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Utah’s governor licked his wounds and moved on quickly from the news that the Sundance Film Festival is leaving the state for Boulder, Colorado in 2027.
Just hours after the Robert Redford founded Park City-based shindig revealed it is pulling up stakes and heading to the nearby Blue States after next year, Gov. Spencer Cox says plans are being drawn up to create a new film festival in Utah — and he’s going to use Sundance allocated cash to kick start it.
“I will also include on a special session call that we should remove a $3.5 million appropriation that had been allocated for the Sundance Film Festival,” the Republican wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday night after an 11th hour bill signing and not signing sprint. “Let’s reappropriate that money to efforts in Utah to create a new festival and a world-class film economy right here in our state.”
Utah Gov Spencer Cox attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Going Varsity in Mariachi Premiere (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
In a last-ditch effort to keep Sundance in Utah, with Salt Lake City becoming the hub, Gov. Cox offered $3 million in state funds. The GOP supermajority in the legislature upped that to $3.5 million, with around $12 million more in in-kind incentives and millions more from what was called “private entities.”
Still, with Boulder putting $34 million in incentives on the table over the next decade and much more on the table, Utah just didn’t hold the cards. On March 27, almost a year after saying they would take pitches for an new home. Sundance brass made it official what Deadline had been reporting for months. After over 40 years in Utah, the indie cinema hootenanny had inked a 10-year contract with the Beehive State’s next-door neighbor in hopes of renewal and evolution.
A direct participant in the UnitedUtah bid and a big Sundance booster over the years, Cox called the move a “mistake. ” The governor made little effort to hide his dismay once the announcement became public, nor his desire to fill the big screen void ASAP.
“In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done: supporting filmmakers and building a world-class film economy right here in Utah,” Cox wrote on X. “We have already 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.”
At this very early stage, no details of how, when and where the new festival will come to fruition were provided.
Though Sundance Institute board chair Ebs Burnough said otherwise on Thursday, the fact is politics in the divisive Trump 2.0 era always was going to play a role in Sundance’s future in Utah.
“Unfortunately, a recent bill passed by the Utah legislature and comments made by some legislators have not been helpful in our bid to keep the festival here,” retiring Park City Mayor Nann Worel honestly said of the openly discriminating anti-Pride flag measure in her March 25 State of the City speech. Specifically targeting banning LGBTQ+ flags and banners on public buildings and schools, House Bill 77’s sponsors Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Dan McCay (who earlier this month said Sundance makes “porn” and “does not fit in Utah anymore” while reposting a Deadline story) insisted the bill was all about politically neutrality – though a one point the measure would have allowed Swastikas and Confederate flags to fly.
Scheduled to start on May 7, months before the last Park City-based Sundance next January, H.B.77 not only bans LBGTQ+ flags, but contains a provision for there to be a $500 fine daily for every Pride flag flying from and in state funded buildings.
With SLC’s progressive mayor, the ACLU and Equality Utah opposing H.B.77, Cox never said either way if he would sign the bill. Several sources tell me that the governor’s ambiguity was in no small part in the hope of keeping Sundance, with its ethos of inclusion, in state. As that wish dissipated once the decision to move to Boulder became official and Cox faced a March 27 deadline to sign or veto bills, the governor decided to do neither.
In Utah, which as of Thursday night has banished fluoride from the water and moved to phase out the state’s universal vote-by-mail system, a bill can become law if the governor doesn’t sign it or reject it. Which is what Cox did, or rather, didn’t do when it came to the anti-Pride flag bill.
“H.B. 77 has been one of the most divisive bills of the session, and I am deeply disappointed that it did not land in a better place,” Gov. Cox wrote last night detailed a number of logistical shortcomings of the sadly first in the nation enacted legislation and the limits of his own power. “My understanding is that there was a deal on a compromise that would have removed problematic portions of the bill while retaining others that would support political neutrality in the classroom. Sadly the sponsors did not move that deal forward. I continue to have serious concerns with this bill. However, because a veto would be overridden, I have decided to allow the bill to go into law without my signature, and urge lawmakers to consider commonsense solutions that address the bill’s numerous flaws.”
Cox added: “There are so many examples of the LGBTQ community and the conservative community coming together to find helpful and hopeful compromise. I hope we can retain this as our model and North Star.
To our LGBTQ community, I know that recent legislation has been difficult. Politics can be a bit of a blood sport at times and I know we have had our disagreements. I want you to know that I love and appreciate you and I am grateful that you are part of our state. I know these words may ring hollow to many of you, but please know that I mean them sincerely.”
Banned flags, new festivals and all, the last Sundance in Utah for at least a decade runs from January 22 – February 1, 2026.
