Latest news with #EugeneHernandez
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Egyptian Theatre Will Sit Out the Final Sundance Film Festival in Park City — but the Yarrow Theatre Returns
The final Sundance Film Festival in its home of over 40 years, Park City, Utah, will be missing a key venue from the festival's storied history: The Egyptian Theatre on Main Street will not return for the 2026 edition before Sundance moves to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027. The theater, opened on Christmas Day 1926, has served as a live performing arts space in addition to serving as a cinema. It was conspicuously left out of the 'What to Know About the 2026 Sundance Film Festival' letter written by the director of the Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming, Eugene Hernandez, that press received July 14. More from IndieWire That Time Nicolas Cage Was Almost Superman for Tim Burton Indian Film Board Censors 'Superman' for Being Too 'Sensual' The Egyptian Theatre's executive director Randy Barton told Park City's local NPR affiliate KPCW that the venue was indeed sitting out the final Sundance altogether and is 'no longer set up for film' at all. It will be exclusively a live-performance space going forward. A source from Sundance tells IndieWire, though, that there is a desire to find a moment in the final Park City festival to acknowledge the shared history and legacy that the festival has with the Egyptian, even though it will indeed not be a venue this time around. That moment of acknowledgment would be well worth it: The Egyptian is where so many iconic moments in Sundance history have taken place. As longtime home of the Midnight section, it's where 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Hereditary' premiered. Not to mention many others, including Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac,' which had a secret screening there at Sundance in advance of its official premiere at Berlin. Before the Eccles Theater opened at the Park City High School, the Egyptian was the festival's showcase theater. In better news, however, the Yarrow Theatre will be returning now that Slamdance has left Park City for Los Angeles. The Sundance rival took over the theater, located in the Yarrow Doubletree hotel on Park Avenue, for the 2024 edition of the festival, and it sat empty in 2025, despite Sundance moving its festival headquarters and press badge pickup there this year. (The festival headquarters will return to the Sheraton, further away, in 2026, however.) The last time the Yarrow Theatre was part of Sundance was in 2023 when it operated under the name 'The Park Avenue Screening Room' and premiered films such as Doug Liman's still unreleased Brett Kavanaugh documentary, 'Justice.' Also, despite being permanently closed the rest of the year — as indicated by Google, its removal from owner Metropolitan Theatres' website, and the reporting of an IndieWire source who was recently on the ground in Park City — the Holiday Village Cinemas will reopen under a special arrangement just for Sundance 2026, as it also did in 2025. Other screening venues for Sundance 2026 will be the Eccles Theatre, Library Center Theatre, The Ray Theatre, and Redstone Cinemas. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Axios
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Sundance Film Festival unveils plans for 2026 sendoff
Utah's final Sundance Film Festival is scheduled to kick off Jan. 22, 2026, organizers announced Monday, ending a four-decade run. Why it matters: The Utah-born independent film festival — set to relocate to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 — will show appreciation for the Utah community, honor cofounder Robert Redford and feature archival screenings and special events. What to expect: Next year's event will showcase more than 90 feature films and over 50 shorts. The lineup will be released later this year. Park City's Main Street will again become pedestrian-only. At-home screenings will be available Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2026. What they're saying: "This year will mean so much for so many reasons," Eugene Hernandez, director of the festival and public programming, said in a letter. "Our focus is making the 2026 festival ... one to remember, a celebration full of gratitude and joy." Between the lines: Venues in Park City include: the Eccles Theatre, Holiday Village Cinemas, Library Center Theatre, the Ray Theatre, Redstone Cinemas and the Yarrow Theatre. Salt Lake City venues are Broadway Centre Cinemas and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. The intrigue: Park City's iconic Egyptian Theatre, an emblematic venue for the festival, will not host screening this year. Catch up quick: Sundance announced it was moving to Colorado in March after launching a competitive bidding process last year for a new host city. News of the resettlement disappointed local and state leaders, including and Gov. Spencer Cox and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, who accused the festival of "using politics" as a "convenient excuse" for its move in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. Festival leaders have maintained that the state's conservative politics did not drive them away. By the numbers: Out-of-state visitors spent $106.4 million during this year's festival, drawing over 72,000 in-person attendees, per an economic impact report. The event's total economic impact was estimated to be $132 million and produced about 1,730 jobs for Utahns. Flashback: As the festival departs for neighboring Colorado, here's a list of influential movies that premiered at Sundance over the years:
CBS News
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Colorado officials say Sundance Film Festival expected to bring economic boost to state
