Last week, representatives from the Sundance Film Festival toured the city of Atlanta, which was recently named as one of six finalists that could host the independent film festival from 2027 onward.
Sundance announced a bidding process for a possible new city to call home earlier this year, with Atlanta officially submitting a Request for Proposal and entering the race in June. Officials have not just visited Atlanta, but are also making stops in the other five cities that are still in the race – Boulder, CO, Cincinnati, OH, Louisville, KY, Park City/Salt Lake City, UT, and Santa Fe, NM.
Randy Davidson, the CEO and Founder of Georgia Entertainment, was able to meet with some the Sundance officials during their visit.
“We were really impressed by the messaging that we’ve all gotten around regarding Atlanta being a place that Sundance can grow,” he said of the experience. “Being at Sundance this last year, it’s really tight for Park City to hold. We believe that Atlanta can provide the opportunities for the festival to really expand.”
Davidson first mentioned the Sundance visit in Georgia Entertainment’s newsletter on July 31, thanking the Atlanta Sundance Committee and others for helping to coordinate the effort. According to Atlanta’s Sundance website, the Atlanta Host Committee for the festival is made up of members such as Frank Patterson, president & CEO of Trilith Studios; Chris Escobar, executive director of the Atlanta Film Society and owner of the Plaza and Tara Theatres; and producer Dallas Austin.
While Davidson was able to meet with some of the Sundance representatives during their trip, Georgia Entertainment is not represented on the host committee. Davidson said he thinks the officials appreciated the newness of Georgia and its place in the entertainment industry.
“I think that they really like Atlanta being a new representative geography for entertainment and film,” Davidson said.
Davidson said he still thinks one of the biggest challenges that both Atlanta and Sundance officials see with the city is traffic, and if Sundance chooses Atlanta the city would have to anticipate needing some sort of traffic strategy. Two other cities in Georgia, Savannah and Athens, were invited to send Request for Proposals to host the festival, but did not make it to this final round. That could signal a desire on the festival’s part to grow.
“Sundance right now is so condensed, and that’s why Savannah and even Athens made such good representation,” Davidson said. “But Sundance also knows that this is a chance for them to reshape what they’re doing, and to allow it to be even bigger. The Atlanta scene provides that, even with the challenge of traffic.”
The new Sundance city could be announced before the end of the year.
