Edited transcript: Sundance Institute leaders on the move to Boulder, student access and press accreditation

Opening

Andy Green, FoxTalk: Welcome, everyone. I’m Andy Green, editor of FoxTalk. FoxTalk is a Colorado student-led newsroom. Our mission is to give students real journalism experience by actually doing the work: reporting stories, interviewing people who are making decisions, working across student newsrooms and creating access that students can turn into published journalism.

That’s really the reason we organized today’s session. Sundance moving the Film Festival to Boulder is a major Colorado story, and we wanted student reporters to have direct, on-the-record access to the people leading the transition before festival week, rather than only covering it once everything is already happening.

We’re joined by Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Film Festival, and Paula DuPré Pesmen, managing director of the Sundance Institute. Eugene, Paula, thank you both for making the time for Colorado student journalists.

Emily Doskow from FoxTalk is going to lead the first part of the conversation. After that, we’ll open it up to the student newsrooms so each newsroom has a chance to ask a question. Afterward, members of Sundance’s communications team will stay on briefly to go over the practical basics of press accreditation.

Emily, I’ll turn it over to you.

What the Festival wants to preserve from Park City

Emily Doskow, FoxTalk: Eugene, I want to start with what Sundance wants to carry forward. What about the Park City Festival is non-negotiable to preserve in Boulder?

Eugene Hernandez: First, thank you again. I’m really glad to be in this Zoom room with all of you and have the opportunity to talk about what we’re doing.

I appreciate Andy’s framing of not just waiting until festival week. It gives us a chance to start talking now, to share what we’re working on and also to get to know you better — your questions, what intrigues you about our work and what you want to understand in the lead-up to January and at the Festival itself.

We’re a little over 100 days from the Festival, and it will mean a lot for us to talk with you today and also to have you there. I hope you, your colleagues or the colleagues you represent will really dig into the Festival. We’re committed to sharing as much as we can with you today, in the lead-up to the Festival and at the Festival.

I started going to Sundance in 1993. I was in my 20s. The people I met that first year, the connections I made and the experiences I had were transformative for me. One of the people I met on a Festival shuttle bus is someone I later started a business with called IndieWire, and I became a journalist.

I didn’t study journalism. I learned journalism through the work of IndieWire. I was a business owner and operator, but also an editor-in-chief, learning what that meant.

I’m a little envious that you’re working in student newsrooms and getting that training and experience because I didn’t have that. I had to learn the hard way by starting something. But as a founder, you also get a unique perspective.

As for Sundance, I’ve said internally and in press interviews that the Festival is moving to Boulder, but we’re also building a new Festival in Boulder.

What moves with us is the vision, values, history and legacy of the Institute and the principles established by our founder, Robert Redford. We carry that mission, those values and those principles wherever we go.

Right now we’re in our selection process. Our teams are watching more than 15,000 films to select the 150-plus films that will play at the Festival in January. That process is not really different from what it has been. We cast a very wide net.

We’re looking for needles in haystacks. We’re saying to artists around the world that Sundance remains a place of opportunity to bring new work. The majority of the films we show are by first-, second- and early-career filmmakers and storytellers. We also have alumni who return with new films.

That is the core we take with us.

We will express it differently in Boulder. Boulder is a different community and the audience is different. We’re concentrating the footprint in a different way than we did in Utah, bringing things into a tighter area. Those are fundamental changes, but the heart of the organization, the Festival, the mission and the goals remain the same.

Doskow: What is one thing you want to change with the Festival being in Boulder?

Hernandez: I’ll elaborate on something I said a moment ago: bringing people closer together.

Community is such a key component of our Festival, and it has been for a long time. But we’re moving our mission and building a Festival in a new place, and Boulder already has a great artistic tradition.

Sundance is tapping into that existing community of arts organizations, nonprofit organizations, the university population, students, music, technology and other creative work happening in Boulder.

The one thing I would hone in on is bringing everybody together around a central point.

If you stand somewhere on Pearl Street during the Sundance Film Festival, the Festival will radiate out from there to our venues, our partners and the spaces we will populate — within a few blocks of Pearl Street, up to Chautauqua, over to the university and beyond.

