EXCLUSIVE: By the end of April, the new home of the Sundance Film Festival should be public knowledge with the Salt Lake City/Park City combo, Boulder, Colorado or Cincinnati bid picked as the host for the next decade. However, a bill heading toward Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk that would ban the Pride flag in schools and other state government buildings might be an eleventh-hour obstacle to the Beehive State’s hopes of keeping the Robert Redford-founded shindig past 2026.
“What are they thinking?” a Sundance insider said late Tuesday of the bill to ban the LGBTQ+ flag after a virtual meeting between united Utah leaders and the festival’s relocation committee. “Utah is Utah, but this goes to the heart of the community Sundance has worked years and years to develop.”
“It is a terrible law, a terrible look for the state,” the insider added of the Republican legislation that was passed by the state Senate on a 21-8 vote last week. “No matter what they say, we all know who it’s aimed at — the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s unacceptable.”
Having put forward a pitch to shift the focus of Sundance from its longtime base of Park City to Salt Lake City starting in 2027, the Utah bid is led by Gov. Cox, with SLC and Park City mayors onboard along with regional business and civic leaders. The festival’s current decade-long contract with Park City expires after Sundance 2026. Even before Sundance made it public in April that it would take bids for a new home, almost everyone acknowledged something had to change after 40 years in the once-sleepy resort town. While broad questions of Sundance’s future in a fast-changing media environment and the finances of the festival certainly loom large in the search for a new home, Utah has been a homecourt front-runner in the drawn-out selection process since it was announced almost a year ago.
In recent weeks, knowing that nothing says “I love you” like cold, hard cash, Cox has shifted tactics and moved to ensure $3 million for Sundance in this year’s state budget.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox takes a selfie with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp at Donald Trump’s second Inauguration. (Getty Images)
Despite that, the likelihood that Cox will sign the anti-Pride flag bill soon has caused red-state Utah to find itself at deep odds with Sundance’s expressed values of a “vibrant, inviting and inclusive festival.”
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With blue-state Boulder emerging in the past three months as the one to beat among the three finalists, part of the raison d’être of the March 11 virtual meeting between Utah and Sundance principals was to increase a comeback momentum for the state. The recent passage of the anti-Pride bill, which several Utah and SLC sources contend is aimed to punish the relatively progressive and most-populous city in the state, has caused “concern” and “slowed” that momentum, I’m told.
Passed in the last days of the current Utah legislative session, the bill sponsored by Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Daniel McCay — HB77, or the Flag Display Amendments — would allow only “the display of certain flags on government property.”
At one point seeming to allow the Nazi flag and the Confederate flag in history class until that loophole was closed, the bill now permits, with a few exceptions, just the U.S. flag, the Utah state flag, Olympic flags, military flags and the flags of universities and colleges to be flown or put up. While not preventing individuals from waving the multi-colored Pride flag at parades, protests and more or wearing the symbol, HB77, if it becomes law, would stop the Pride flag and all other non-sanctioned flags from flying from and inside city, state and other public buildings during such parades and celebrations or any other time.
Blasted by the ACLU and Equality Utah, who termed the measure a “blatantly unconstitutional bill,” the success of HB77 comes now after two previous attempts failed. “What’s the difference?” the festival insider asks rhetorically of the bill’s passage this time. “Trump’s back in the White House, attacking trans rights, LGBTQ+ rights, erasing them.”
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Along with Park City Mayor Nann Worel, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall was one of the participants in that remote meeting between Sundance and Utah officials Tuesday.
“There is not a state in this nation where inclusivity, diversity and empathy aren’t under attack, and everyone has a role in standing up for those values,” the Mayor said to Deadline on Wednesday. “Salt Lake City will never stop supporting our neighbors, including the LGBTQIA community, and Sundance is an incredible partner in that support,” the longtime LGBTQ+ rights supporter continued. “The power of amplifying voices and creating change through art is needed now more than ever in this ongoing work.”
A Pride flag is currently flying at the main SLC civic building. It was placed up there late on March 7 as the state legislature was wrapping up.
Neither the governor’s office nor Sundance itself responded to Deadline’s request for comment on HB77 and Utah’s multi-pronged bid for the festival.
However, Rep. Lee, one of the sponsors of the bill, told Deadline on Wednesday that with HB77, “We are making sure that flags being displayed on government property are politically neutral”. Asked if he thought the bill could hurt Utah’s chances of keeping Sundance, the first-term representative from the state’s 16th District added, “Not at all.”
Lee, who was a big backer of the successful effort to ban fluoride from the drinking water in Utah, on March 6 reposted a tweet that was full of praise for him on the flag legislation. Nothing new there for anyone online, conservative politicians and otherwise, to do. However, the tweet also claimed that the Pride and Black Lives Matter flags are “Marxist” and part of the “religion” of “wokeism” being forced on kids in the state.
With millions in support, tax breaks and more being offered by the trio of Sundance finalists to snag the festival, Utah would take a significant hit if it lost the annual event and its various year-round labs.
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The most recent data prepared for the festival by Y2 Analytics says that along with the prestige and two weeks in the international media spotlight, the 2024 Sundance Film Festival brought in $132 million for Utah in what is called “total economic impact.” Part of that so-called impact out of the 11-day 2024 fest was around 1,730 jobs for Utah residents and $13.8 million in local and state taxes.
Breaking the downward pattern that a number of domestic and international festivals have suffered over the past five years or so, Sundance 2024’s total economic impact was up from the $118 million that the 2023 festival brought in. Coming off the 2021 and 2022 Sundance Film Festivals being shuttered for in-person attendance and screenings due to the Covid pandemic, the 2023 festival raised $12.3 million taxes for the state and municipalities and created 1,608 jobs.
As for where Sundance will end up next, festival director Eugene Hernandez told Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. late last month: “We’re still working through that process. The folks from the finalist cities were at the festival. We hope to have a decision in place by end of March or early April.”
Mark your calendars.