Sundance Institute CEO David Linde said the festival’s inaugural Colorado edition in January will aim to harness the city’s large student population, in keeping with Hollywood’s infatuation with Gen Z.
“We’re building a different experience,” Linde told an AFM panel in reference to Boulder’s university student population of approximately 36,000 and the campus proximity to the festival footprint. “We’re doing a lot of work to facilitate students coming to screenings. It will create a different environment.”
The young audience’s passion for cinemagoing drove Obsession and Backrooms to the box office success over the summer and AFM buyers are scouring the market for the latest packages to keep Gen Z coming back.
“This is the audience every distributor is trying to chase,” said FilmNation CEO Glen Basner, who worked for Linde at Good Machine at the start of his career. He added that having a lively target audience at festival screenings would help decision-makers when they contemplate acquisitions.
“We’re going to see a lot of buyers,” said marketing veteran Laura Kim of Mubi, who consults for Sundance. She said the Academy rule change – whereby a non-English-language winner of the festival’s World Cinema Competition grand jury prize becomes eligible for the international feature film Oscar – was “an advantage” for filmmakers and buyers alike.
Wearing her buyer’s hat Kim, who revealed that a Mubi film has been selected for the festival but would not elaborate, said: “We work on a lot of international cinema and buy films that have won a lot of prizes. We’re going to be there and hopefully will buy.”
Despite the slower cadence of on-site deal-making at the festival in recent years, panelists noted that roughly 60% of available films in the festival’s 2026 selection have found distribution.
Asked about AI, Linde said the organisation will issue a policy statement in the coming month or so, noting, “Any perspective on AI ultimately is written in pencil.” Sundance Film Festival runs January 21-31, 2027.
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