Then there are people coming to the region who will stay in Boulder, nearby communities, Denver or other parts of Colorado.

Creating that centralized home base is something I’m thinking about as distinct and unique to the Festival in Boulder. Paula and I and our teams talk about centrality and community all the time. That’s the framing and the foundation.

What is already set — and what is still being built

Doskow: Paula, let me take that from the vision to the actual build. What major parts of the Boulder Festival are already locked in as of today?

Paula DuPré Pesmen: Thank you for having me. I’m so happy to be here and meet you all, and we look forward to many more conversations in the future.

What has been finalized and confirmed is our venues, and that’s very different.

The Festival was spread between three locations in the past. Now it’s all much more consolidated. Chautauqua is a little farther out and will have transportation, but the rest of the venues are almost all within a walkable distance.

I imagine it as scooping the whole Festival into one location.

That will be incredible for filmmakers and artists bringing their projects, for panels, discussions, screenings and Q&As, and then for people to be able to walk to another film or panel and talk about what they just saw.

When Eugene and I first met, he talked about his vision for the Festival around community and people leaving with a sense that they were part of something. That has really been the intention in what we’re building.

All of the venues are places rooted in our community. They are places we go for film, arts, dance, music and theater. It feels authentic to how the Festival has been shaping this footprint around the experience for people coming here and people who already live here.

I would say it’s consolidated and more connected. I think that connection is going to feel great when you’re experiencing the Festival with an international and national audience of artists, industry professionals and film lovers.

Doskow: What is the biggest piece that still has to be solved before Jan. 21?

DuPré Pesmen: It’s really bringing it all together.

We’re in the final months of planning. A lot of work has gone into planning and collaboration. We have collaboration with CU, the city, Downtown Boulder, Visit Boulder, the Chamber and others. There is a coalition in Boulder and across the state working together.

Now it’s about bringing the plan together in a way we can communicate externally to guests, because this is new for them.

It’s new for people in the industry and artists who knew the Festival in its previous home, and it’s also new for our community. We want everyone to understand what to expect and what we’re going to learn together.

We’re really focused on finalizing, communicating and tying everything together.

What Boulder changes programmatically

Doskow: Eugene, one of the changes Sundance has already announced is that the 2027 program itself will be larger. What does Boulder geographically let Sundance do programmatically that Park City did not?

Hernandez: On one hand, we can talk about the physical aspects — the venues being concentrated and the opportunity to have a Festival radiating out from Pearl Street.

But when you ask about the programmatic side, I want to talk about audience, because the Festival is not the Festival without the audience. That is still taking shape as well.

As a festival, we’re a gateway. We’re a connector between artists and audiences.

Our audience includes people from the industry who are looking to acquire films or track emerging and established filmmakers. There are curators from other festivals and other parts of the world. There are audiences who have traveled to Sundance for years and return year after year. There are thousands of volunteers.

And then there is the local community.

That could mean people within walking distance of Pearl Street, people in nearby communities, or people in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and beyond.

Programming this Festival is about serving all those audiences.

What we will keep saying in the next hundred-plus days is: This is a Festival for you. This is a Festival for students. This is a Festival for people who are aspiring journalists or already journalists, for people who may want to work in the industry or already do in Colorado.

It is not just an industry event. It is an audience event.

We want people to know they’re invited. It’s not a private industry event.

We also get thousands of submissions from around the world, and we’re seeing major growth in submissions from outside the U.S. We’re watching films from many different places and from both young and established voices.

I think about not only the stories that are on the screen but the stories behind those stories — how a film made it to the screen.

Once we can tell you what the program is, we’ll be able to talk more about the connections we see among the films we’ve invited and what they tell us about independent filmmaking and storytelling right now.

Doskow: As the program expands, what part of the Sundance experience are you going to be most careful not to lose?

Hernandez: You’re going to hear me say the “C” word again: community.

How can we create or invite connections between the artists who come to the Festival and audiences, and between people in the audience themselves?

That is probably what I think about most.

