“I am so proud and excited to announce that Louisville is now a finalist to be the future home of the Sundance Film Festival,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a press conference late last month.
Louisville was one of six cities Sundance is considering to be its next home.
Greenberg said it took a lot of effort to become a finalist.
“This has been an incredible team effort since we first started working on the RFP response,” Greenberg said in an interview Tuesday. “There have been several phases of the response as well. The first response was totally in writing. That was then a Zoom call that we had with members of the selection committee.”
Soon after that interview, arts and government leaders showed Sundance’s selection committee around the city. Yellow banners across town reading “Louisville welcome Sundance Film Festival” heralded the visit.
Greenberg said he couldn’t give too many details about Louisville's proposal to court Sundance, but he did give an idea of what the selection committee visit would entail.
“'We're going to be showing them several of the key venues where films will be shown, we’ll show them other event spaces where their sponsors could have activations,” Greenberg said. “We want them to get a true sense for the city that we are and where we're headed as a city as well. And, yes, of course, we will have some bourbon.”
Thank you @sundancefest for visiting Louisville! We’d love to host you, your community of storytellers and audiences to our welcoming city and state. pic.twitter.com/EkIjQPcj64
— Mayor Craig Greenberg (@LouisvilleMayor) July 31, 2024
Greenberg said this undertaking has involved people from many sectors of Louisville.
“Each step of the way, we've had so many people from across the community who have volunteered to participate in this effort, folks that are involved in the film production industry, folks that are in various other aspects of the film industry, community leaders, nonprofit leaders, a true reflection of the diversity and strength of our community,” Greenberg said.
One of those film industry leaders is Dean Otto, curator of film at the Speed Art Museum.
The museum is no stranger to Sundance. The Speed Cinema was a satellite screening location when Sundance couldn’t host the festival as normal in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were able to bring 13 films from the Sundance Film Festival and to be sharing them with the local audience here in Louisville,” Otto said.
The Speed Cinema also screens an annual Sundance short film festival.
Otto said the experience of showing Sundance films and others at the Speed Cinema gives Louisville an edge.
“We've demonstrated that we know how to work with filmmakers to have, kind of, ideal screenings of their works because of the incredible projection and sound that we have at the Speed cinema, and that we really know how to host artists as well,” Otto said.
That professionalism and experience are the attributes Greenberg said he wanted to showcase during the selection committee’s visit this week.
“We have a thriving, rich history of being a strong and diverse arts community, whether it's the performing arts, whether it's the visual arts, you name the artistic form of expression, it’s happening here in Louisville in a rich way,” Greenberg said. “There's no better city in America.”
The other finalist cities are:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Boulder, Colorado
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah (current location)
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sundance officials said they don’t plan to share any more details on the process until a final city is selected to host. A final decision is expected late this year or early next.
