What Will Sundance 2025 Look Like? Festival Director Eugene Hernandez Offers an Early Preview

Kate Erbland
·3 min read

The location of the vaunted Sundance Film Festival may possibly be decamping in just two years (current finalists for the gig: Atlanta, Boulder, Cincinnati, Louisville, Santa Fe, and Sundance’s current home in Park City and Salt Lake City). But when the 2025 edition bows next January, it will still be in Park City, Utah.

Ahead of 2025, Sundance’s own (and IndieWire’s own co-founder) director and head of public programming, Eugene Hernandez, has sent around a fresh missive detailing what we can expect from the event, including kickoff times, online screening information, and venues.

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The 2025 festival will run January 23–February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, with online screenings during the second half of the festival. The festival will begin premiering films at noon local time on Thursday, January 23 through Tuesday, January 28 in Park City, along with screenings in Salt Lake City starting Friday, January 24. Festival awards will again be presented on the festival’s final Friday, January 31, when juried awards and audience favorites will be announced.

When it comes to the festival’s online component, as was the case this year, “films in the five competition sections (including NEXT) will be available as part of the online program from Thursday, January 30 — Sunday, February 2. Films invited to other sections can also select to participate in the exclusive online festival program for limited audiences. Press and industry will have online access to the competition films and others that opt-in for the professional community starting one day earlier, Wednesday, January 29.”

As of now, venues for the festival will include Eccles Theater, Holiday Village Cinemas (which recently filed for bankruptcy), Library Center Theatre, Megaplex Theatres Park City at Redstone, and The Ray Theatre in Park City, as well as Salt Lake Film Society’s Broadway Centre Cinemas and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.

Additionally, Hernandez shares that the programming team is “already watching and discussing films for the 2025 festival” and that we “can expect a program size similar to last year, with 90-plus feature films and 50-plus shorts across all of our program sections.”

In his letter, Hernandez also makes reference to the myriad of changes at the festival (like the recent departure of Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente), with a particular eye on the possibility that Sundance will move in 2027, writing, “As we’re preparing for the 2025 Festival, we’re also thinking about Sundance Institute’s core mission as a nonprofit of supporting independent artists, which means thinking about the long-term future. As you may know, we’re in the process of exploring viable locations to host the Festival starting in 2027, which includes Utah.”

He adds, “That search won’t impact the festivals in Park City and Salt Lake City in 2025 and 2026. We remain deeply grateful to Park City and the State of Utah for their ongoing partnership and are proud of the legacy we’ve built together over these past four decades. We look forward to being with you in Utah again in January.”

In preparation for the 2025 festival, a limited number of public ticket packages and passes will go on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, July 23 for one week only. You can visit the Sundance Film Festival website to purchase tickets at the best prices of the year, including the Festival Package, offering 10 in-person screening tickets with early ticket selection, the Salt Lake City Pass providing early selection for in-person screenings, and the Utah Locals Ticket Package with early access to ticket selection for 10 screenings.

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