That is what festivals offer that is different from watching a movie on a streaming service at home. Those are great ways to watch movies, too. We all watch films in many different ways now.

But we’re trying to plant a flag for community and coming together in person: watching a movie together in a theater, then having conversations before and after.

What did you see? What did you think? How did you respond?

Paula and I were just at the Telluride Film Festival with our colleague Kim Yutani, our director of programming. It was fun not only to be in the theater together, but to have the time in line before the movie to talk about what we were seeing and hearing, talk to people you meet in line, and then walk out of the theater and ask each other what we thought.

Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we disagree.

That is the beauty of everybody bringing their own experience to a festival. That is what we’re trying to foster.

Transportation, lodging and getting around Boulder

Doskow: Paula, for a first-time attendee coming from elsewhere in Colorado, what should they understand right now about getting to Boulder for the Festival?

DuPré Pesmen: Stay tuned to our website as more information is released about transportation, parking and how to get in and out.

Once you’re here, what is different and really wonderful about the move is the walkability of the Festival.

You’ll be able to move through the Festival by walking and taking buses around the footprint. For guests coming from around Colorado, maybe come for a few nights, book a hotel, stay, have meals, go shopping, see movies, go to panels and experience Boulder.

The ecosystem of the Festival is very multilayered. You can engage in different ways. Eugene mentioned meeting his business partner on a bus. That happens.

You’ll be in line, exchange numbers, meet somebody at a film or waiting for a film. I’ve done films with people I met because they came to a screening and waited in line. You never know who you’re going to meet or what you’re going to see.

Most of the films that come are independently funded and independently made, and for many of them it will be the first time anyone in the world is seeing them.

I hope people around our state know that they’re invited and welcome. We’re going to experience something we’ve never had here.

This is a statewide event. This is for all of Colorado. I hope people find ways to spend some time and really be part of it.

Doskow: You mentioned the walkability around Pearl Street. For getting up to Chautauqua, is Sundance providing transportation or will it use existing public transit?

DuPré Pesmen: There isn’t currently a bus there, but we are finalizing plans and will be able to share that soon. There will be transportation to Chautauqua, as well as the Dairy Arts Center on the other side of the footprint.

For most of the other venues, you can use the bus or walk. There are presentation venues and a panel venue on the university campus, and then Boulder High, Casey Middle School, the Dairy Arts Center, Boulder Theater, eTown and other spaces.

You can walk to most things, see a film and then go to a panel.

We’re truly building a community for the Festival and the guests who are going to join us.

Doskow: Which transportation or lodging pieces are still in development?

DuPré Pesmen: We’re still finalizing the transportation plan, and that will be communicated once we have all the final pieces. In general, we have our plans and now we’re finalizing them.

As far as lodging, our Festival website already has hotel information. Some hotels in Denver indicate that they include shuttles, and there are RTD buses from Union Station to Boulder.

If someone prefers to stay in the Union Station area in downtown Denver, there is transportation access. Hotel options extend from Boulder into Denver.

Boulder also has short-term rentals coming online. We’re talking to people who are already securing housing.

One thing about housing is that people who come to the Festival tend to like their routines. When they find a house, restaurant or coffee shop they like, they can become loyal returners.

These are relationships that will start this year and could continue for a decade or more.

What “everyone is invited” means for students

Doskow: Eugene, at the University of Denver earlier this month, you told the audience, “Everyone is invited.” For a Colorado student who has never been to a film festival, what does that invitation mean in practical terms?

Hernandez: I’m going to start bigger picture and talk about establishing a relationship with this experience.

When I was in college, I went to UCLA in Los Angeles and really discovered movies as more than just the mainstream studio movies I had grown up with. Sundance was connected to so many films that were interesting to me, even before I fully understood what that connection meant.

Some of those artists had been supported by Sundance labs and programs. A big part of Sundance’s work is supporting storytelling and emerging artists.

When I went to the Festival for the first time, it changed my life in many ways. It became a long-term relationship with movies that has been fueled by Sundance.