Coming soon to Boulder: the Sundance Film Festival. A decision that those behind the announcement say has been years in the making, and one that could bring an economic boost to the state. Festival Director Eugene Hernandez said while evaluating different bids one thing stood out in Boulder. "What we experienced, and we've experienced all the way through the process until right now, is passion. Passion for Colorado, passion for this community, passion for the arts and arts community and film and we felt that," he said Adding to the passion and culture was the scenic appeal and support they received from the state in the form of tax incentives. Changes that are part of a bill now moving through the legislature. State Representative Brianna Titone is one of the bill sponsors "There's a bit of hesitance to give tax credits to one particular place for this festival, but we know, based on what's happened in Utah, that it does expand beyond borders of the city where the event is held," she said. In 2024, Titone said they found the festival in Utah created more than 17 hundred jobs, attracted 24 thousand out-of-state visitors and brought in more than $100 million in gross domestic product. Looking over the 10 years the festival would be in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis said the economic impact to the state is to be over $2 billion. "It's rooted in Boulder, but it's really the entire state that will benefit," Polis said during a press conference about the decision on Thursday. The festival's monumental move comes after more than 40 years in Park City, Utah, a home they said they've outgrown. That raises a question for some. Is Boulder a big enough stage? Hernandez believes it is a perfect fit for future growth. "What I found and what we found here in Boulder are venues of all shapes and sizes that align so well with our festival. Our festival is a festival of global discovery, bringing together artists all around the world. Films big and small will match up so perfectly with the venues right here in Boulder," he said.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
It's Boulder! Sundance Exits Utah For 2027 Move To Blue State Colorado
After over 40 years, the Sundance Film Festival is leaving Park City for a new and lucrative home in Boulder, Colorado. As Deadline has been telling you for months, the Rocky Mountain metropolis has been in pole position over the United Utah bid and the efforts of Cincinnati, Ohio since the Robert Redford founded cinema celebration revealed the trio of finalists last September. More from Deadline Final Word On Sundance 2025: Fest Director Eugene Hernandez Dispels Naysayer But Addresses Challenges In Park City Postmortem Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Sundance's Future In Utah Looks Bleak As Park City Mayor Laments Anti-LGBTQ+ Flag Bill Coming out of two consecutive years of Sundance being canceled for in-person screenings due to the pandemic, an overwhelmed Park City, seismic shifts in the industry, and Sundance Institute executive musical chairs, the festival was looking for dramatic reset with a new location, as Deadline exclusively reported in July 2023. To that, the official unveiling in April last year that Sundance was taking bids from contenders across the nation was an inevitability — as, in many ways, was the selection of Boulder for a 10-year long contract. 'Part of the decision-making process was around opportunity for growth,' bluntly said Acting Sundance Institute CEO Amanda Kelso to Deadline today. 'That is also an important factor for us. Knowing that we can be in a town that has 100,000 people means that it has more venues, more spaces, and more opportunities in how we can be expansive of the festival moving forward.' Thursday's announcement is in accordance with the final decision timeline festival director Eugene Hernandez told Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. on February 22. Additionally, sealing the deal, the Sundance Institute board voted earlier this week to move the festival to Boulder, we've learned. With a financially deep and culturally deep proposal, Boulder, which houses of the University of Colorado, put $34 million in tax incentives on the table over the decade of the new deal. Directly facing the challenges and inconvenience that have hobbled Sundance in Park City in recent years, the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau also detailed in their winning pitch a plethora of venues and lodgings that aim to make Sundance much more accessible and affordable for streamer and studio bosses as well as first time filmmakers going to Sundance on their own dime. 'Colorado is thrilled to welcome the Sundance Film Festival to its new home in Boulder starting in 2027,' Governor Jared Polis said today with news of the big move. 'Here in our state we celebrate the arts and film industry as a key economic driver, job creator, and important contributor to our thriving culture,' the two-term and openly gay Democrat added. 'Now, with the addition of the iconic Sundance Film Festival, we can expect even more jobs, a huge benefit for our small businesses including stores and restaurants. Thank you to the Sundance Institute and all of the partners like the City of Boulder, Visit Boulder, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, and I also want to thank the bipartisan legislators and leadership who have worked tirelessly to make this possible.' The successful presence of the Sundance Institute's hot ticket Directors Lab in Boulder in May 2024 seems to have also helped pave the road to the festival ending up in the city, we hear. At 2.5 hours from LA via plane, Boulder may prove beneficial to those who suffered from the altitude of Park City. Skiing won't be right on Main Street like in Park City, but Boulder is just 5,420 ft above sea level compared to the 7,000 to 10,000 ft above sea level of the Utah resort town. 'From a sense of space perspective, it's this really vibrant town that's surrounded by nature,' Acting Sundance CEO Kelso noted of Boulder. 