Twenty months after John Cullen, owner of The Stanley Hotel, and Donald Zuckerman, head of Colorado’s Film Commission, first suggested to the head of the Sundance Film Festival and Jeff Kraft, deputy director of the state’s Office of Economic Development that the Stanley Hotel would be the perfect location for institutes associated with the festival that could expand to Boulder, the concept has come to fruition.
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They were among a small group of individuals who had gathered on the porch of the iconic Estes Park hotel to discuss the possibility of the festival moving to a location outside of Park City, Utah.
Thursday, the Sundance Film Festival group announced that the 2027 Sundance Film Festival’s inaugural Colorado event will be headquartered just an hour from Estes Park in Boulder.
“Over the next ten years, there will be $2.4 billion coming to the state of Colorado,” hotel owner John Cullen said Thursday morning in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice. Except for the institute operations, “I’ll get a pat on the back,” he said.
According to Cullen, Estes Park’s economy will flourish during the months when business is slow, a time of year with offshoot concerts, films, and art exhibitions. “This is a monster annual draw,” for the town and the state he predicted.
It’s not the first time the hotel has hosted the Institutes. Each year, a patch commemorating the experiences of the institutes is designed. Last year, the patch featured an image of The Stanley Hotel.
To be hosted again by The Stanley Hotel are the Directors Lab, a catalyst for those looking to hone their skills in the industry, including their efforts to finance their work.
Both programs have received national recognition from network television, such as CBS News, and print publications like the New York Times.
It was nearly a year ago when the Sundance Film Festival announced it intended to move from its original home base in Utah.
During the intervening months, 13 cities vied for the opportunity to host the festival. That number was whittled down to 6 before three finalists were named – Cincinnati, Boulder, and Park City and Salt Lake City jointly.
An announcement was anticipated to be made in October, but according to Cullen, it is particularly important to the Sundance organization that decisions such as this rely on group consensus. Consequently, the announcement was delayed.
“This decision was informed by a detailed evaluation of the key components essential to creating our Festival,” said Ebs Burnough, chairperson of the Sundance Institute Board of Directors.
“During the process, it became clear that Boulder is the ideal location in which to build our Festival’s future, marking a key strategic step in its natural evolution,” he said.
Burnough said the Festival’s being centered in Boulder is essential to the success of the event, but that the Rocky Mountains will frame the horizon for festival goers.
A press conference held in Boulder Thursday afternoon was attended by hundreds of onlookers and officials, including Gov. Jared Polis, state Senators Judy Amabile and Mark Baisley, State Representative Brianna Titone, and Colorado Film Commissioner Donald Zuckerman. Staff from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the Colorado Tourism Office, the Visit Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of Boulder, the University of Colorado at Boulder, along with representatives from the Sundance Film Institute, were also present.
The Sundance Film Institute was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, who attended the University of Colorado at Boulder during the 1950s. Two of his children, David “Jamie” Redford and Shauna Redford Schlosser, also attended CU-Boulder.
Patti Brown contributed to this story.
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