For students, this Festival is coming to Colorado for the first time in just a few months. Dive in and establish that relationship from the beginning, from year one.

You won’t be in college forever, but your relationship with the Festival can deepen and grow. The people you meet, the work you decide to do and the experiences you have can stay with you.

If it starts with one day or a couple of days, whatever your schedule and resources allow, lay that foundation.

Just as we’re laying a foundation in Colorado, this will be year one, then year two, year three. The Festival will continue to grow, deepen and evolve.

We want you there with us as it starts.

At that point, Green stepped in to move the session into questions from the participating student newsrooms.

Student newsroom Q&A

Rocky Mountain Collegian: What do people misunderstand about film festivals?

Emma Pelto: What are some common misconceptions about film festivals or independent films that you would want to dispel for people coming to this Festival for the first time?

Hernandez: The biggest misconception is that it’s a private event, an industry-only event or closed off.

I still hear that about festivals: “You have to be an industry person to attend.” It’s not true.

I’m a big fan of independent arthouse culture in this country. Some of the best film festivals are connected to independent arthouses in different parts of the country, and they’re open to audiences who are interested, curious and engaged and want to explore stories from around the world on the screen.

That is probably the biggest misconception — that some festivals are private industry events. You’ll hear me try to dispel that in as many interviews as I can.

DuPré Pesmen: Exactly what Eugene said. I have the same conversations with people. They don’t realize everyone is welcome.

For students, we’re also starting something new with the Festival: student press tickets. We’re very excited about that and want the Festival to be more accessible for students.

The filmmakers are looking forward to talking about and sharing their films with students and young people.

There are artists, actors and directors people may already know, but there are also so many emerging artists the programming team finds — the needle in the haystack.

You may not know those people yet, but you may know them after the Festival. Sundance and the Institute can introduce audiences to emerging artists whose work they then follow beyond the Festival.

CU Independent: How will Boulder change the Festival’s energy?

Addisson Pribble: Paula, being a Boulder native and knowing this community, how might the new voices and experiences in Boulder change the energy of the Festival?

DuPré Pesmen: Having lived here for 33 years and made many films from Boulder, I think we have such an engaging community.

That energy will be well matched with the artists and storytellers coming to Colorado.

I’m excited about the conversations and the engagement we’ll have with students, especially students, and with our community overall and around the state.

I think it is a welcoming, engaging place and home for the Festival, and that will be exciting for everyone coming.

The Sentry: How can film students get involved?

Andrew Hyman: In addition to being the leisure editor of The Sentry, I’m also a film and TV major. How would you encourage film and television students to get more involved with the Festival, whether that’s through the labs, volunteering or filmmaking? How should students approach it?

Hernandez: The Festival is for everyone, but it provides a unique opportunity for students studying film, media or areas that touch filmmaking and storytelling.

You can go deeper because of the access you have to filmmakers and storytellers coming to the Festival, including people audiences may not know yet but may know after this film or their next film.

For people interested in working in the industry, volunteering is one way to get involved and get up-close experience.

Maybe you want to see what it’s like to work at a film festival. Maybe that is a future career step.

Countless people who have worked for the Festival seasonally or even in leadership roles started as volunteers or seasonal workers early in their careers.

But there’s another piece, too: the people you meet.

It’s easy to go to an industry event and focus all your energy on the people on stage. I think it’s important to look at the people sitting next to you in the audience, on the bus or at the coffee shop, especially people in your peer group or generation.

So many people who are still part of my professional life, and people who are close friends, are people I met at an early stage of my career in my 20s and 30s at a film festival or film event.

You find the people you connect with and stay connected. As they move through their careers and you move through yours, you constantly intersect.

That is a unique opportunity for people who want to work in film, storytelling or the industry. You can use the Festival as a starting point and a connecting point.

The Mirror: Which Festival film has stayed with Hernandez?

Aries Touart: A big part of Sundance is showcasing bold, innovative independent storytelling. Has there been a film in your years going to Sundance that particularly stuck with you or an aspect of a film that stood out as an example of that innovative storytelling?

Hernandez: This is the hardest question of the day because your question describes the experience I’ve had at Sundance.

