in speaking about the topic beyond their desire to retain Sundance past 2026. Negotiation details and other information do not require release to the public, for competitive reasons. The city recently declined an open records request from The Park Record on those grounds.
“This is a team effort, not just Park City,” Pearce said. “We are speaking as a unified voice and focused on putting our best effort into the bid. Sundance has stipulated confidentiality through the RFP process (which is typical practice to ensure there is equity among the bidders), and we want to maintain our competitive edge as well.”
The Sundance Institute has not made public the names of the cities and towns that made the cut or specified how many prospective hosts expressed interest in bringing the festival to their location.
There have been media reports throughout the United States about cities interested in hosting Sundance. They range from some of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas like Atlanta and San Francisco to smaller cities like Santa Fe, N.M., and Savannah, Ga., that themselves are considerably more populated than the Park City area. It is not known how many other places submitted information to Sundance.
Sundance is considered to be an elite festival and is the largest, as well as the most lucrative, event in Park City.