'You can imagine walking from venue to venue, metabolizing the film you just watched and communing with nature which is something Robert Redford felt so strongly about. When you think about a sense of place perspective, Boulder is a cool town, it's an arts town. There are poets, musicians and filmmakers who live here. It's a tech town. It's also a college town — 38,000 students attend University of Colorado Boulder, and that creates an opportunity for us to think about audience development in a more expansive way.' Hoping to clinch an 11th hour win, conservative Utah and its GOP Gov. Spencer Cox worked the phones and the budgets over the last week to find a way to keep Sundance, sources tell us. Sundance Institute Board Chair Ebs Burnough insisted this morning that 'politics is not the game we play,' but the fact is the winds have shifted more MAGA in the Beehive State over the past few years. In fact, in a political measure by any other name, Sundance has listed 'ethos' and 'inclusion and accessibility' among its self-declared 'seven overreaching focus areas' that set the criteria for a new home. In that context, as Deadline reported on March 12 and again on March 25, the past month saw the passage by the Utah legislature of a bill that bans the LGTBQ+ Pride Flag from being flown on and in government buildings like schools and even the City Hall of liberal-leaning Salt Lake City. Up against a deadline of today to sign House Bill 77, Gov. Cox hasn't said out loud yet if he will allow the clearly discriminatory act to become law. However, HB77 sponsors Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Daniel McCay have made no secret of their feelings about Sundance and their legislation. On March 12, after HB77 passed, McCay sent out a tweet claiming Sundance makes 'porn' and 'does not fit in Utah anymore' while reposting a Deadline story. 'Sundance has nothing to do with the bill,' Rep Lee said to Deadline in an email late Wednesnday. 'Also the governor will sign it, he agrees with the vast majority of Utahns that taxpayer funded entities should be politically neutral.' If Cox does sign the anti-Pride flag bill today, it will take effect in early May. Flying of the rainbow colored flag on or in a state-funded building will result in a $500 per day fine for each flag. All of which means, Sundance 2026 in Park City and SLC will likely be under the provisions of the anti-Pride flag law. The change to Boulder is a much needed jolt to the Sundance Film Festival which has been rather sleepy in its noise post-pandemic. Pre-pandemic, the festival was quite loud, from the women's marches during the early days of the first Trump administration to Taylor Swift debuting her Netflix documentary in 2020. Even the way business is conducted with film sales have changed. Gone are the days when streamers and distributors haggled all night to layout bids that were in the tens of millions of dollars. Now, given the winds of change in theatrical and streamers' needs, it just takes longer to make a sale at Sundance, read its most prolific film this past year, the Jennifer Lopez starring Kiss of the Spider Woman, just found a distributor in Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate and LD Entertainment. Expected to be a bit of a blowout, the very last Sundance in Park City will take place from January 22 – February 1, 2026. 'We're already hard at work at the next Sundance Film Festival, festival director Hernadez admitted Thursday about Sundance's Utah finale next year. 'It will be really meaningful and special for us.' Then, on to Boulder. Best of Deadline '1923' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 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New York Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Sundance Picks Its New Home: Boulder, Colo.
The Sundance Film Festival is venturing to a new ski town. After a year of deliberations, copious site visits and scores of plane rides, the board of the Sundance Institute has chosen Boulder, Colo., to host its film festival beginning January 2027. 'Boulder is a tech town, a college town, it's a really creative town,' Eugene Hernandez, the festival's director, said. 'It's just a really creative place. And that integration of the artsy community with the university side of it all, is really dynamic.' It's also 10 times the size of Park City, Utah, where the festival has been held since the actor and director Robert Redford started it in 1981. As the festival kept growing, Park City began bursting at the seams. Ebs Burnough, chair of the Sundance Institute, said the move to another mountain town would help Sundance maintain its connection to the natural world. 'It's easy to get drawn into that amazing thing that Robert Redford really believed in, which was that commune between the artist and nature, and to actually be able to get away from the verticalness of cities.' To frequent Sundance goers, the move to Boulder is likely to be less jarring than shifting the location to Cincinnati, one of two other finalist cities. Salt Lake City was also in the running, and the loss of the festival will be significant to the state of Utah. The festival generated $132 million in revenue for the state in 2024, according to a report released by the festival. Sundance announced last April that it was exploring the possibility of a new home. Park City just didn't have enough movie theaters, and lodging prices had become exorbitant. A good portion of the locals were ready for it to go, too. While Sundance added 1,730 jobs according to the festival, it also kept skiers away during a prime month of winter snow. 'Words cannot express the sincere gratitude I have for Park City, the state of Utah, and all those in the Utah community that have helped to build the organization,' Mr. Redford said in a statement. Boulder, about 30 miles outside of Denver, has around 100,000 residents compared with Park City's 8,200. The festival intends to center its activities in the city's downtown and its nearby theaters, venues and the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian street with restaurants and cafes. The festival will also collaborate with the University of Colorado Boulder. Initially, over 100 U.S. locations offered to host the festival. Sundance winnowed them down to the 67 that could meet a variety of requirements, including adequate screening and lodging locations, and proximity to a sizable international airport. The Sundance selection committee then invited 13 of those cities to submit a proposal. Six of them — Atlanta; Boulder; Cincinnati; Louisville, Ky., Salt Lake City; and Santa Fe, N.M. — were later selected for site visits. Sundance will not be the only significant film festival held in Colorado. The Telluride Film Festival has been operating over Labor Day weekend in Telluride, a mountain town in the southwest part of the state, for over 50 years.