I’ve worked at Sundance for four years, but I’ve been going to the Festival since the 1990s. My experience is different now than it was before I worked here, so I’ll focus on the years when I attended as a journalist or curator.

My mind is blown all the time at Sundance, multiple times a day and many times over the course of a Festival, because that is how I show up. I want to have my mind blown.

The filmmaker who comes to mind is John Cameron Mitchell and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I remember when John was workshopping the Hedwig character at a club in downtown New York called Squeezebox. He would perform in that character, then it became an off-Broadway play and then a movie.

I still remember sitting in the front row at the film’s premiere at Sundance and being blown away by what he and his team achieved through storytelling, music and visuals. It remains a favorite of mine.

There are so many artists and filmmakers whose work at the Festival has blown me away because they’re taking risks, trying new ways of telling stories, figuring out how to stand out and also trying to be authentic to their creative voice.

The Metropolitan: What can students learn from the Festival?

Because of technical difficulties, FoxTalk read a question submitted by The Metropolitan.

Kaelyn Diep: What can an event like this do to inspire and teach students who are going into a film career what they need to know to be successful?

DuPré Pesmen: When you attend screenings and hear from filmmakers about their journeys and how their stories came together, there is so much to learn.

Take documentary filmmaking as an example. If you’re listening to a documentary filmmaker on a panel or in a Q&A, really listen to as many of those conversations as you can and engage with them.

Every film has a different path. There are creative ways people come together with the person or subject they’re going to follow.

Hearing stories from others has helped me think, “Maybe I could do this because they did this.” It helps you figure out how to keep moving forward.

Making a film independently is hard. It’s challenging to raise the funds, keep production moving, find a home for the film and then find distribution. There are a lot of steps.

The more you can learn from other people’s experiences, the more you can apply to your own work. Filmmakers are generous about talking about how their stories came to be and how they found their voice.

It’s similar for journalists. The more journalists you talk with about how they do their work and build their careers, the more you can learn.

I always tell people: Try your best to make the best film you can and tell the best, most authentic story you can. Those are the right goals.

Follow-up: Could there be a student-focused Q&A with filmmakers?

Melodie Miller, CU Independent: Does the Festival plan to, or would it consider, having a dedicated Q&A session where Colorado students — not just CU students — could pitch story ideas directly to visiting filmmakers, producers or the Institute?

Hernandez: The Festival is about showcasing and presenting to audiences the films and experiences we curate.

Probably the best way to achieve what your question implies is through opportunities that organizations, institutions, universities and others create around the Festival experience or in partnership with the Festival.

For example, New York University has a long history as a Festival partner and has historically created a space within the Festival footprint with programming and opportunities. I don’t want to speak for its plans this year.

Without speaking for groups that have not announced their intentions yet, I know there are Colorado-based groups thinking about ways to create opportunities within the Festival footprint to foster those kinds of conversations.

I’m pivoting your question toward the overall Festival experience rather than Sundance itself creating one specific opportunity, because our core focus is showcasing the films and filmmakers we invite.

But around the Festival, you will see companies, organizations, nonprofits, universities and others developing ways to connect with each other and with audiences.

DuPré Pesmen: I don’t have a lot more to add because Eugene is right about how that would look.

There will be discussions, panels and other things taking place throughout the ecosystem. Those can be places to learn and interact.

The panel spaces we will announce will be topic-based, so if someone is interested in a specific subject, they can seek out those topics and find where they can get more information and knowledge.

It’s not one place where the Festival is putting all of those conversations. Many partners will be curating their own discussions around different topics, and students can look for the conversations most useful to them.

Closing with Hernandez and DuPré Pesmen

Green: We’re right on time, so I want to thank Eugene and Paula for spending the hour with us and giving these student reporters direct access before the Festival comes to Boulder.

Thanks as well to the Sundance communications team for helping us put this session together and to everyone from the participating newsrooms for coming prepared and asking questions.

Eugene, Paula, thank you again.

Hernandez: Thank you, Andy. I’ve really enjoyed it. I know we both have.

