Here is the plain version of the sundance film festival boulder 2027 dates and schedule: the festival runs January 21 through 31, 2027, and it happens in Boulder, Colorado, the first time in roughly forty years it has lived anywhere but Park City. If you are planning a trip, or you live here and want to know what is about to land on your town, this is the running summary of everything Sundance has actually confirmed, and we update it as new details drop. Everything below comes from official Sundance and City of Boulder announcements, not guesses.
The dates and the schedule
The 2027 festival is 11 days, January 21 to 31. World premieres screen during the first six days, January 21 through 26, so if you want to catch films with their first-ever audience, front-load your trip. The annual Festival gala lands on Friday, January 22, and the awards ceremony is set for January 29. Sundance confirmed this structure on July 29, 2026.
Cannot make it to Colorado? Public online screenings run January 28 through 31, and press and industry online screenings happen a little earlier, January 27 through 29. So the back half of the festival is built for people watching from a couch.
The program itself is getting bigger for the Boulder debut. Each of the four competition categories (U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic, and World Cinema Documentary) expands to 12 films, and the additional sections, Premieres, Next, Midnight, and Family Matinee, grow along with them. Festival director Eugene Hernandez put it plainly: "More seats, more theaters, allows us this flexibility." He has also described the Boulder venue arrangement as concentrated and intentional in a way that has never happened before for the festival.
Where it all happens
Eleven screening venues, all inside roughly a two-mile radius. That compactness is the whole pitch, and it is a real change from the shuttle-heavy Park City years. Here is the full list, announced February 24, 2026.
- The Boedecker Theater and the Gordon Gamm Theater, both at the Dairy Arts Center
- Boulder High School Auditorium
- Boulder Theater (about 850 seats)
- Casey Middle School Auditorium
- Chautauqua Auditorium
- Cinemark Century Boulder
- eTown Hall
- CU Boulder's Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, Muenzinger Auditorium, and Roe Green Theatre
Macky is the marquee room, with the festival's largest screen. The three CU Boulder venues sit within a 10-minute walk of each other. Chautauqua Auditorium is the outlier, about a mile from the cluster, and Cinemark Century Boulder is reserved for press and industry screenings, so general audiences will spend most of their time elsewhere. The Hotel Boulderado, a block off the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, serves as Festival Headquarters. We break down every one of these rooms in our venue guide.
Beyond the screenings
Talks, panels, and other programming spill into a few more spaces: the Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library, the Dairy Arts Center, eTown Hall again, and Old Main Chapel at CU Boulder. Old Main, built in 1876, hosts festival talks and cultural events but no film screenings. Sundance describes the Dairy Arts Center as the anchor of Boulder's arts ecosystem, a building used by more than 100 nonprofit cultural groups.
The venues are being rebuilt for this
Several of these rooms were never movie theaters, and CU Boulder started fixing that in May 2026. Macky and Roe Green are getting Dolby Atmos sound systems, new screens, and projection hush boxes, plus accessibility work like stage ramps and wheelchair seating. Muenzinger, home to CU's International Film Series since 1941, is getting acoustic and screen upgrades. As Zack Tupper, a CU assistant vice provost, said: "Macky and Roe Green have never been screening spaces, so we're creating a Dolby Atmos experience from scratch." That work timeline runs through October 2026.
Tickets, passes, and the key dates to watch
Here is the timeline Sundance has published, and it is worth putting on your calendar because the good stuff sells fast. Pass types, ticket packages, and pricing details were slated to be shared in September 2026. Passes and ticket packages go on sale in October 2026. The film lineup is announced in December 2026. Single-film tickets go on sale in early January 2027. Sundance Institute members and donors get early access to sales, which is the standard reason people become members before a big year.
What is not published yet: the actual prices and pass tiers. As of late August 2026, Sundance had not released pass pricing, and no 2027 waitlist system had been announced, so anyone quoting you a figure is guessing. We will update the moment real numbers land. The full breakdown lives in our tickets and passes explainer.
Rather work the festival than pay for it? Volunteer applications opened August 31, 2026, and Sundance needs more than 2,000 volunteers. That is one of the more reliable ways for a local to get inside the thing.
Getting to Boulder and getting around town
Denver International Airport (DEN) is the gateway. Visit Boulder pegs the drive at about 45 minutes, toll-free via I-70, I-270, and US-36, or roughly 40 minutes on the E-470 and Northwest Parkway toll route, with no mountain passes to worry about in January. If you would rather skip the rental car, RTD's SkyRide Route AB1 runs direct from DEN to the Downtown Boulder Station at 14th and Walnut for a $10 one-way airport fare, taking about an hour and 15 to 20 minutes, roughly every 60 minutes, seven days a week. A flat-rate taxi runs $115.04 one-way between DEN and Boulder. Uber, Lyft, and Z Trip all serve the airport with app pricing.
Once you are here, you probably do not need the car. The festival core is genuinely walkable, anchored by the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, and the city has more than 300 miles of bike and multi-use paths. Sundance's official guide points attendees toward walking, scooters, e-bikes, and Boulder's local bus network, which it says reaches all the venues. As part of the deal, the city provides free rides on the HOP local circulator with hours matched to the festival schedule, plus free passes for up to 5,000 BCycle e-bike users. One honest caveat: the HOP currently stops around 10 p.m. and does not reach Chautauqua, and since some screenings start at midnight and let out near 2 a.m., late-night transit was still being negotiated with RTD as of early 2026. More detail is in our getting here guide.
