Cincinnati Selected as Finalist to Host Sundance Film Festival

Cincinnati could be seeing stars after it was named a finalist to host future Sundance Film Festivals.

The Queen City is among six finalists for the honor, alongside Atlanta, Georgia; Boulder, Colorado; Louisville, Kentucky; Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Members of the Sundance Institute selection committee will visit each city in the coming weeks to aid in their decision. The city selected will host the festival in 2027 and subsequent years, according to a press release. Park City, Utah, will host the 2025 and 2026 festivals.

"For over 40 years, Sundance has supported, sustained, and helped shine an essential spotlight on independent filmmakers and their work. As we very carefully consider this important decision for our festival, we believe these six finalists allow us the best opportunity to not only secure a sustainable future for our festival, but also to build upon its legacy while continuing to support the next generation of storytellers and highlight bold new works of art," Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board chair, and Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute acting CEO, stated in the release. "We are grateful to all the communities who have expressed interest and been a part of the process, and we have valued the opportunity to learn about the uniqueness of each location. We look forward to the site visits in each of the finalist cities.”

The Sundance Institute says as part of a thorough evaluation of each potential location, it looks at the city’s infrastructure, ethos and equity values, event capabilities and how each finalist could “sustainably serve and support the ever-growing Sundance Film Festival community of independent artists and audiences.” Each finalist also had to demonstrate how it would welcome and foster the community and culture of the festival.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval says Film Cincinnati, a nonprofit that helps support the local filmmaking community and bring filmmaking opportunities to the area, has made the city and region a go-to for movies.

“We know how to nurture creative talent and the skilled workers behind the scenes, and we know how to celebrate them when they are on the big screen,” Pureval said in a press release. “Easily accessible to so much of the U.S. population, the Queen City is also a big-league city for broader tourism, handling major events with professionalism and capacity. Both Cincinnati and the Sundance Film Festival are on the precipice for great change and we look forward to partnering and evolving together.”

The Sundance Institute did not say when it would make its decision on a host city.

Learn more about Film Cincinnati here .