I want to thank you on behalf of all our colleagues who aren’t on this Zoom. We’re working very hard on this Festival, and we’re grateful for your interest and your questions.

Let’s keep talking. Let’s stay engaged. I really hope we’ll see you at the Festival as well.

DuPré Pesmen: Everything Eugene said. We’re really grateful.

We’re just two people representing a very large group of staff and volunteers putting this together. Thank you all so much. We appreciate your help.

Sundance Institute press accreditation for student journalists

After Hernandez and DuPré Pesmen left, Sundance Institute communications staff stayed on to walk the student journalists through press accreditation.

Alex Courides, a Sundance Institute communications representative, told the group the application window was open through Oct. 22.

Reporters seeking an application were told to email presscredentials@sundance.org. The Institute also provided press@sundance.org as a contact for questions.

The application, according to the communications team, asks for an assignment letter from an editor, the dates the reporter hopes to attend the Festival, coverage plans, previous coverage links, social links and other information the applicant wants the review team to consider.

The Institute said applicants would begin receiving notifications in the coming weeks with more information about badge types.

The press page will also provide press releases, leadership and programmer biographies, and, closer to the Festival, downloadable materials such as film stills and director headshots.

Courides encouraged reporters to sign up for news releases as announcements come out about juries, talks, panels and the program lineup.

Sundance Institute communications staff also said press typically see films at press-and-industry screenings. Accredited journalists interested in a public screening can contact the press team about tickets that may be held aside.

Applicants were encouraged to be specific about their priorities — for example, whether they plan to review films, conduct interviews or cover press lines — because those details can help the Institute determine the appropriate credential.

What makes a student-newsroom application strong?

Green: For a student newsroom applying to cover Sundance, what makes an application strongest?

Alex Courides: We look for interesting and passionate coverage in applicants’ previous work. We also like hearing about specific genres or areas people are interested in.

The more detail, the better, because it helps us understand what you need.

The assignment letter is also helpful because it shows where the editor hopes the reporter will prioritize the Festival.

Rachel Walker: It is especially important to explain the coverage you plan to do during the Festival. Coverage you plan afterward is great, but what we’re really looking at is the coverage you plan while the Festival is happening.

What does a press credential not guarantee?

Green: What should a first-time reporter understand about what a press credential does not automatically give them access to?

Alex Courides: It depends on the badge level and how you get screening tickets. Press-and-industry screenings are a major option for press to see films.

Rachel Walker: The most important thing to know is that a badge does not guarantee access to public screenings.

With a badge, you can typically access many partner spaces and activations, but some of those spaces may close at certain times for private events.

You’re also welcome to reach out to studio publicists about events they may be holding, but those are not something Sundance controls.

There will still be plenty to do, including talks and New Frontier.

Alex Courides: Closer to the Festival, we’ll publish a 2027 film PR contacts list on the press site. If there is a specific movie you want to interview someone about or get more information on, that list will tell you the external publicity contact.

How should reporters request interviews?

Green: You’ve partly answered my next question. Once a newsroom is accredited, what is the best route for requesting interviews with filmmakers or other Festival participants?

Alex Courides: The film PR contacts list will be a major route.

We will also have interview spaces at the Festival where reporters can have a quieter place to talk with a filmmaker or actor, and we can help connect reporters with the right people.

Rachel Walker: If you want to cover press lines, the PR contact list will be useful because you can reach out directly to the publicist handling a film to ask whether there is space for you on the press line at the premiere.

Are credentials issued to newsrooms or individual reporters?

Melodie Miller, CU Independent: Would accreditation be for the school or for individual writers at the school newspaper?

Alex Courides: Every application is tied to one person’s account and name, so credentials are individual.

If multiple people from the same outlet are applying, it helps to be very clear about everyone’s role. A photographer, for example, may receive a different type of credential than someone primarily conducting interviews.

The more detailed the application, the more helpful it is for the team.

Editor’s note: References to “Sundance” within attributed transcript text reflect the speakers’ own wording. FoxTalk’s headings and narrative text follow Sundance Institute naming guidance.