LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville was announced Friday as one of six finalist cities to host the Sundance Film Festival in 2027.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said Louisville is proud to be considered to host the film festival.
"Our rich history hosting world-class events, growing film industry, and commitment to sustainability position us as a perfect stage for the Festival's future," Greenberg said. "We are home to the greatest two minutes in sports and we are ready to host the greatest 10 days in film."
The Sundance Film Festival will take place in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah in 2025 and 2026. The location decision will apply to the Festival not only in 2027, but in subsequent years too.
Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers said he's prepared to work with his colleagues in Frankfort to help bring the festival to the Bluegrass State which Greenberg said could generate more than $170 million in revenue for the local economy.
"When you think about the Sundance Film Festival and what it would mean for an immediate economic impact to this area, it would be tremendous," Stivers said. "We have looked at numbers. But the residual economics, what it would do for spurring this industry on and creating another industry that would help this commonwealth…it was a no-brainer."
The finalists selected to move forward to the final phase are:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Boulder, Colorado
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
502 Film President Soozie Eastman is on the committee that curated the proposal presented to Sundance, outlining why Louisville should be chosen to host the festival.
"We have a very compact footprint right down here in our downtown area, we have a city that is ripe with culture already; if you look at Actor's Theatre, if you look at our orchestra, Speed Cinema, at a lot of our festivals that we have, we are an arts and culture community," Eastman said. "This gives us an opportunity to capitalize on what we've been building here as locals in our beautiful city for so long."
About 87,000 attended Sundance in person in 2023, a number Louisville Tourism President and CEO Cleo Battle said the city is ready for.
"What I can guarantee, the 67,000 folks that work in the hospitality industry in this community, will be ready," Battle said. "We do events in this town, and we do them well. Sundance Film Festival, this is the perfect stage for you."
The Sundance Institute said they will assess each city's infrastructure, ethos and equity values, event capabilities to host the festival, and how each finalist could sustainably serve and support the Sundance Film Festival community of independent artists and audiences.
Each finalist demonstrated how they would welcome and continue to foster the Sundance community and culture of independent creativity that is an integral part of the Institute and Festival experience, festival officials said.
Greenberg said that the Sundance Selection Committee will be coming to visit Louisville later this month - and said they should be making a decision before the end of the year.