Sorry, movie star fans, but the exceedingly glamorous Sundance Film Festival will not be held in San Francisco in 2027, as our bid to be the festival’s new home was rejected.
The most prestigious film festival in the United States is the Sundance Film Festival, considered one of the world’s “Big Five” film festivals along with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and Venice. But news broke last month that the Sundance Film Festival was looking for a new host city after spending most of its 46-year history in Park City, Utah. And it was quite exciting that San Francisco put in a bid to become the new permanent home of Sundance.
Well, sorry to ruin your paparazzo dreams everybody, but the Chronicle reports that San Francisco has lost its bid for the Sundance Film Festival. The application was being handled by the San Francisco Film Commission.
“We remain proud of our community and the abundance of quality film festivals and media events that San Francisco is home to like Arab Film Festival, CAAMFest, Frameline, Jewish Film Festival, SFFILM Festival, SF IndieFest, SF Urban Film Fest, Silent Film Festival, Queer Women of Color Film Festival, and so many more,” that commission’s executive director Manijeh Fata said in a statement to the Chronicle. “We know the vital role of the film industry in San Francisco's economic recovery and growth.”
Frankly, this rejection is probably a huge relief to some of those local film festivals Fata mentioned, particularly SFFILM. Sundance would have completely overshadowed those festivals and rendered them small potatoes (not to mention, bleeding their donor bases too).
Plus, theater venues are an incredibly important part of the bid. And we cannot be 100% sure that the Castro Theatre renovations would be complete by January 2027. Yes, the Castro is scheduled to reopen by summer 2025. But a renovation taking a year and a half longer than anticipated is not unusual, particularly in this town.
The Sundance Film Festival expects to announce its new permanent home “later this winter,” per the Chronicle.
Related: San Francisco Is Putting In a Bid to Become the New Home of the Sundance Film Festival [SFist]
Image: Alex Moliski via Unsplash