Downtown also has six city-run parking garages with more than 3,700 spaces, the biggest being 15th and Pearl at 686 spaces, all with EV chargers. And a Boulder reality worth naming: late-January highs run around 43 to 44 degrees, lows around 23, with mostly sunny skies but a real chance of at least one snow event across the 11 days. Bring boots with grip. Our winter in Boulder guide covers the rest.
Where to stay, and why to book early
Lodging is the part that punishes procrastinators. Boulder proper has only about 2,900 hotel rooms against a festival that drew roughly 85,000 in-person attendees in Park City in 2025. Visit Boulder counts 4,777 hotel rooms within a 10-mile radius of the festival core, growing past 5,000 by 2027, with more than 15,000 within a 20-minute drive and over 74,000 within 40 miles, a radius that reaches Longmont, Louisville, Broomfield, and metro Denver.
The official platform is lodging.sundance.org, run with Visit Boulder: hand-selected hotels and rentals, a claimed lowest-published-rates guarantee, a free concierge line at 720-585-3600, and a $50 Uber credit for bookings over $1,000. Prices are all over the map. As of June 2026, official-site listings ranged from $50 a night at an Econo Lodge in Longmont up to $3,636 a night for a five-bedroom Boulder home, and the cheapest in-city hotel listing found was $229 a night at the Boulder Broker. Some homes were listed above $5,000 a night, and one early rental exceeded $60,000 for 10 nights, so read every listing with a skeptical eye. Boulder also created a Festival Lodging Rental License so more homes can come online legally, which should ease the crunch. We keep a running rundown in our where to stay guide.
Why Boulder, and what the deal actually is
Sundance ran a year-long search after outgrowing Park City, and Boulder beat out Cincinnati and Salt Lake City. The institute pointed to the walkable downtown, the arts and tech scene, the mountain setting, and the college-town energy. Acting CEO Amanda Kelso called Boulder "an art town, tech town, mountain town, and college town. It is a place where the Festival can build and flourish." Robert Redford, who founded the institute, endorsed the move in March 2025, saying it "will ensure that the Festival continues its work of risk taking, supporting innovative storytellers, fostering independence, and entertaining and enlightening audiences."
The commitment runs 10 years, 2027 through 2036, backed by up to $34 million in Colorado state tax credits (via House Bill 25-1005) and roughly $34 million more in incentives from the City of Boulder, Visit Boulder, the Boulder Chamber, and CU Boulder. The city frames its share as performance-based incentives and in-kind support worth about $2.1 million a year, with no direct cash. The state projects more than $2 billion in cumulative economic impact over the deal. The city expects around 86,000 in-person attendees based on the festival's recent average, with roughly 30,000 out-of-town visitors at the peak. Boulder Chamber CEO John Tayer called it "a revitalizing shot in the arm for our hotels, restaurants, retailers and other businesses," landing in the city's slowest visitor season.
What is still unknown
As of late August 2026, three big things are still open. Pass prices and tiers have not been published. The film lineup does not exist until December 2026. And the city has not released specific road closures or the final festival transportation plan, though it holds a master event permit for the core venues. We will update this page as each lands. In the meantime, if you are a local looking to make a night of it around the crowds, our Boulder restaurants guide and the live Boulder events calendar are the two things worth bookmarking now. And you can always start at our Sundance hub for everything in one place.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Sundance Film Festival dates for 2027?
The 2027 Sundance Film Festival runs January 21 through 31 in Boulder, Colorado. World premieres screen January 21 to 26, the gala is January 22, awards are January 29, and public online screenings run January 28 to 31.
Why did Sundance leave Park City?
Organizers said the festival had outgrown Park City after about four decades, lacking enough theaters and affordable housing. Sundance ran a year-long search and chose Boulder over finalists Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, citing Boulder's walkable downtown, arts and tech scene, natural setting, and college-town character.
When do Sundance 2027 tickets and passes go on sale?
Passes and ticket packages go on sale in October 2026, the film lineup is announced in December 2026, and single-film tickets go on sale in early January 2027. Sundance Institute members and donors get early access. Pass prices had not been published as of late August 2026.
How do I get from Denver International Airport to Boulder?
The drive is about 45 minutes toll-free via I-70, I-270, and US-36, with no mountain passes. RTD's SkyRide AB1 bus runs direct from DEN to Downtown Boulder Station for a $10 one-way fare in about an hour and 15 to 20 minutes, and a flat-rate taxi is $115.04 one-way.
Do I need a car in Boulder for Sundance?
Probably not. All 11 screening venues sit within roughly a two-mile radius anchored by the Pearl Street mall, and the festival provides free rides on the HOP circulator plus free BCycle e-bike passes. Just note that late-night transit for midnight screenings was still being worked out as of 2026, so plan your ride home from the later shows.
How can I volunteer for the 2027 Sundance Film Festival?
Volunteer applications opened August 31, 2026, and Sundance needs more than 2,000 volunteers for the Boulder edition. Volunteering is one of the more dependable ways for a local to get inside the festival.