Ruby Acharya, left, gets some direction from her parents, Samala and Ganga Acharya, while getting her picture taken near the Cross of the Martyrs overlooking downtown Santa Fe in 2021.
Cillian Murphy, who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, on the set of Oppenheimer in New Mexico. The state has worked to court the film industry in recent years with tax incentives.
The Egyptian Theatre on Main Street during the first day of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, file.
Ruby Acharya, left, gets some direction from her parents, Samala and Ganga Acharya, while getting her picture taken near the Cross of the Martyrs overlooking downtown Santa Fe in 2021.
Cillian Murphy, who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, on the set of Oppenheimer in New Mexico. The state has worked to court the film industry in recent years with tax incentives.
The City Different could be adding one more festival to its calendar, as the city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County have submitted a joint bid to be the next location of the Sundance Film Festival.
Visit Santa Fe Executive Director Randy Randall said the city responded to a request for information after the Sundance Institute announced in April it was exploring a new location for its annual festival once its contract with Park City, Utah, expires after 2026.
“It would be a significant benefit to the city,” he said of the festival.
The proposal was submitted on behalf of the city and county by the Santa Fe Film Office, he said. Film Commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia, who leads the office, said Thursday she was not at liberty to discuss the bid.
“We are under a really strict [nondisclosure agreement] at this point,” she said. “We’re going through the process, and that’s all I can really say.”
Several city councilors said they did not know anything about the proposal, which came up during a presentation from the Santa Fe Film and Digital Media Council at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
“Why don’t we take this offline, and we’ll talk about it,” Mayor Alan Webber said Wednesday in response to a question from Councilor Michael Garcia about whether the city had submitted a bid.
Garcia said at the meeting he was surprised the council had not been notified.
“If the city were to enter into any kind of an official contract, it would go before the City Council, and we’re not near that,” LaBar-Tapia said Thursday as to why councilors had not been involved.
County Commissioner Justin Greene said the proposal came up at a meeting earlier this year but that he was not privy to specifics.
“It was briefly announced at a County Commission meeting about two months ago acknowledging we were a party to this collaborative effort,” he said.
The city is host to a number of festivals in the spring and fall, including the Santa Fe International Film Festival and the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. Sundance takes place in January, which Randall said is one of the city’s slowest tourism months.
“We really don’t have an offseason any more, but it’s a slower time,” he said.
Hosting Sundance would show the city is “not just a seasonal destination,” Randall said.
While the festival could be a prestige and economic boon for the city — some estimates have put its economic impact to Utah at more than $100 million — Randall also acknowledged it would be a big lift.
“What’s required to put on a festival like that is pretty extensive,” he said.
If Sundance did express a desire to relocate to Santa Fe, there would be several years to prepare. The festival’s current contract with Park City expires in 2026, meaning the first festival in a new city would be in January 2027.
Should Sundance want to move to Santa Fe, Garcia said any decision should involve more than just elected officials.
“The impact that a festival such as Sundance would have on our city warrants a community discussion,” he said.
Several cities have gone public with their bids, including Boulder, Colo., and Atlanta, both of which are offering significant financial incentives.
The Utah Film Commission also put in a bid to keep the festival in state, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The city of Atlanta and its partners have pledged $2 million to support the festival and created a website touting the reasons the city would be a good fit for Sundance.
A coalition of partners submitted a proposal on behalf of Boulder last week which included a $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Economic Development Commission and $250,000 from the Colorado Office of Film, TV and Media. Like New Mexico, Colorado has been jockeying to expand its film industry.
“Colorado and the Boulder community are thrilled to be throwing our hat in the ring to become the next host of the Sundance Film Festival,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release last week. “This opportunity would create new jobs and drive economic development in Colorado.”
An April news release announcing the search process said the Sundance Institute is making sure that “inclusivity and sustainability are always at the forefront of the festival experience.” Institute spokeswoman Tammie Rosen declined Thursday to answer specific questions about the process.
“Throughout the [request for proposals] process, as the Institute is focused on completing a fair and comprehensive review of all possible partners, we will not be commenting at all on interest expressed or communities that approach us or those that bid,” she wrote in an email.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, LaBar-Tapia noted Sundance already has a connection to Santa Fe through its Native Lab program, which works with Indigenous filmmakers.
“We do have a Sundance presence that’s been in Santa Fe for 10 years,” she said.
