What’s Left To Say About Sundance?
What can I say about Sundance this year that hasn’t already been said?
Yes, the line-up lacked commercial offerings, and was filled with small films from first time directors. Yes, the festival felt subdued with less star power than years past. Yes, there was still inexplicably an hour-and-a-half wait for the most subpar avocado toast you have ever had in your life. And, yes, it still cost you $40, even though your boss warned you to keep expenses down.
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As compared to years past, this year’s Sundance felt like a turning point, with a collective acceptance that the festival’s time in Park City has run its course.
During last year’s fest, then-CEO Joana Vicente first floated that the festival could (would) be moving after its contract was up with Park City in 2026. At the time, there was the requisite gnashing of teeth. “What is Sundance without Park City?” many asked. People shared favorite screening stories. Stories where a filmmaker’s life was changed forever, and waxed poetic about distributors running out mid-screening to plead their cases for acquiring eventual hit.
One year (and one new CEO later) the executives and reps I talk to in 2025 are seemingly too tired to plumb the depths of their nostalgia in the face of a couple thousand in hotel charges.
Now, many are ready to ship out to Salt Lake, Boulder or Cincinnati. But festival veterans are wary of a bringing Sundance, known for championing diversity of art and thought, to Ohio. Or, as one told me, “I am not going to the state that birthed JD Vance.” But despite housing the fest for four decades, Utah isn’t a bastion of free speech, with the state being one of the first to implement a statewide ban for more than a dozen books in libraries and classrooms. Boulder, on the other hand, is a college town in a largely liberal state, and it may be for this reason, among others, it is rumored as the frontrunner.
Fair or not, the industry looks to Sundance as the pseudo bellwether for the year, reading headlines about sales in the low-to-mid teens as if they are tea leaves. If we are basing the next twelve months on the past week in Park City, then things are pretty bleak. There have only been two major reported sales. Even if buyers see all films before making their first offer on anything, dealmaking is shaping up to be lack luster.
There is a general lethargy that can’t be blamed on any one programmer, line-up or festival. The industry is still reeling from a 2024 of record low production. Pending mergers and acquisitions are still keeping studios from having solid foundations on which to build slates. And Sundance landed a couple of weeks into a year that has already seen Los Angeles face one of its most devastating natural disasters. Filmmakers, execs and reps came to Park City after they lost their homes.
And, of course, there is Trump. In 2017 Chelsea Handler, Laura Dern and Charlize Theron led thousands of participants down Main Street in the festival’s very own Women’s March after Donald Trump took office for his first term. After Trump took office for his second term this year, a group of around 60 danced in a flash mob to help advertise their indie television series, Chasers, and wore pink “pussy” hats as a well-intentioned if not depressing homage to that day eight years ago.
While there were moments during this year’s fest that heeded to the excitement, absurdity and just plain fun that Sundance can be — Jennifer Lopez getting into the DJ booth at Tao or Eva Victor making their directorial debut to universal acclaim — this year proved that Sundance needs a change.
Am I going to miss the teens at the Eccles concession stand talking about their chemistry quiz? Absolutely! Am I going to miss subsisting on Snickers from that concession stand because there is absolutely nowhere to get a quick meal. No!
One producer who has premiered several films in Park City noted to me that Sundance is, by and large, the only festival that filmmakers are expected to outgrow. The Sundance Institute, led by the oft and appropriately feted Michelle Satter, has done an incredible job of identifying and incubating filmmaking talent. Talent that then goes on bigger budgets or Venice and Cannes.
The industry has always looked to Sundance to give it something new — a director, star, film, etc. Now, Sundance can present us with something else new — itself. And I wish it the best of luck.
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