For Barb Guy and Chris Rohrer, two Utah movie buffs who have attended The Sundance Film Festival for the past 25 years, the distress over the event’s impending departure poured out as individual words.
“Disappointed, heartbroken, crestfallen,” Guy said.
“Gobsmacked,” Rohrer added.
The Sundance Institute announced Thursday that after 2026, the festival that has existed in Utah for over 40 years will move on to Boulder, Colorado. The final decision came after a yearlong bid process. The other two finalists to host the festival were Cincinnati, Ohio, and a joint bid between Park City and Salt Lake City.
The couple said they expected this decision, but still felt shocked to hear it. They’ve “arranged [their] annual calendars” for decades and have always taken advantage of Sundance’s local’s pass because film is their “performing arts of choice.”
“It’s our sports ball,” Guy joked in January, between screenings at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.
This year, the couple saw 35 films at the festival — in a cornucopia of different languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Macedonian, Persian and more.
“How long have we known that this was a serious possibility, but, at the same time you’re like, ‘Why on earth would they do this,‘” Guy said, still processing Thursday’s news.
Guy and Rohrer said they doubt they’ll make the plans to travel to Boulder to keep up with their tradition. They’ve never attended any of the other major film festivals.
But, they hope that maybe Sundance will have an “OG” ticket package for people like them, they joked.
“The first word in my head is betrayal, but that’s crazy. It just shows how much I love it. It’s been our thing,” Guy said. “Salt Lake doesn’t have a lot of cool things and to lose this one is really hard.”
That loss is also being felt by local film organizations like the Salt Lake Film Society, a nonprofit that runs theaters like Broadway Centre Cinemas and Tower Theatre. Screenings of Sundance films have happened at these two venues since 1992.
Tori Baker, the president and CEO of the organization, said in a statement that while “Sundance’s decision may be disappointing to some, it does not change the fact that Utah remains home to one of the most passionate and engaged moviegoing communities in the nation.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The art-house Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City in 2021.
Baker said Salt Lake City in particular will “remain a vibrant hub for cinema” with other annual film festivals that the film society hosts: Filmexico; Masima: Pacific Island Film Festival; Unstoppable: Differently Abled Film Festival; and Czech That Film.
She encouraged Sundance donors to turn their attention to local film organizations like hers.
Virginia Pearce, director of the Utah Film Commission, said in a different statement that “Utah’s robust film industry has grown far beyond one event. We’ve cultivated a thriving ecosystem of talent, infrastructure, and incentives that will continue to attract filmmakers and productions to our beautiful state.”
Utahns also took to Instagram Thursday to voice disappointment in the comments section of Sundance’s official announcement. Many expressed the sentiment that Sundance belongs in the Beehive State.
“This is really sad,” wrote local artist and filmmaker Sydney Jo Goodwill. “As a volunteer who has given a decade of festival hours to Sundance, I’m really devastated to see it leave Utah. What a shame.”
Another Instagram user, Utah artist Paulina Lovato, commented that she “relied on Sundance to not only spark inspiration but to meet professionals working in our industry from all over the world.”
