Sundance: Polis finalizes festival tax-credit bill

DENVER — The organizers of the Sundance Film Festival, which is set to call Boulder home for a decade beginning in 2027, will have access to millions of dollars in state tax credits to help put down roots in Colorado. 

Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 25-1005 into law Tuesday, codifying a tax-incentives offer that supporters say was a key factor in luring the world-renowned movie festival away from its long-time home in Park City, Utah. 

“The exposure that we get from (hosting Sundance), money can’t buy,” Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday during a bill signing ceremony at the Colorado Capitol building.

House Bill 25-1005 specifies that the bulk of the tax incentives — as much as $34 million over 10 years — would be available only to a “global film festival” with a “multi-decade operating history and a verifiable track record of attracting 100,000 or more in-person ticket sales and over 10,000 out-of-state and international attendees …” In other words, the legislation was drafted with the specific aim of scoring a commitment from Sundance.

“This bill is a huge win for our economy, it’s a win for all Coloradans,” Polis said.

Under HB 25-1005, smaller film festivals — the Telluride Film Festival, Boulder International Film Festival and Denver Film Festival, for example — are eligible for up to $5 million in tax breaks over 10 years.

“We are incredibly grateful to the State of Colorado for this support, not only for the Sundance Film Festival, but also for the many film festivals that have spent decades building and nurturing a rich cultural landscape in Colorado. This investment highlights the invaluable role the state plays in cultivating creative industries that both enrich our culture and drive the economy,” Sundance Institute board chair Ebs Burnough and institute CEO Amanda Kelso said in a prepared statement. “We are also deeply honored as a nonprofit to be welcomed into Colorado’s thriving film festival and arts ecosystem. We look forward to the future, inviting our audiences and artists to join us in Boulder in 2027, and are excited to contribute to the vibrant arts community here in Colorado.”

The Sundance Institute is the festival’s nonprofit organizing body.

Boulder beat out Sundance’s long-time home of Park City, Utah, as well as Cincinnati, for the right to host the festival founded more than four decades ago by Hollywood icon Robert Redford.

Redford is no stranger to Boulder, having attended the University of Colorado for a year in the 1950s, during which he worked as a janitor at The Sink, an iconic restaurant in Boulder’s University Hill district. His son Jamie and daughter Shauna both graduated from CU, from which Redford received an honorary degree in 1987.

Sundance festival director Eugene Hernandez said in late March that leaders with the Sundance Institute “envision the heart of this festival centered right here in downtown Boulder, utilizing a wide array of theaters and venues, and incorporating spaces all around Peal Street Mall. Nearby spaces will offer dedicated locations for our community to gather, including select spots on the University of Colorado Boulder campus.”

Venues in surrounding communities, such as the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, are also likely to host some Sundance events, and festival-goers are expected to spread their hospitality spending around hotels, restaurants and shops throughout the Front Range.

Among the parties that last year helped submit a response to a request for proposals, or RFP, to Sundance on behalf of Boulder are the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the Colorado Office of Film Television and Media, the Boulder Chamber, the city, the University of Colorado, the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Stanley Film Center at the Stanley Hotel.

In addition to the tax benefits established by House Bill 25-1005, the Colorado Economic Development Commission last year approved $1.5 million in incentives from the EDC’s strategic fund to help lure the festival. 

While critics of the bill argued that statewide taxpayers are subsidizing an event that will largely benefit the Boulder area, supporters claim that the whole state — not just communities within shouting distance of the Flatirons — will reap economic benefits from hosting Sundance that far exceed the tax credit total.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival contributed more than $118 million to Utah’s economy, brought in more than 21,000 out-of-state visitors and created 1,608 jobs that paid Utah workers $63 million in wages, according to OEDIT.

In Colorado, the festival will “create over $2 billion dollars of economic activity over 10 years,” Polis said Tuesday.

Furthermore, he said, Sundance’s decision to relocate to Boulder sends “a very strong message” that “Colorado is the place for creatives, it’s a place for the film industry. This further cements that status, and is an important economic driver and an important cultural driver for the country and for the world.”

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